Test 8 · ★★★ · Thinking it through — forces, heat, light and energy

On a hot summer day, why do people in sunny countries often paint houses white?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: people · What happens: do, paint · To what, where: houses

This is test 8 · ★★★ of lesson 60 «Thinking it through — forces, heat, light and energy» 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	On	on	ADP	_	5 day	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 day	det
3	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 day	amod
4	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 day	compound
5	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 do	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 day	punct
7	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 do	advmod
8	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 paint	nsubj
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 countries	case
11	sunny	sunny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 countries	amod
12	countries	country	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 people	nmod
13	often	often	ADV	_	14 paint	advmod
14	paint	paint	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 do	parataxis
15	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 paint	obj
16	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 paint	xcomp
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 do	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present					day		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	paint	present	people in sunny countries	houses				often, white property	vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent house=Destination

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

White paint makes cold air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	White	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 paint	amod
2	paint	paint	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	nsubj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 air	amod
5	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	White paint	cold air					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset air=Product

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

White reflects sunlight, so the houses stay cooler

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	White	White	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 reflects	nsubj
2	reflects	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reflects	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 stay	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	8 stay	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 houses	det
7	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 stay	nsubj
8	stay	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 reflects	conj
9	cooler	cool	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 stay	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reflect	present	White	sunlight					tree rules
2	stay	present	the houses					cool property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

White houses are heavier and thicker

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	White	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 houses	amod
2	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 heavier	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 heavier	cop
4	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 thicker	cc
6	thicker	thick	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 heavier	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	White houses					heavy property	tree rules
2	be		White houses not said here						tree rules

Option 4

White walls absorb more heat to store it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	White	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 walls	amod
2	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 absorb	nsubj
3	absorb	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 heat	amod
5	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorb	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 store	mark
7	store	store	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 absorb	advcl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 store	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	White walls	more heat					vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal heat=Theme
2	store	to-infinitive	White walls not said here	heat					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/60-reasoning-energy-technology/t8/