Test 8 · ★★★ · Thinking like an astronomer

An astronaut on the Moon throws a ball as hard as on the Earth. Why does it fly much farther?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: astronaut · What happens: throw, fly · To what, where: ball

This is test 8 · ★★★ of lesson 10 «Thinking like an astronomer» of the world 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: An astronaut on the Moon throws a ball as hard as on the Earth.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 astronaut	det
2	astronaut	astronaut	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 throws	nsubj
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 Moon	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Moon	det
5	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 astronaut	nmod
6	throws	throw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 ball	det
8	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 throws	obj
9	as	as	ADV	_	10 hard	advmod
10	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 throws	advmod
11	as	as	ADP	_	14 Earth	case
12	on	on	ADP	_	14 Earth	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Earth	det
14	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 throws	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 throws	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	present	a astronaut on the Moon	a ball				as the Earth; hard property	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=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.

Sentence 2: Why does it fly much farther?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 fly	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 fly	aux
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 fly	nsubj
4	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	much	much	ADV	_	6 farther	advmod
6	farther	far	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 fly	xcomp
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 fly	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	present · do-support	astronaut					far property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The weaker gravity pulls it down more slowly, and there is no air to slow it

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 gravity	det
2	weaker	weak	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 gravity	amod
3	gravity	gravity	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pulls	nsubj
4	pulls	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 pulls	obj
6	down	down	ADP	_	4 pulls	compound:prt
7	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 slowly	advmod
8	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	4 pulls	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 is	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 is	cc
11	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	12 is	expl
12	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 pulls	conj
13	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	14 air	det
14	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 is	nsubj
15	to	to	PART	_	16 slow	mark
16	slow	slow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 air	acl
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 slow	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	pull down	present	the weaker gravity	it		slowly property	vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
2	be	present	no air		there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	slow	to-infinitive	no air not said here	air			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 2

The Moon's air pushes it forward

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 air	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 Moon	case
4	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pushes	nsubj
5	pushes	push	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 pushes	obj
7	forward	forward	ADV	_	5 pushes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	present	the Moon's air	Moon				forward property	vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

The ball becomes lighter in mass on the Moon, so the same throw sends it farther

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ball	det
2	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 becomes	nsubj
3	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 becomes	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 mass	case
6	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 lighter	obl
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 Moon	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Moon	det
9	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 mass	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 sends	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	15 sends	advmod
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 throw	det
13	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 throw	amod
14	throw	throw	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 sends	nsubj
15	sends	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 becomes	conj
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 sends	obj
17	farther	far	ADV	Degree=Cmp	15 sends	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	the ball					light property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	send	present	the same throw	ball				far property	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4

The Moon spins faster under it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 spins	nsubj
3	spins	spin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 spins	advmod
5	under	under	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 spins	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spin	present	the Moon			it		fast property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme under it=Trajectory

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/10-reasoning-about-space/t8/