Exam question 3 · Venus

Ascertain the means by which the surface of Venus has been mapped notwithstanding its clouds.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, surface · What happens: ascertain, mean, map, notwithstand, cloud · To what, where: surface, clouds · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 4 «Venus» 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 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 mapped	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 surface	det
7	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 mapped	nsubj:pass
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 Venus	case
9	Venus	Venus	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 surface	nmod
10	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 mapped	aux
11	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	12 mapped	aux:pass
12	mapped	map	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 means	ccomp
13	notwithstanding	notwithstand	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 mapped	xcomp
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 clouds	nmod:poss
15	clouds	cloud	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 notwithstanding	obj
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	map	present · perfect · passive		the surface of Venus	tree rules
4	notwithstand	gerund		surface's clouds	tree rules
5	cloud		surface		nom cloud «phenomenon transitive»: poss=agent

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

Observation by ordinary telescopes from the Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Observation	observation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	4 telescopes	case
3	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 telescopes	amod
4	telescopes	telescope	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Observation	nmod
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 Earth	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Earth	det
7	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 telescopes	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe		ordinary telescopes from the Earth						nom observation «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 2

Photography through openings in the cloud layer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Photography	photography	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	through	through	ADP	_	3 openings	case
3	openings	opening	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Photography	nmod
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 layer	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 layer	det
6	cloud	cloud	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 layer	compound
7	layer	layer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 openings	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Radar observation from orbiting spacecraft

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Radar	radar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 observation	compound
2	observation	observation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	from	from	SCONJ	_	4 orbiting	mark
4	orbiting	orbit	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 observation	acl
5	spacecraft	spacecraft	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 orbiting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	orbit	gerund	Radar observation not said here	spacecraft					tree rules

Option 4

Direct survey by crewed expeditions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Direct	direct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 survey	amod
2	survey	survey	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 expeditions	case
4	crewed	crew	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 expeditions	amod
5	expeditions	expedition	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 survey	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crew	participle							vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent
2	survey		crewed expeditions						nom survey «act transitive»: by=agent

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/4-venus/e3/