Exam question 4 · Melting, freezing and boiling

Identify the principal reason for which water boils below one hundred degrees Celsius at high altitude.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, water · What happens: identify, boil · To what, where: principal reason, hundred degrees

This is exam question 4 of lesson 12 «Melting, freezing and boiling» 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 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	8 boils	obl
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 boils	nsubj
8	boils	boil	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
9	below	below	ADP	_	12 degrees	case
10	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 hundred	compound
11	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 degrees	nummod
12	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 boils	obl
13	Celsius	Celsius	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 degrees	nmod:unmarked
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 altitude	case
15	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 altitude	amod
16	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 boils	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	boil	present	water			hundred degrees Celsius		for the principal reason; at high altitude	vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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 water contains less salt

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 water	det
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contains	nsubj
3	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 salt	amod
5	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	the water	less salt					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot salt=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The air pressure is diminished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pressure	det
2	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pressure	compound
3	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 diminished	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 diminished	aux:pass
5	diminished	diminish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	diminish	present · passive		the air pressure					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 3

The water is colder at altitude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 water	det
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 colder	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 colder	cop
4	colder	cold	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 altitude	case
6	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 colder	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the water			altitude		cold property	tree rules

Option 4

The Sun is nearer at altitude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Sun	det
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 nearer	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 nearer	cop
4	nearer	near	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 altitude	case
6	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nearer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the Sun			altitude		near property	tree rules

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/12-melting-freezing-boiling/e4/