Exam question 2 · Sound — vibrations, loudness, pitch and echoes

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the propagation of sound through a vacuum.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern, propagate · To what, where: response, propagation, vacuum, sound

This is exam question 2 of lesson 54 «Sound — vibrations, loudness, pitch and echoes» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 propagation	det
13	propagation	propagation	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 sound	case
15	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 propagation	nmod
16	through	through	ADP	_	18 vacuum	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 vacuum	det
18	vacuum	vacuum	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response			with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the propagation of sound	a vacuum		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus propagation=Experiencer
5	propagate			sound			nom propagation «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

Sound travels most rapidly through a vacuum

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	nsubj
2	travels	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 rapidly	advmod
4	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	2 travels	advmod
5	through	through	ADP	_	7 vacuum	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 vacuum	det
7	vacuum	vacuum	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	travel	present	Sound			a vacuum		rapidly property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through vacuum=Trajectory

Option 2

Sound travels through a vacuum only at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	nsubj
2	travels	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 vacuum	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 vacuum	det
5	vacuum	vacuum	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	obl
6	only	only	ADV	_	8 night	advmod
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 night	case
8	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	travel	present	Sound			a vacuum	night		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through vacuum=Trajectory

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Sound travels through a vacuum as readily as through air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	nsubj
2	travels	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 vacuum	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 vacuum	det
5	vacuum	vacuum	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	obl
6	as	as	ADV	_	7 readily	advmod
7	readily	readily	ADV	_	2 travels	advmod
8	as	as	ADV	_	2 travels	advmod
9	through	through	ADP	_	10 air	case
10	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 travels	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	travel	present	Sound			a vacuum		through air; readily property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through vacuum=Trajectory

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Sound is incapable of travelling through a vacuum

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 incapable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 travelling	mark
5	travelling	travel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 incapable	advcl
6	through	through	ADP	_	8 vacuum	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 vacuum	det
8	vacuum	vacuum	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 travelling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Sound					incapable property	tree rules
2	travel	gerund	Sound not said here			a vacuum			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through vacuum=Trajectory

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/54-sound/e2/