Exam question 2 · Day and night, shadows and sundials

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the length of shadows.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, length

This is exam question 2 of lesson 118 «Day and night, shadows and sundials» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 length	det
11	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 shadows	case
13	shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 length	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the length of shadows		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus length=Experiencer

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

Shadows are shortest at sunrise and at sunset

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shortest	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 shortest	cop
3	shortest	short	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 sunrise	case
5	sunrise	sunrise	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shortest	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 sunset	cc
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 sunset	case
8	sunset	sunset	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sunrise	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Shadows				sunrise	short property	tree rules

Option 2

Shadows are longest when the Sun attains its greatest height

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 longest	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 longest	cop
3	longest	long	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
4	when	when	SCONJ	_	7 attains	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Sun	det
6	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 attains	nsubj
7	attains	attain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 longest	advcl
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 height	nmod:poss
9	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 height	amod
10	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 attains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Shadows					long property	tree rules
2	attain	present	the Sun	Sun's greatest height					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent height=Theme

Option 3

Shadows are of constant length throughout the day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 length	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 length	cop
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 length	case
4	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 length	amod
5	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	8 day	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 day	det
8	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 length	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Shadows				day	of constant length	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Shadows are shortest when the Sun attains its greatest height, about midday

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shortest	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 shortest	cop
3	shortest	short	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
4	when	when	SCONJ	_	7 attains	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Sun	det
6	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 attains	nsubj
7	attains	attain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 shortest	advcl
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 height	nmod:poss
9	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 height	amod
10	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 attains	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 midday	punct
12	about	about	ADV	_	13 midday	advmod
13	midday	midday	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 height	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Shadows					short property	tree rules
2	attain	present	the Sun	Sun's greatest height and midday					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent height=Theme

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/118-day-night-shadows-sundials/e2/