Exam question 1 · Rivers, canals and boats: locks, weirs, water-mills, barge…

Identify the principal advantage of conveying heavy goods by canal rather than by road in the eighteenth century.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, convey · To what, where: principal advantage, heavy goods

This is exam question 1 of lesson 41 «Rivers, canals and boats: locks, weirs, water-mills, barges and how not to tip a rowing boat» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 advantage	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 advantage	amod
4	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 conveying	mark
6	conveying	convey	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Identify	advcl
7	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 goods	amod
8	goods	goods	NOUN	Number=Ptan	6 conveying	obj
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 canal	case
10	canal	canal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveying	obl
11	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	14 road	cc
12	than	than	ADP	_	11 rather	fixed
13	by	by	ADP	_	14 road	case
14	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveying	conj
15	in	in	ADP	_	18 century	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 century	det
17	eighteenth	eighteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 century	amod
18	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveying	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal advantage					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme
2	convey	gerund	you not said here	heavy goods			century	by canal	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent goods=Topic

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 right answer

A single horse could draw a far greater load upon the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 horse	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 horse	amod
3	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 draw	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 draw	aux
5	draw	draw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 load	det
7	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 greater	advmod
8	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 load	amod
9	load	load	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 draw	obj
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 water	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 water	det
12	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 draw	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	could	a single horse	a greater load				upon the water	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent load=Theme

Option 2

Canals were open to traffic only at night, when the roads were closed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Canals	canal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 open	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 open	cop
3	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 traffic	mark
5	traffic	traffic	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 open	advcl
6	only	only	ADV	_	8 night	advmod
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 night	case
8	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 traffic	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 closed	punct
10	when	when	SCONJ	_	14 closed	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 roads	det
12	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 closed	nsubj:pass
13	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 closed	aux:pass
14	closed	close	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 open	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Canals					open property	tree rules
2	close	past · passive		the roads					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

Road carts were forbidden by law

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 carts	compound
2	carts	cart	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 forbidden	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 forbidden	aux:pass
4	forbidden	forbid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 law	case
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 forbidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	past · passive	law	Road carts					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Theme

Option 4

Boats required no persons whatsoever to steer them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Boats	boat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 required	nsubj
2	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 persons	det
4	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 required	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 required	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 steer	mark
7	steer	steer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 required	advcl
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 steer	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	past	Boats	no persons				whatsoever property	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme person=Precondition
2	steer	to-infinitive	Boats not said here	persons = person					vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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.

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