Exam question 2 · Mercury

State the principal reason for which the night-side temperature of Mercury falls to approximately minus one hundred and eighty degrees Celsius.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: side temperature · What happens: fall · To what, where: hundred degrees

This is exam question 2 of lesson 3 «Mercury» 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	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	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 State	nmod
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 falls	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 temperature	det
8	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 side	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 night	punct
10	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 temperature	compound
11	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 falls	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 Mercury	case
13	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 temperature	nmod
14	falls	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
15	to	to	PART	_	19 hundred	mark
16	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	19 hundred	advmod
17	minus	minus	ADV	_	19 hundred	advmod
18	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 hundred	compound
19	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	22 degrees	nummod
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 eighty	cc
21	eighty	eighty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 hundred	conj
22	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 falls	obl:unmarked
23	Celsius	Celsius	PROPN	Number=Sing	22 degrees	nmod:unmarked
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fall	present	the side temperature of Mercury	hundred degrees Celsius				for the principal reason	vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for which=Theme

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

Its great distance from the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 distance	nmod:poss
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 distance	amod
3	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 Sun	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Sun	det
6	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 distance	nmod

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

Option 2

The presence of extensive polar oceans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 presence	det
2	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 oceans	case
4	extensive	extensive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 oceans	amod
5	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 oceans	amod
6	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 presence	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The near absence of an atmosphere capable of retaining heat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 absence	det
2	near	near	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 absence	amod
3	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 capable	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 atmosphere	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 atmosphere	det
6	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absence	nmod
7	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	of	of	SCONJ	_	9 retaining	mark
9	retaining	retain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 capable	advcl
10	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 retaining	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	gerund		heat					tree rules
2	absent			a atmosphere					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The shielding effect of its numerous moons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 effect	det
2	shielding	shield	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 effect	amod
3	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 moons	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 moons	nmod:poss
6	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 moons	amod
7	moons	moon	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 effect	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shield	gerund							tree rules
2	effect			effect's numerous moons					nom effect «phenomenon transitive»: of=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/3-mercury/e2/