Exam question 2 · Recycling, waste and plastic

Identify the principal reason for which paper may be recycled only a few times.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, recycle · To what, where: principal reason, paper

This is exam question 2 of lesson 88 «Recycling, waste and plastic» 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	10 recycled	obl
7	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 recycled	nsubj:pass
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 recycled	aux
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 recycled	aux:pass
10	recycled	recycle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	only	only	ADV	_	14 times	advmod
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 times	det
13	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 times	amod
14	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 recycled	obl:unmarked
15	.	.	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	recycle	may · passive		paper			time	for the principal reason	tree rules

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 · ✓ the right answer

Its fibres become shorter on each occasion

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 fibres	nmod:poss
2	fibres	fibre	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 become	nsubj
3	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 become	xcomp
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 occasion	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 occasion	det
7	occasion	occasion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 shorter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	Its fibres					short property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Its ink can never be removed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 ink	nmod:poss
2	ink	ink	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 removed	nsubj:pass
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 removed	aux
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 removed	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 removed	aux:pass
6	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not remove	can · passive		Its ink					vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

It becomes heavier on each occasion

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 becomes	nsubj
2	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 becomes	xcomp
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 occasion	case
5	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	6 occasion	det
6	occasion	occasion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 heavier	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	It					heavy property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It turns into a kind of plastic when it is recycled

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 turns	nsubj
2	turns	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 kind	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 kind	det
5	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 turns	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 plastic	case
7	plastic	plastic	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 kind	nmod
8	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	11 recycled	advmod
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 recycled	nsubj:pass
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 recycled	aux:pass
11	recycled	recycle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 turns	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	present	It			a kind of plastic			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into kind=Trajectory
2	recycle	present · passive		plastic					tree rules

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/88-recycling-waste-plastic/e2/