Exam question 4 · Thinking like a geographer: rivers, mountains and deserts

Identify the principal reason for which coastal places have milder winters.

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

This is exam question 4 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	9 have	obl
7	coastal	coastal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 places	amod
8	places	place	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 have	nsubj
9	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
10	milder	mild	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 winters	amod
11	winters	winter	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 have	obj
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	have	present	coastal places				winter	for the principal reason	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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

Water cools more slowly than land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cools	nsubj
2	cools	cool	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 slowly	advmod
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	2 cools	advmod
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 land	case
6	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cools	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cool	present	Water					than land; slowly property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

The sea is heated from beneath

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 heated	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 heated	aux:pass
4	heated	heat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 beneath	case
6	beneath	beneath	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 heated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	heat	present · passive		the sea		beneath			vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 3

Coastal places are lower in altitude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Coastal	coastal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 places	amod
2	places	place	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 lower	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 lower	cop
4	lower	low	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 altitude	case
6	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 lower	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Coastal places			altitude		low property	tree rules

Option 4

Coastal winds come from the equator

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Coastal	coastal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 winds	amod
2	winds	wind	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 come	nsubj
3	come	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 equator	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 equator	det
6	equator	equator	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 come	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	present	Coastal winds			the equator			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from equator=Initial_Location

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/e4/