Exam question 3 · Inside a car: engine, gears and the dashboard

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the purpose of the tread grooves of a tyre?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: tread grooves · What happens: follow, characteris, purpose · To what, where: purpose

This is exam question 3 of lesson 17 «Inside a car: engine, gears and the dashboard» of the technology 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 purpose	det
10	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 grooves	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 grooves	det
13	tread	tread	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 grooves	compound
14	grooves	groove	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 purpose	nmod
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 tyre	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 tyre	det
17	tyre	tyre	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 grooves	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the purpose of the tread grooves of a tyre	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	purpose		the tread grooves of a tyre			nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=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

They reduce the mass of the tyre

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 reduce	nsubj
2	reduce	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 mass	det
4	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduce	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 tyre	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tyre	det
7	tyre	tyre	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mass	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	present	They	the mass of the tyre					vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer mass=Patient

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

They displace water so that the rubber may grip the road

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 displace	nsubj
2	displace	displace	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 displace	obj
4	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	9 grip	mark
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	4 so	fixed
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rubber	det
7	rubber	rubber	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 grip	nsubj
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 grip	aux
9	grip	grip	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 displace	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 road	det
11	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 grip	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	displace	present	They	water					tree rules
2	grip	may	the rubber	the road					vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Experiencer

Option 3

They prevent the tyre from rotating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 prevent	nsubj
2	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 tyre	det
4	tyre	tyre	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevent	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 rotating	mark
6	rotating	rotate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevent	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	They	the tyre					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer tyre=Theme
2	rotate	gerund	They not said here						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

They generate an agreeable sound

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 generate	nsubj
2	generate	generate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 sound	det
4	agreeable	agreeable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 sound	amod
5	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 generate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	generate	present	They	a agreeable sound					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=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/technology/17-inside-a-car/e3/