Test 11 · ★★ · Phases, eclipses and tides

The Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but about 400 times closer. What does this neat coincidence allow?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Moon, neat coincidence · What happens: be, allow

This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 7 «Phases, eclipses and tides» 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: The Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but about 400 times closer.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 smaller	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 smaller	cop
4	400	400	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 times	nummod
5	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 smaller	obl:unmarked
6	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
7	than	than	ADP	_	9 Sun	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Sun	det
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 smaller	obl
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 closer	cc
11	about	about	ADV	_	12 400	advmod
12	400	400	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	13 times	nummod
13	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 closer	obl:unmarked
14	closer	close	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 smaller	conj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 smaller	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the Moon				time	than the Sun; small property	tree rules
2	be		the Moon not said here				time		tree rules

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: What does this neat coincidence allow?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 allow	obj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 allow	aux
3	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 coincidence	det
4	neat	neat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 coincidence	amod
5	coincidence	coincidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 allow	nsubj
6	allow	allow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 allow	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	allow	present · do-support	this neat coincidence						vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Beneficiary

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

The Moon can just cover the Sun in a total solar eclipse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 cover	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 cover	aux
4	just	just	ADV	_	5 cover	advmod
5	cover	cover	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Sun	det
7	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 cover	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	12 eclipse	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 eclipse	det
10	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 eclipse	amod
11	solar	solar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 eclipse	amod
12	eclipse	eclipse	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cover	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cover	can	the Moon		the Sun			in a total solar eclipse	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent sun=Destination in eclipse=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The Moon is the same size as the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 size	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 size	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 size	det
5	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 size	amod
6	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	as	as	ADP	_	9 Sun	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Sun	det
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 size	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the Moon	the same size				as the Sun	tree rules

Option 3

The Moon can block the Earth's shadow from ever reaching the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 block	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 block	aux
4	block	block	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Earth	det
6	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 shadow	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Earth	case
8	shadow	shadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 block	obj
9	from	from	SCONJ	_	11 reaching	mark
10	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	11 reaching	advmod
11	reaching	reach	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 block	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Sun	det
13	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 reaching	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	block	can	the Moon	the Earth's shadow		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer shadow=Theme
2	reach	gerund	the Moon not said here	the Sun	ever	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent sun=Theme
3	shadow		the Earth			nom shadow «state transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

The Moon makes its own light

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 makes	nsubj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 light	nmod:poss
5	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 light	amod
6	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	the Moon	Moon's own light					vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Product
2	light		Moon						nom light «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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/7-phases-eclipses-and-tides/t11/