Exam question 4 · Sound — vibrations, loudness, pitch and echoes

Identify the principal reason for which curtains and carpets reduce echoes within a room.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, curtains · What happens: identify, reduce · To what, where: principal reason, echoes

This is exam question 4 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	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	10 reduce	obl
7	curtains	curtain	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 reduce	nsubj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 carpets	cc
9	carpets	carpet	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 curtains	conj
10	reduce	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	echoes	echo	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 reduce	obj
12	within	within	ADP	_	14 room	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 room	det
14	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reduce	obl
15	.	.	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	reduce	present	curtains and carpets	echoes				for the principal reason; within a room	vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer echo=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

Soft materials reflect sound more strongly than walls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 materials	amod
2	materials	material	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reflect	nsubj
3	reflect	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reflect	obj
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 strongly	advmod
6	strongly	strongly	ADV	_	3 reflect	advmod
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 walls	case
8	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reflect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reflect	present	Soft materials	sound				than walls; strongly property	tree rules

Option 2

Soft materials raise the pitch of every sound

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 materials	amod
2	materials	material	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 raise	nsubj
3	raise	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 pitch	det
5	pitch	pitch	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 raise	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 sound	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	8 sound	det
8	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pitch	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	present	Soft materials	the pitch of every sound					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pitch=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Soft materials absorb sound rather than reflecting it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 materials	amod
2	materials	material	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 absorb	nsubj
3	absorb	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorb	obj
5	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	7 reflecting	cc
6	than	than	ADP	_	5 rather	fixed
7	reflecting	reflect	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 absorb	conj
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 reflecting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	Soft materials	sound					vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal sound=Theme
2	reflect	gerund	Soft materials not said here	sound					tree rules

Option 4

Soft materials accelerate the passage of sound

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 materials	amod
2	materials	material	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 accelerate	nsubj
3	accelerate	accelerate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 passage	det
5	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 accelerate	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 sound	case
7	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 passage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accelerate	present	Soft materials	the passage of sound					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent passage=Patient
2	pass		sound						nom passage «act intransitive»: of=agent

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/e4/