Exam question 4 · Building strong things: bridges, towers and shapes

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the stability of an object.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern · To what, where: response, stability

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 stability	det
13	stability	stability	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 object	case
15	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 object	det
16	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 stability	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the stability of a object		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus stability=Experiencer

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

An object with a narrow base and its weight high up is hardest to tip

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 object	det
2	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 hardest	nsubj
3	with	with	ADP	_	6 base	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 base	det
5	narrow	narrow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 base	amod
6	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 object	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 up	cc
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 weight	nmod:poss
9	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 up	compound
10	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 up	amod
11	up	up	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 base	conj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 hardest	cop
13	hardest	hard	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
14	to	to	PART	_	15 tip	mark
15	tip	tip	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 hardest	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a object with a narrow base and weight high up					hard property	tree rules
2	tip	to-infinitive	a object with a narrow base and weight high up not said here						vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The shape of the base has no effect upon stability

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shape	det
2	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 has	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 base	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 base	det
5	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shape	nmod
6	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 effect	det
8	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 has	obj
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 stability	case
10	stability	stability	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 effect	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	the shape of the base	no effect				upon stability	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Patient

Option 3

Only heavy objects can be stable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 objects	advmod
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 objects	amod
3	objects	object	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 stable	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 stable	aux
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 stable	cop
6	stable	stable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	can	heavy objects					stable property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

An object with a wide base and its weight low down is hard to tip over

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 object	det
2	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 hard	nsubj
3	with	with	ADP	_	6 base	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 base	det
5	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 base	amod
6	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 object	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 weight	cc
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 weight	nmod:poss
9	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 base	conj
10	low	low	ADV	Degree=Pos	11 down	advmod
11	down	down	ADV	_	2 object	advmod
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 hard	cop
13	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
14	to	to	PART	_	15 tip	mark
15	tip	tip	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 hard	xcomp
16	over	over	ADV	_	15 tip	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a object with a wide base and object's weight					hard property	tree rules
2	tip over	to-infinitive	a object with a wide base and object's weight not said here					over property	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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.

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