Test 10 · ★★ · Time zones: why it's night in Sydney when it's day in London

What would happen to the width of a one-hour time zone if the Earth spun once every 12 hours?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Earth · What happens: happen, spin

This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 120 «Time zones: why it's night in Sydney when it's day in London» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 width	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 width	det
6	width	width	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	13 zone	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 zone	det
9	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 hour	nummod
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 one	punct
11	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 time	compound
12	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 zone	compound
13	zone	zone	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 width	nmod
14	if	if	SCONJ	_	17 spun	mark
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Earth	det
16	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 spun	nsubj
17	spun	spin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
18	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	17 spun	advmod
19	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	21 hours	det
20	12	12	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	21 hours	nummod
21	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 spun	obl:unmarked
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would						to the width of a time zone	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	spin a condition, not said to happen	past	the Earth				hour	once property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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.

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

It would be about 30 degrees wide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 degrees	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 degrees	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 degrees	cop
4	about	about	ADV	_	5 30	advmod
5	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	6 degrees	nummod
6	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
7	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 degrees	amod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	would	It	30 degrees					tree rules

Option 2

It would shrink to about 7 degrees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 shrink	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 shrink	aux
3	shrink	shrink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 degrees	case
5	about	about	ADV	_	6 7	advmod
6	7	7	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 degrees	nummod
7	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shrink	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shrink	would	It					to 7 degrees result	vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent to degree=Result

Option 3

Time zones would disappear altogether

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 zones	compound
2	zones	zone	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 disappear	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 disappear	aux
4	disappear	disappear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	altogether	altogether	ADV	_	4 disappear	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disappear	would	Time zones					altogether property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It would stay 15 degrees wide, as now

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 stay	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stay	aux
3	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	15	15	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 degrees	nummod
5	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 stay	obl
6	wide	wide	ADV	_	3 stay	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 stay	punct
8	as	as	ADP	_	9 now	case
9	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 stay	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stay	would	It	15 degrees				wide property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/120-time-zones/t10/