Exam question 2 · Constellations and the night sky in winter and spring

Identify the principal reason for which the constellations visible in the evening sky vary in the course of a year.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, constellations · What happens: identify, vary · To what, where: principal reason, course

This is exam question 2 of lesson 20 «Constellations and the night sky in winter and spring» of the space course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 vary	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 constellations	det
8	constellations	constellation	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 vary	nsubj
9	visible	visible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 constellations	amod
10	in	in	ADP	_	13 sky	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sky	det
12	evening	evening	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sky	compound
13	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 visible	obl
14	vary	vary	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 course	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 course	det
17	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 vary	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	20 year	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 year	det
20	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 course	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	vary	present	the constellations			the course of a year		for the principal reason	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The orbital motion of the Earth about the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 motion	det
2	orbital	orbital	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 motion	amod
3	motion	motion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 Earth	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Earth	det
6	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 motion	nmod
7	about	about	ADP	_	9 Sun	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Sun	det
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 motion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	motion		the Earth					about the Sun	nom motion «communication intransitive»: of=agent about=obl

Option 2

The motion of the stars about the Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 motion	det
2	motion	motion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 stars	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 stars	det
5	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 motion	nmod
6	about	about	ADP	_	8 Earth	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Earth	det
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 stars	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	motion		the stars about the Earth						nom motion «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

The extinction of the stars during summer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 extinction	det
2	extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 stars	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 stars	det
5	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 extinction	nmod
6	during	during	ADP	_	7 summer	case
7	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 stars	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	extinguish			the stars during summer					nom extinction «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The obscuration of the stars by seasonal clouds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 obscuration	det
2	obscuration	obscuration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 stars	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 stars	det
5	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 obscuration	nmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 clouds	case
7	seasonal	seasonal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 clouds	amod
8	clouds	cloud	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 obscuration	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/20-constellations-and-the-night-sky-in-winter-and-spring/e2/