Test 1 · ★ · Why planes fly

«my dad said planes fly coz the air on top has to race to meet the air underneath» What is a better explanation?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: dad, planes · What happens: say, fly, have, race, meet, be · To what, where: top, air, better explanation · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 22 «Why planes fly» of the technology 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 said	punct
2	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 dad	nmod:poss
3	dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 said	nsubj
4	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	planes	plane	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 fly	nsubj
6	fly	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 said	ccomp
7	coz	because	ADP	_	9 air	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 air	det
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fly	obl
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 top	case
11	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 has	obl
12	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 fly	parataxis
13	to	to	PART	_	14 race	mark
14	race	race	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 has	xcomp
15	to	to	PART	_	16 meet	mark
16	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 race	xcomp
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 air	det
18	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 meet	obj
19	underneath	underneath	ADV	_	18 air	advmod
20	»	»	PUNCT	_	12 has	punct
21	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	25 explanation	nsubj
22	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 explanation	cop
23	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 explanation	det
24	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	25 explanation	amod
25	explanation	explanation	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 has	parataxis
26	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	past	my dad				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	fly in a quote	present	planes			because the air	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	have in a quote	present			top		tree rules
4	race in a quote	to-infinitive					tree rules
5	meet in a quote	to-infinitive		the air			vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Co-Agent
6	is a	present		a better explanation			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.

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

The tilted wing pushes air down, and the air pushes the wing up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 wing	det
2	tilted	tilt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 wing	amod
3	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pushes	nsubj
4	pushes	push	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pushes	obj
6	down	down	ADV	_	4 pushes	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 pushes	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 pushes	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 air	det
10	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 pushes	nsubj
11	pushes	push	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 pushes	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 wing	det
13	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 pushes	obj
14	up	up	ADP	_	11 pushes	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	tilt	participle				vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	push down	present	the tilted wing	air	down property	vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Theme
3	push up	present	the air	the wing		vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Theme

Option 2

Planes fly because the engines point upwards

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Planes	plane	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fly	nsubj
2	fly	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 point	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 engines	det
5	engines	engine	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 point	nsubj
6	point	point	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 fly	advcl
7	upwards	upwards	ADV	_	6 point	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	present	Planes						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	point	present	the engines					upwards property	vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Your dad is right, the air on top must race to meet the air underneath at the back

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 dad	nmod:poss
2	dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 right	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 right	cop
4	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 race	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 air	det
7	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 race	nsubj
8	on	on	ADP	_	9 top	case
9	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 air	nmod
10	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 race	aux
11	race	race	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 right	conj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 meet	mark
13	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 race	xcomp
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 air	det
15	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 meet	obj
16	underneath	underneath	ADV	_	13 meet	advmod
17	at	at	ADP	_	19 back	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 back	det
19	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 meet	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	Your dad			right property	tree rules
2	race	must	the air on top				tree rules
3	meet	to-infinitive	the air on top not said here	the air	the back	underneath property	vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Co-Agent

Option 4

Planes fly because they are lighter than air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Planes	plane	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fly	nsubj
2	fly	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 lighter	mark
4	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 lighter	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 lighter	cop
6	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 fly	advcl
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 air	case
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lighter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	present	Planes						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is	present	Planes = plane					than air; light property	tree rules

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/22-why-planes-fly/t1/