Test 6 · ★ · Phones and how a call travels

What would happen to a mobile call if all the phone masts in a town were switched off?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phone · What happens: happen, mast, switch off · To what, where: town

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 35 «Phones and how a call travels» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 call	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 call	det
6	mobile	mobile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 call	amod
7	call	call	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
8	if	if	SCONJ	_	12 masts	mark
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 phone	det:predet
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 phone	det
11	phone	phone	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 masts	nsubj
12	masts	mast	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 switched	advcl
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 town	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 town	det
15	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 masts	obl
16	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 switched	aux:pass
17	switched	switch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
18	off	off	ADP	_	17 switched	compound:prt
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	happen	would			to a mobile call	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	mast a condition, not said to happen	present	all phone	a town		tree rules
3	switch off	past · passive				vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V»

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

Mobiles there could not make or receive calls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mobiles	mobile	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 make	nsubj
2	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	1 Mobiles	advmod
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 make	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 make	advmod
5	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 receive	cc
7	receive	receive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 make	conj
8	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 receive	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not make	could	Mobiles						vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
2	receive	infinitive	Mobiles not said here	calls					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent call=Theme

Option 2

Calls would just be quieter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 quieter	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 quieter	aux
3	just	just	ADV	_	5 quieter	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 quieter	cop
5	quieter	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	Calls					quiet property	tree rules

Option 3

Phones would use the street lights instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Phones	phone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 use	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 use	aux
3	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 lights	det
5	street	street	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lights	compound
6	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 use	obj
7	instead	instead	ADV	_	3 use	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	would	Phones	the street lights				instead property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Calls would go straight from one phone to the other phone instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 go	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 go	aux
3	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	straight	straight	ADV	_	7 phone	advmod
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 phone	case
6	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 phone	nummod
7	phone	phone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 go	obl
8	to	to	ADP	_	11 phone	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 phone	det
10	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 phone	amod
11	phone	phone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 go	obl
12	instead	instead	ADV	_	3 go	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	would	Calls			one phone		to the other phone; instead property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from phone=Initial_Location to phone=Destination

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/t6/