Exam question 1 · Clocks before clocks: sundials, water clocks, candles and…

Identify the principal advantage of the water clock over the sundial.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify · To what, where: principal advantage, sundial

This is exam question 1 of lesson 122 «Clocks before clocks: sundials, water clocks, candles and hourglasses» 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 advantage	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 advantage	amod
4	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 clock	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 clock	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 clock	compound
8	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 advantage	nmod
9	over	over	ADP	_	11 sundial	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sundial	det
11	sundial	sundial	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
12	.	.	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 advantage of the water clock		the sundial			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent advantage=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 · ← Mova's choice

Its operation requires no water or other liquid whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 operation	nmod:poss
2	operation	operation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 requires	nsubj
3	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 water	det
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 requires	obj
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 liquid	cc
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 liquid	amod
8	liquid	liquid	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 water	conj
9	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 requires	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Its operation	no water or other liquid				whatsoever property	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Precondition
2	operate		Its = it						nom operation «state transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Its operation does not depend upon sunshine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 operation	nmod:poss
2	operation	operation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 depend	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 depend	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 depend	advmod
5	depend	depend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 sunshine	case
7	sunshine	sunshine	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 depend	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not depend	present · do-support	Its operation					upon sunshine	vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	operate		Its = it						nom operation «state transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

It indicates the date as well as the hour

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	2 indicates	nsubj
2	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 date	det
4	date	date	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 indicates	obj
5	as	as	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	9 hour	cc
6	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 as	fixed
7	as	as	ADP	_	5 as	fixed
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 hour	det
9	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 indicates	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It	the date					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot date=Topic

Option 4

It strikes a bell at every minute

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	2 strikes	nsubj
2	strikes	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bell	det
4	bell	bell	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 strikes	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 minute	case
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 minute	det
7	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 strikes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	present	It	a bell			minute		vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bell=Patient

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/122-clocks-before-clocks/e1/