Exam question 1 · Thinking like a geographer: rivers, mountains and deserts

Identify the principal reason for which the sea does not overflow.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, sea · What happens: identify, not overflow · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 1 of lesson 50 «Thinking like a geographer: rivers, mountains and deserts» 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	11 overflow	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sea	det
8	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 overflow	nsubj
9	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 overflow	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 overflow	advmod
11	overflow	overflow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
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 reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	not overflow	present · do-support	the sea					for the principal reason	tree rules

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 rivers flow away from the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rivers	det
2	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 flow	nsubj
3	flow	flow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	away	away	ADV	_	3 flow	advmod
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 sea	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sea	det
7	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 flow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flow away	present	the rivers			the sea		away property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The Moon draws the excess into space

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 draws	nsubj
3	draws	draw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 excess	det
5	excess	excess	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 draws	obj
6	into	into	ADP	_	7 space	case
7	space	space	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 draws	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	present	the Moon	the excess				into space result	vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent excess=Patient into space=Result

Option 3

The sea floor absorbs all river water like a great sponge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 floor	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 floor	compound
3	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 absorbs	nsubj
4	absorbs	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 water	det
6	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 water	compound
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 absorbs	obj
8	like	like	ADP	_	11 sponge	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 sponge	det
10	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sponge	amod
11	sponge	sponge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 absorbs	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	the sea floor	all river water				like a great sponge	vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal water=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

As much water evaporates from it as rivers pour in

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	As	as	SCONJ	_	4 evaporates	mark
2	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 water	amod
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 evaporates	nsubj
4	evaporates	evaporate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 evaporates	obl
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 pour	mark
8	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 pour	nsubj
9	pour	pour	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 evaporates	advcl
10	in	in	ADP	_	9 pour	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	evaporate	present	much water			it			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	pour in	present	rivers						vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source

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/50-why-the-earth-is-so/e1/