Exam question 2 · Phones and computer chips

Identify the principal reason for which touch screens fail to respond to most gloved fingers.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, touch screens · What happens: identify, fail, not respond, glove · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 9 «Phones and computer chips» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 fail	obl
7	touch	touch	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 screens	compound
8	screens	screen	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 fail	nsubj
9	fail	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 respond	mark
11	respond	respond	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 fail	xcomp
12	to	to	ADP	_	15 fingers	case
13	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	15 fingers	amod
14	gloved	glove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 fingers	amod
15	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 respond	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	fail	present	touch screens		for the principal reason	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	not respond speech: other	to-infinitive	touch screens not said here		to most gloved fingers	vn respond-113 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to finger=Theme
4	glove	participle				vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The screen responds only to the sound of a tap

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 screen	det
2	screen	screen	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 responds	nsubj
3	responds	respond	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	7 sound	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 sound	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sound	det
7	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 responds	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 tap	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 tap	det
10	tap	tap	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sound	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	respond speech: other	present	the screen	the sound of a tap					vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sound=Topic

Option 2

Gloves are too heavy for the screen to register

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gloves	glove	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 heavy	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 heavy	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 heavy	advmod
4	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 screen	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 screen	det
7	screen	screen	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 heavy	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 register	mark
9	register	register	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 heavy	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Gloves					for the screen; heavy property	tree rules
2	register	to-infinitive	Gloves not said here						vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The screen responds solely to the warmth of a finger, and gloved fingers are invariably too cold

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 screen	det
2	screen	screen	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 responds	nsubj
3	responds	respond	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 responds	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 warmth	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 warmth	det
7	warmth	warmth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 responds	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 finger	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 finger	det
10	finger	finger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 warmth	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 cold	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 cold	cc
13	gloved	glove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 fingers	amod
14	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 cold	nsubj
15	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 cold	cop
16	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	18 cold	advmod
17	too	too	ADV	_	18 cold	advmod
18	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 responds	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	respond speech: other	present	the screen	to the warmth of a finger; solely property	vn respond-113 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to warmth=Theme
2	glove	participle			vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent
3	is	present	gloved fingers	cold, invariably property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The screen detects a small electrical change produced by the skin, which gloves obstruct

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 screen	det
2	screen	screen	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 detects	nsubj
3	detects	detect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 change	det
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 change	amod
6	electrical	electrical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 change	amod
7	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 detects	obj
8	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 change	acl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 skin	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 skin	det
11	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 produced	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 obstruct	punct
13	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	14 gloves	det
14	gloves	glove	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 obstruct	nsubj
15	obstruct	obstruct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 change	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	detect	present	the screen	a small electrical change		vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer change=Stimulus
2	produce	participle		a small electrical change not said here	by the skin	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	obstruct	present	which gloves			vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer

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/9-phones-and-computer-chips/e2/