Test 9 · ★★ · Rivers, canals and boats: locks, weirs, water-mills, barge…

«the rat rows facing backwards?? thats dumb» Why do rowers and scullers face backwards?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: rat, rowers · What happens: row, face · To what, where: thats

This is test 9 · ★★ 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 rows	punct
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rat	det
3	rat	rat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rows	nsubj
4	rows	row	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	facing	face	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 rows	xcomp
6	backwards	backwards	ADV	_	5 facing	advmod
7	??	??	PUNCT	_	8 thats	punct
8	thats	that	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 rows	obj
9	dumb	dumb	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 thats	amod
10	»	»	PUNCT	_	8 thats	punct
11	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	16 face	advmod
12	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 face	aux
13	rowers	rower	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 face	nsubj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 scullers	cc
15	scullers	sculler	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 rowers	conj
16	face	face	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 rows	advcl
17	backwards	backwards	ADV	_	16 face	advmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 rows	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	row in a quote	present	the rat	thats		tree rules
2	face in a quote	gerund	the rat not said here		backwards property	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
3	face	present · do-support	rowers and scullers		backwards property	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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 right answer

They pull the oars towards themselves, which is the strongest way to row

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pull	nsubj
2	pull	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 oars	det
4	oars	oar	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pull	obj
5	towards	towards	ADP	_	6 themselves	case
6	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 pull	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 way	punct
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 way	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 way	cop
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 way	det
11	strongest	strong	ADJ	Degree=Sup	12 way	amod
12	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pull	parataxis
13	to	to	PART	_	14 row	mark
14	row	row	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 way	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	pull	present	They	the oars	towards oars = oar	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent oar=Theme towards themselves=Destination
2	is a	present		the strongest way		tree rules
3	row	to-infinitive	They not said here			vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

They are too scared to see where they are going

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 scared	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 scared	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 scared	advmod
4	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 see	mark
6	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 scared	advcl
7	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	10 going	advmod
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 going	nsubj
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 going	aux
10	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 see	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	They	scared property	tree rules
2	see	to-infinitive	They not said here		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	go	present · progressive	they		vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

They want to see the people behind them on the bank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 want	nsubj
2	want	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 see	mark
4	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 want	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 people	det
6	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 see	obj
7	behind	behind	ADP	_	8 them	case
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 people	nmod
9	on	on	ADP	_	11 bank	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 bank	det
11	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 see	obl

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

Option 4

It is just a silly rule invented for races in Oxford

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	6 rule	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 rule	cop
3	just	just	ADV	_	6 rule	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 rule	det
5	silly	silly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 rule	amod
6	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 rule	acl
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 races	case
9	races	race	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 invented	obl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 Oxford	case
11	Oxford	Oxford	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 invented	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a silly rule					tree rules
2	invent	participle		a silly rule not said here		Oxford		for races	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for race=Beneficiary

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/t9/