Exam question 3 · Floating and sinking: the push of water

Identify the principal reason for which ice floats upon water.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, ice · What happens: identify, float · To what, where: principal reason, water

This is exam question 3 of lesson 83 «Floating and sinking: the push of water» 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	8 floats	obl
7	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 floats	nsubj
8	floats	float	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 water	case
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 floats	obl
11	.	.	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	float	present	ice			water		for the principal reason	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon water=Trajectory

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

Water expands when frozen, so ice is lighter than the same amount of water

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 expands	nsubj
2	expands	expand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	4 frozen	advmod
4	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 expands	xcomp
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 lighter	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	9 lighter	advmod
7	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lighter	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 lighter	cop
9	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 expands	advcl
10	than	than	ADP	_	13 amount	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 amount	det
12	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 amount	amod
13	amount	amount	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lighter	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 water	case
15	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 amount	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	expand	present	Water			tree rules
2	freeze	participle	Water not said here			vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	is	present	ice		than the same amount of water; light property	tree rules
4	amount			water		nom amount «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Ice possesses no weight whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 weight	det
4	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 possesses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Ice	no weight				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot weight=Theme

Option 3

Ice contains bubbles of a gas lighter than air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	nsubj
2	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	bubbles	bubble	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 contains	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 gas	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 gas	det
6	gas	gas	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bubbles	nmod
7	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 contains	xcomp
8	than	than	ADP	_	9 air	case
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 lighter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	Ice	bubbles of a gas				light property	vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot bubble=Theme

Option 4

Ice is pushed upwards by the cold of the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pushed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 pushed	aux:pass
3	pushed	push	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	upwards	upwards	ADV	_	3 pushed	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 cold	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cold	det
7	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pushed	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 water	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 water	det
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cold	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	present · passive	the cold of the water	Ice				upwards property	vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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/83-floating-and-sinking/e3/