Test 10 · ★★★ · How we know: measuring the sky

Eratosthenes saw no shadow at noon in one city but a shadow at another the same day. Why?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Eratosthenes · What happens: see · To what, where: shadow, one city

This is test 10 · ★★★ of lesson 28 «How we know: measuring the sky» of the space course of Mova's primary school. 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

Sentence 1: Eratosthenes saw no shadow at noon in one city but a shadow at another the same day.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eratosthenes	Eratosthenes	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 saw	nsubj
2	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 shadow	det
4	shadow	shadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 saw	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 noon	case
6	noon	noon	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 saw	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 city	case
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 city	nummod
9	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 saw	obl
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 shadow	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 shadow	det
12	shadow	shadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 city	conj
13	at	at	ADP	_	17 day	case
14	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	17 day	det
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 day	det
16	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 day	amod
17	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 saw	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 saw	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	past	Eratosthenes	no shadow		one city but a shadow	day; noon		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shadow=Stimulus

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.

Sentence 2: Why?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	root	root
2	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

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

The options

Option 1

The other city was much nearer the Moon, which blocked the sunlight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 city	det
2	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 city	amod
3	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 nearer	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 nearer	cop
5	much	much	ADV	_	6 nearer	advmod
6	nearer	near	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Moon	det
8	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 nearer	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 blocked	punct
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 blocked	nsubj
11	blocked	block	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 nearer	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sunlight	det
13	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 blocked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the other city					near property	tree rules
2	block	past		the sunlight					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer sunlight=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Earth's surface is curved, so the Sun hits at different angles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 surface	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Earth	case
3	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 curved	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 curved	aux:pass
5	curved	curve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 hits	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	10 hits	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Sun	det
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 hits	nsubj
10	hits	hit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 curved	advcl
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 angles	case
12	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 angles	amod
13	angles	angle	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 hits	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curve	present · passive		Earth's surface					vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material
2	hit	present	the Sun					at different angles	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at angle=Patient

Option 3

The Sun was in two places at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Sun	det
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 places	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 places	cop
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 places	case
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 places	nummod
6	places	place	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 once	case
8	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	6 places	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the Sun			two places			tree rules

Option 4

One city had taller buildings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 city	nummod
2	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	taller	tall	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 buildings	amod
5	buildings	building	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	One city	taller buildings					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent building=Patient

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/28-how-we-know-measuring-the-sky/t10/