Test 2 · ★★ · Rivers, canals and boats: locks, weirs, water-mills, barge…

A Victorian boatman says one horse on the towpath does the work of fifteen horses with carts. How can that be?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Victorian boatman, one horse, fifteen horses, that · What happens: say, do, work, be · To what, where: work · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★★ 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. 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

Sentence 1: A Victorian boatman says one horse on the towpath does the work of fifteen horses with carts.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 boatman	det
2	Victorian	victorian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 boatman	amod
3	boatman	boatman	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 horse	nummod
6	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 does	nsubj
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 towpath	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 towpath	det
9	towpath	towpath	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 horse	nmod
10	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 work	det
12	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 does	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 horses	case
14	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 horses	nummod
15	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 work	nmod
16	with	with	ADP	_	17 carts	case
17	carts	cart	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 horses	nmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	a Victorian boatman		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	present	one horse on the towpath	the work of fifteen horses with carts	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality
3	work		fifteen horses with carts		nom work «act intransitive»: of=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.

Sentence 2: How can that be?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	4 be	advmod
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 be	aux
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 be	nsubj
4	be	be	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 be	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	can	can	that						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

The options

Option 1

It was a lie, as boats are much harder to pull than carts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 lie	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 lie	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 lie	det
4	lie	lie	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 harder	punct
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 harder	mark
7	boats	boat	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 harder	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 harder	cop
9	much	much	ADV	_	10 harder	advmod
10	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 lie	parataxis
11	to	to	PART	_	12 pull	mark
12	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 harder	xcomp
13	than	than	ADP	_	14 carts	case
14	carts	cart	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 pull	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a lie		tree rules
2	is	present	boats		hard property	tree rules
3	pull	to-infinitive	boats not said here		than carts	vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A horse can pull about 30 tonnes by boat but about 2 tonnes by cart

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 horse	det
2	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 pull	aux
4	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	about	about	ADV	_	6 30	advmod
6	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 tonnes	nummod
7	tonnes	tonne	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 pull	obj
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 boat	case
9	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	obl
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	13 tonnes	cc
11	about	about	ADV	_	12 2	advmod
12	2	2	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	13 tonnes	nummod
13	tonnes	tonne	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 pull	conj
14	by	by	ADP	_	15 cart	case
15	cart	cart	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull about	can	a horse	30 tonnes				by boat; by cart	vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tonne=Theme

Option 3

The boat had fifteen more horses hidden inside it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 boat	det
2	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 horses	nummod
5	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 horses	amod
6	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	obj
7	hidden	hide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 horses	acl
8	inside	inside	ADP	_	9 it	case
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 hidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	the boat	fifteen more horses					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent horse=Patient
2	hide	participle		fifteen more horses not said here		boat			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent inside it=Location

Option 4

Canal horses ate fifteen times as much food as other horses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Canal	Canal	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 horses	compound
2	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ate	nsubj
3	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 times	nummod
5	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ate	obl:unmarked
6	as	as	ADV	_	7 much	advmod
7	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 food	amod
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ate	obj
9	as	as	ADP	_	11 horses	case
10	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 horses	amod
11	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 ate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past	Canal horses	much food			time	as other horses	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient

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/41-rivers-canals-and-boats-locks-weirs-water-mills-barges-and-how-not-to-tip-a-rowing-boat/t2/