Test 8 · Sound — vibrations, loudness, pitch and echoes

If there were no air in a room, could you hear a ringing alarm clock in it?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: air, you · What happens: be, hear · To what, where: ringing alarm clock, air

This is test 8 of lesson 54 «Sound — vibrations, loudness, pitch and echoes» of the world course of Mova's primary school. 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	3 were	mark
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 were	expl
3	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 hear	advcl
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 air	det
5	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 were	nsubj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 room	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 room	det
8	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 air	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 were	punct
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 hear	aux
11	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	12 hear	nsubj
12	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 clock	det
14	ringing	ringing	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 clock	compound
15	alarm	alarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 clock	compound
16	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hear	obj
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 it	case
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 clock	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 hear	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be a condition, not said to happen	past	no air in a room			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	hear	could	you	a ringing alarm clock		air			vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer clock=Stimulus

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

No, sound needs something to travel through

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 needs	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 needs	punct
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 needs	nsubj
4	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	4 needs	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 travel	mark
7	travel	travel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 something	acl
8	through	through	ADV	_	7 travel	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	sound	something					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot something=Theme
2	travel	to-infinitive	sound not said here	something not said here				through property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Yes, but only more quietly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	6 quietly	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	but	but	CCONJ	_	6 quietly	cc
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 more	advmod
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 quietly	advmod
6	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Only if the clock is metal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	4 clock	advmod
2	if	if	SCONJ	_	4 clock	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 clock	det
4	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 metal	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 metal	cop
6	metal	metal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the clock	metal					tree rules

Option 4

Yes, sound travels best in empty space

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 travels	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 travels	nsubj
4	travels	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 travels	advmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 space	case
7	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 space	amod
8	space	space	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 travels	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	travel	present	sound			empty space		well property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in space=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/t8/