Exam question 3 · Road and railway safety

Ascertain the significance of white lamps illuminated at the rear of a motor vehicle.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, illuminate · To what, where: significance, white lamps, rear

This is exam question 3 of lesson 27 «Road and railway safety» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 significance	det
3	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 lamps	case
5	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 lamps	amod
6	lamps	lamp	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 significance	nmod
7	illuminated	illuminate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 lamps	acl
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 rear	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 rear	det
10	rear	rear	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 illuminated	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 vehicle	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 vehicle	det
13	motor	motor	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 vehicle	compound
14	vehicle	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 rear	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the significance of white lamps					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent significance=Topic
2	illuminate	participle		white lamps not said here		the rear of a motor vehicle			vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP»: agent=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 · ✓ the right answer

The vehicle is about to travel in reverse

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	4 about	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 about	cop
4	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 travel	mark
6	travel	travel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 about	xcomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 reverse	case
8	reverse	reverse	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 travel	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the vehicle					about property	tree rules
2	travel	to-infinitive	the vehicle not said here			reverse			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in reverse=Trajectory

Option 2

The vehicle is about to turn to the left

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	4 about	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 about	cop
4	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 turn	mark
6	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 about	xcomp
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 left	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 left	det
9	left	left	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the vehicle					about property	tree rules
2	turn	to-infinitive	the vehicle not said here			the left			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to left=Trajectory

Option 3

The vehicle has been parked for the night

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	5 parked	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 parked	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 parked	aux:pass
5	parked	park	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 night	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 night	det
8	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 parked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	park	present · perfect · passive		the vehicle			night		vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The driver is applying the brakes

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	4 applying	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 applying	aux
4	applying	apply	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 brakes	det
6	brakes	brake	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 applying	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	apply	present · progressive	the driver	the brakes					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brake=Theme

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/27-road-and-railway-safety/e3/