Exam question 3 · The Sun as a star and the stars

Identify the principal reason for which the stars appear exceedingly small to an observer upon the Earth.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, stars · What happens: identify, appear · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 3 of lesson 5 «The Sun as a star and the stars» 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	9 appear	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 stars	det
8	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 appear	nsubj
9	appear	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	_	11 small	advmod
11	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 appear	xcomp
12	to	to	ADP	_	14 observer	case
13	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 observer	det
14	observer	observer	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 small	obl
15	upon	upon	ADP	_	17 Earth	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Earth	det
17	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 observer	nmod
18	.	.	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	appear	present	the stars					for the principal reason; small property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP 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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Their distance from the Earth is immense

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 distance	nmod:poss
2	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 immense	nsubj
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 Earth	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Earth	det
5	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 distance	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 immense	cop
7	immense	immense	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Their distance from the Earth					immense property	tree rules

Option 2

Their actual dimensions are minute

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 dimensions	nmod:poss
2	actual	actual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 dimensions	amod
3	dimensions	dimension	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 minute	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 minute	cop
5	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Their actual dimensions	minute					tree rules

Option 3

They are partially obscured by the atmosphere

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 obscured	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 obscured	aux:pass
3	partially	partially	ADV	_	4 obscured	advmod
4	obscured	obscure	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 atmosphere	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 atmosphere	det
7	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obscured	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obscure	present · passive	the atmosphere	They				partially property	vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 4

They emit only feeble light

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 emit	nsubj
2	emit	emit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 feeble	advmod
4	feeble	feeble	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 light	amod
5	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 emit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit	present	They	feeble light					vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source light=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/5-the-sun-and-the-stars/e3/