Exam question 4 · Mercury

Ascertain the circumstances under which Mercury may be observed from the Earth.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, observe · To what, where: circumstances, Mercury

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 circumstances	det
3	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obj
4	under	under	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 observed	obl
6	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 observed	nsubj
7	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 observed	aux
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 observed	aux:pass
9	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 circumstances	acl:relcl
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 Earth	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 Earth	det
12	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 observed	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the circumstances					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent circumstance=Topic
2	observe	may · passive		Mercury		the circumstances		from the Earth	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic

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

At no time, it being invisible from the Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	At	at	ADP	_	3 time	case
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 time	det
3	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 invisible	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 time	punct
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 invisible	nsubj
6	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 invisible	cop
7	invisible	invisible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	from	from	ADP	_	10 Earth	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Earth	det
10	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 invisible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	gerund	it			the Earth	time	invisible property	tree rules

Option 2

High in the southern sky at midnight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	High	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	in	in	ADP	_	5 sky	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sky	det
4	southern	southern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 sky	amod
5	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 High	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 midnight	case
7	midnight	midnight	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sky	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Low in the sky shortly after sunset or before sunrise

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sunset	amod
2	in	in	ADP	_	4 sky	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sky	det
4	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Low	obl
5	shortly	shortly	ADV	_	7 sunset	advmod
6	after	after	ADP	_	7 sunset	case
7	sunset	sunset	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 sunrise	cc
9	before	before	ADP	_	10 sunrise	case
10	sunrise	sunrise	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sunset	conj

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

Option 4

Solely during a total lunar eclipse, when the sky is darkest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Solely	solely	ADV	_	6 eclipse	advmod
2	during	during	ADP	_	6 eclipse	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 eclipse	det
4	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 eclipse	amod
5	lunar	lunar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 eclipse	amod
6	eclipse	eclipse	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 darkest	punct
8	when	when	SCONJ	_	12 darkest	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 sky	det
10	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 darkest	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 darkest	cop
12	darkest	dark	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 eclipse	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the sky					dark property	tree rules

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/e4/