Exam question 1 · Building strong things: bridges, towers and shapes

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the forces designated compression and tension?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: forces · What happens: follow, characteris, designate · To what, where: compression

This is exam question 1 of lesson 86 «Building strong things: bridges, towers and shapes» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 forces	det
10	forces	force	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 designated	nsubj
11	designated	designate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 characterises	ccomp
12	compression	compression	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 designated	obj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 tension	cc
14	tension	tension	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 compression	conj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present			of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	designate	past	the forces	compression and tension		vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent compression=Theme

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

Both forces squash an object

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 forces	det
2	forces	force	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 squash	nsubj
3	squash	squash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 object	det
5	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 squash	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	squash	present	both forces	a object					vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent object=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Compression squashes, whereas tension stretches

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Compression	compression	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 squashes	nsubj
2	squashes	squash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 stretches	punct
4	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	6 stretches	case
5	tension	tension	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stretches	compound
6	stretches	stretch	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 squashes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	squash	present	Compression					whereas tension stretches	vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V together»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Compression stretches, whereas tension squashes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Compression	compression	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stretches	compound
2	stretches	stretch	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 squashes	punct
4	whereas	whereas	DET	PronType=Int	5 tension	det
5	tension	tension	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 squashes	nsubj
6	squashes	squash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 stretches	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	squash	present	whereas tension						vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V together»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Both forces stretch an object

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 forces	det
2	forces	force	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 stretch	nsubj
3	stretch	stretch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 object	det
5	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stretch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stretch	present	both forces	a object					vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent object=Patient

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/86-building-strong-things/e1/