Exam question 1 · Buses, trams, lorries and traffic lights

Identify the means by which a live bus-stop display ascertains the expected time of arrival of a vehicle.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, live stop display, vehicle · What happens: identify, mean, ascertain, expect, arrive

This is exam question 1 of lesson 20 «Buses, trams, lorries and traffic lights» 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	Identify	identify	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 Identify	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 ascertains	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 display	det
7	live	live	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 display	amod
8	bus	bus	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stop	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 bus	punct
10	stop	stop	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 display	compound
11	display	display	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 ascertains	nsubj
12	ascertains	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	parataxis
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 time	det
14	expected	expect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 time	amod
15	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 ascertains	obj
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 arrival	case
17	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 time	nmod
18	of	of	ADP	_	20 vehicle	case
19	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 vehicle	det
20	vehicle	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 arrival	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	ascertain	present	a live stop display	time	vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
4	expect	participle			vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	arrive		a vehicle		nom arrival «act 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 · ← Mova's choice

The display detects the sound of the engine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 display	det
2	display	display	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 detects	nsubj
3	detects	detect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sound	det
5	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 detects	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 engine	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 engine	det
8	engine	engine	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sound	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	detect	present	the display	the sound of the engine					vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus

Option 2

The display counts waiting passengers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 display	det
2	display	display	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 counts	nsubj
3	counts	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	waiting	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 counts	xcomp
5	passengers	passenger	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 waiting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	present	the display						tree rules
2	wait	gerund	the display not said here	passengers					tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The vehicle transmits its satellite-derived position to a computer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 vehicle	det
2	vehicle	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 transmits	nsubj
3	transmits	transmit	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	8 position	nmod:poss
5	satellite	satellite	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 derived	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 satellite	punct
7	derived	derive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 position	amod
8	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 transmits	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 computer	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 computer	det
11	computer	computer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 transmits	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	transmit	present	the vehicle	vehicle's derived position		a computer			vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent position=Theme to computer=Destination
2	derive	participle							vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The driver telephones each stop in turn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 driver	det
2	driver	driver	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 telephones	nsubj
3	telephones	telephone	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 stop	det
5	stop	stop	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 telephones	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 turn	case
7	turn	turn	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 telephones	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	telephone speech: other	present	the driver	each stop		turn			vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent stop=Recipient

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/20-buses-trams-lorries-and-traffic-lights/e1/