Exam question 3 · Phones and how a call travels

Ascertain the reason for which users of a walkie-talkie pronounce the word over.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, users · What happens: ascertain, pronounce over · To what, where: reason, word

This is exam question 3 of lesson 35 «Phones and how a call travels» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 pronounce	obl
6	users	user	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 pronounce	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 talkie	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 talkie	det
9	walkie	walkie	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 talkie	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 walkie	punct
11	talkie	talkie	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 users	nmod
12	pronounce	pronounce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 reason	acl:relcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 word	det
14	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 pronounce	obj
15	over	over	ADP	_	12 pronounce	compound:prt
16	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	pronounce over	infinitive	users of a walkie talkie	the word				for the reason	vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme

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 word deactivates the apparatus

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 deactivates	nsubj
3	deactivates	deactivate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 apparatus	det
5	apparatus	apparatus	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 deactivates	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deactivate	present	the word	the apparatus					vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector apparatus=Eventuality

Option 2

The word identifies the nearest telephone mast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	nsubj
3	identifies	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mast	det
5	nearest	near	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 mast	amod
6	telephone	telephone	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 mast	compound
7	mast	mast	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identifies	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	present	the word	the nearest telephone mast					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent mast=Theme

Option 3

The word conserves the charge of the battery

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conserve	present	the word	the charge of the battery					tree rules
2	charge			the battery					nom charge «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Only one party may transmit at a time, and the word signals the conclusion of a message

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 one	advmod
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 party	nummod
3	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 transmit	nsubj
4	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 transmit	aux
5	transmit	transmit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 time	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 time	det
8	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 transmit	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 conclusion	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 conclusion	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 signals	det
12	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 signals	compound
13	signals	signal	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 conclusion	nsubj
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 conclusion	det
15	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 transmit	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 message	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 message	det
18	message	message	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 conclusion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	transmit	may	one party				time		vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	conclusion		the word signals					of a message	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/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/e3/