---
title: Identify the principal reason for which ice floats upon liquid water. — Clever reasoning about water and matter · tree and pragmatics
description: Identify the principal reason for which ice floats upon liquid water. Exam question 1 of lesson 20 «Clever reasoning about water and matter» of the world course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

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# Exam question 1 · Clever reasoning about water and matter

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Identify the principal reason for which ice floats upon liquid water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** you, ice · **What happens:** identify, float · **To what, where:** principal reason, liquid water

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This is exam question 1 of lesson 20 «Clever reasoning about water and matter» 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:e1:1
# text = Identify the principal reason for which ice floats upon liquid water.
1	Identify	identify	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obl	_	_
7	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	floats	float	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl	_	_
9	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	liquid	liquid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 |  |  | liquid water |  | for the principal reason | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon water=Trajectory |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ice contains trapped air and nothing else

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:e1:o1:1
# text = Ice contains trapped air and nothing else
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	contains	contain	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	trapped	trap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	conj	_	_
7	else	else	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **contain** | present | Ice | trapped air |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot air=Theme |
| 2 | **trap** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ice is warmer than the liquid water beneath

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:e1:o2:1
# text = Ice is warmer than the liquid water beneath
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	warmer	warm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	liquid	liquid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	beneath	beneath	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Ice |  |  |  |  | than the liquid water; beneath, warm *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ice is less dense than liquid water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:e1:o3:1
# text = Ice is less dense than liquid water
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
4	dense	dense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	liquid	liquid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Ice |  |  |  |  | than liquid water; dense, less *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ice is heavier than the liquid water below it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:e1:o4:1
# text = Ice is heavier than the liquid water below it
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	liquid	liquid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	below	below	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Ice |  |  |  |  | than the liquid water below water; heavy *property* | tree rules |

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**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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- ← previous: [Clever reasoning about water and matter, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/t13/)
- next →: [Clever reasoning about water and matter, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/e2/)
- ↑ back to [Clever reasoning about water and matter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/)