Exam question 3 · Light, shadows and colours

Identify the principal reason for which a given object is perceived as red when illuminated by white light.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, give, perceive, illuminate · To what, where: principal reason, given object

This is exam question 3 of lesson 53 «Light, shadows and colours» 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 perceived	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 object	det
8	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 object	amod
9	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 perceived	nsubj:pass
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 perceived	aux:pass
11	perceived	perceive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	as	as	ADP	_	13 red	case
13	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 perceived	obl
14	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	15 illuminated	advmod
15	illuminated	illuminate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 perceived	advcl
16	by	by	ADP	_	18 light	case
17	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 light	amod
18	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 illuminated	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	give	participle				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	perceive	present · passive		a given object	for the principal reason; as red	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme as red=Attribute
4	illuminate	participle			by white light	vn illustrate-25.3 «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 · ✓ the right answer

It reflects red light and absorbs the remaining colours

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 reflects	nsubj
2	reflects	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 light	amod
4	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reflects	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 absorbs	cc
6	absorbs	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 reflects	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 colours	det
8	remaining	remaining	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 colours	amod
9	colours	colour	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 absorbs	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reflect	present	It	red light					tree rules
2	absorb	present		the remaining colours					vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal colour=Theme

Option 2

It transmits all colours save red through its body

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 transmits	nsubj
2	transmits	transmit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 colours	det
4	colours	colour	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 save	nsubj
5	save	save	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 transmits	ccomp
6	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 save	obj
7	through	through	ADP	_	9 body	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 body	nmod:poss
9	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 save	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	transmit	present	It						tree rules
2	save	present	all colours	red		its body			vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent red=Theme

Option 3

It emits red light generated within itself

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 emits	nsubj
2	emits	emit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 light	amod
4	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 emits	obj
5	generated	generate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 light	acl
6	within	within	ADP	_	7 itself	case
7	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 emits	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit	present	It	red light				within light	vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source light=Theme
2	generate	participle		red light not said here					vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It absorbs red light and reflects the remaining colours

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 absorbs	nsubj
2	absorbs	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 light	amod
4	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absorbs	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 reflects	cc
6	reflects	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 absorbs	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 colours	det
8	remaining	remaining	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 colours	amod
9	colours	colour	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 reflects	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	It	red light					vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal light=Theme
2	reflect	present		the remaining colours					tree rules

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/53-light/e3/