Exam question 4 · The shape and size of the Earth, the poles and the equator

Identify which of the following observations constitutes evidence that the surface of the Earth is curved.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, constitutes evidence · What happens: identify, follow, curve · To what, where: observations, surface

This is exam question 4 of lesson 7 «The shape and size of the Earth, the poles and the equator» 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	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	1 Identify	obj
3	of	of	ADP	_	8 evidence	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 evidence	det
5	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 evidence	csubj
6	observations	observation	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 following	obj
7	constitutes	constitute	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 evidence	compound
8	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 which	nmod
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	16 curved	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 surface	det
11	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 curved	nsubj:pass
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 Earth	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Earth	det
14	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 surface	nmod
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 curved	aux:pass
16	curved	curve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 evidence	acl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent which=Theme
2	follow	gerund		observations	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent observation=Theme
3	curve	present · passive	the constitutes evidence not said here	the surface of the Earth	vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material

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

A departing vessel remains visible indefinitely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 vessel	det
2	departing	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 vessel	amod
3	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 remains	nsubj
4	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	visible	visible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 remains	xcomp
6	indefinitely	indefinitely	ADV	_	5 visible	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depart	gerund							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	remain	present	a departing vessel					visible property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

A departing vessel diminishes uniformly until invisible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 vessel	det
2	departing	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 vessel	amod
3	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 diminishes	nsubj
4	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	uniformly	uniformly	ADV	_	4 diminishes	advmod
6	until	until	ADP	_	7 invisible	case
7	invisible	invisible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 diminishes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depart	gerund							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	diminish	present	a departing vessel				until invisible	uniformly property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 3

A departing vessel vanishes from the mast downward

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 vessel	det
2	departing	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 vessel	amod
3	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 vanishes	nsubj
4	vanishes	vanish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 downward	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 downward	det
7	mast	mast	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 downward	compound
8	downward	downward	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 vanishes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depart	gerund							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	vanish	present	a departing vessel			the mast downward			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from downward=Initial_Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A departing vessel vanishes from the hull upward

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 vessel	det
2	departing	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 vessel	amod
3	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 vanishes	nsubj
4	vanishes	vanish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 hull	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hull	det
7	hull	hull	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 vanishes	obl
8	upward	upward	ADV	_	4 vanishes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depart	gerund							vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	vanish	present	a departing vessel			the hull		upward property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from hull=Initial_Location

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/7-shape-and-size-of-the-earth/e4/