Test 6 · ★★ · Asteroids and the asteroid belt

If astronomers spotted an asteroid heading for Earth years ahead, what could be tried?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: astronomers, asteroid · What happens: spot, head, try · To what, where: asteroid

This is test 6 · ★★ of lesson 9 «Asteroids and the asteroid belt» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	If	if	SCONJ	_	3 spotted	mark
2	astronomers	astronomer	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 spotted	nsubj
3	spotted	spot	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 asteroid	det
5	asteroid	asteroid	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 spotted	obj
6	heading	head	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 asteroid	acl
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 years	case
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 years	compound
9	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 heading	obl
10	ahead	ahead	ADV	_	6 heading	advmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 tried	punct
12	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	15 tried	obj
13	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 tried	aux
14	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	15 tried	aux:pass
15	tried	try	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 asteroid	appos
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 spotted	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	spot	past	astronomers	a asteroid			vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme asteroid=Destination
2	head	gerund	a asteroid not said here		year	ahead property	vn conduct-111.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	try	could · passive		a asteroid			vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: what=Eventuality

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

Waiting for the Moon to catch it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	for	for	ADP	_	4 Moon	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Moon	det
4	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Waiting	obl
5	to	to	PART	_	6 catch	mark
6	catch	catch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Waiting	advcl
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 catch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wait	gerund						for the Moon	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	catch	to-infinitive		Moon					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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

Hitting it with a spacecraft to nudge its orbit, as DART tested

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hitting	hit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 tested	csubj:pass
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Hitting	obj
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 spacecraft	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 spacecraft	det
5	spacecraft	spacecraft	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Hitting	obl
6	to	to	PART	_	7 nudge	mark
7	nudge	nudge	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Hitting	advcl
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 orbit	nmod:poss
9	orbit	orbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 nudge	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 tested	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 tested	mark
12	DART	DART	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 tested	compound
13	tested	test	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	hit	gerund		it	with a spacecraft	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with spacecraft=Instrument
2	nudge	to-infinitive		spacecraft's orbit		vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent orbit=Theme
3	test	participle	Hitting			vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Shouting a warning so it turns away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shouting	shout	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 turns	csubj
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 warning	det
3	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Shouting	obj
4	so	so	ADV	_	6 turns	advmod
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 turns	nsubj
6	turns	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	away	away	ADV	_	6 turns	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund		a warning					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent warning=Topic
2	turn away	present	warning					away property	vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Nothing can ever be done

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 done	nsubj:pass
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 done	aux
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 done	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 done	aux:pass
5	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	can · passive		Nothing			ever		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality

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/9-asteroids-and-the-asteroid-belt/t6/