Exam question 1 · Day and night

Identify the principal cause of the alternation of day and night upon the Earth.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, day · What happens: identify, cause, alternate · To what, where: principal cause, alternation

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1 «Day and night» of the world 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 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 alternation	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 alternation	det
7	alternation	alternation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 day	case
9	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 alternation	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 night	cc
11	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 alternation	conj
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 Earth	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Earth	det
14	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 night	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the alternation of day and night upon the Earth	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the alternation of day and night upon the Earth	nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
3	alternate		day		nom alternation «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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The interposition of the Moon between Earth and Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 interposition	det
2	interposition	interposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Moon	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Moon	det
5	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 interposition	nmod
6	between	between	ADP	_	7 Earth	case
7	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 interposition	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 Sun	cc
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Earth	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	interpose			the Moon				between Earth and Sun	nom interposition «act transitive»: of=patient between=obl

Option 2

The daily revolution of the Sun about the Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 revolution	det
2	daily	daily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 revolution	amod
3	revolution	revolution	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 Sun	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Sun	det
6	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 revolution	nmod
7	about	about	ADP	_	9 Earth	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Earth	det
9	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 revolution	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	revolt		the Sun					about the Earth	nom revolution «event intransitive»: of=agent about=obl

Option 3

The periodic extinguishing of the Sun's illumination

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 periodic	det
2	periodic	periodic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 extinguishing	obl:unmarked
3	extinguishing	extinguish	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 illumination	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Sun	det
6	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 illumination	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Sun	case
8	illumination	illumination	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 extinguishing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	extinguish	gerund		the periodic				of the Sun's illumination	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent of illumination=Initial_Location
2	illuminate		the Sun						nom illumination «state transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The rotation of the Earth upon its own axis

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rotation	det
2	rotation	rotation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Earth	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Earth	det
5	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 rotation	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 axis	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 axis	nmod:poss
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 axis	amod
9	axis	axis	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rotation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rotate		the Earth					upon Earth's own axis	nom rotation «act intransitive»: of=agent upon=obl

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/world/1-day-and-night/e1/