Test 11 · ★★ · Satellites and GPS

Why does a GPS satellite need such a precise clock?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: GPS satellite · What happens: need · To what, where: precise clock

This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 38 «Satellites and GPS» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 need	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 need	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 satellite	det
4	GPS	GPS	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 satellite	compound
5	satellite	satellite	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 need	nsubj
6	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	10 clock	det:predet
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 clock	det
9	precise	precise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 clock	amod
10	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 need	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 need	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present · do-support	a GPS satellite	such precise clock					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot clock=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

The clock powers the satellite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	power	present	the clock	the satellite					tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The phone works out distance from tiny differences in time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 phone	det
2	phone	phone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 works	nsubj
3	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	out	out	ADP	_	3 works	compound:prt
5	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 works	obl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 differences	case
7	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 differences	amod
8	differences	difference	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 distance	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 time	case
10	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 works	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work out	present	the phone	distance from tiny differences			time		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The astronauts need to know the time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 astronauts	det
2	astronauts	astronaut	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 need	nsubj
3	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 know	mark
5	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 need	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 time	det
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 know	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	the astronauts						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	know not said to happen	to-infinitive	the astronauts not said here				time		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The clock keeps the satellite in orbit by ticking at exactly the right speed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 clock	det
2	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 keeps	nsubj
3	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 satellite	det
5	satellite	satellite	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 keeps	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 orbit	case
7	orbit	orbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 keeps	obl
8	by	by	SCONJ	_	9 ticking	mark
9	ticking	tick	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 keeps	advcl
10	at	at	ADP	_	14 speed	case
11	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	14 speed	advmod
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 speed	det
13	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 speed	amod
14	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 ticking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present	the clock	the satellite		orbit			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent satellite=Theme in orbit=Location
2	tick	gerund	the clock not said here			the right speed			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at speed=Location

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/38-satellites-and-gps/t11/