Test 9 · ★ · Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1:…

Real life, bare (= very) old: which came first in human history?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: come · To what, where: human history

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 84 «Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a picture on birch-bark» of the books course of Mova's primary school. 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	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 life	amod
2	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 bare	punct
4	bare	bare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 life	amod
5	(	(	PUNCT	_	9 old	punct
6	=	=	SYM	_	9 old	punct
7	very	very	ADV	_	9 old	advmod
8	)	)	PUNCT	_	7 very	punct
9	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 bare	appos
10	:	:	PUNCT	_	12 came	punct
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 came	nsubj
12	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 old	acl:relcl
13	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	12 came	advmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 history	case
15	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 history	amod
16	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 came	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 life	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past				human history		first property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in history=Location

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

Cave pictures, tens of thousands of years before writing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pictures	compound
2	pictures	picture	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 tens	punct
4	tens	ten	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pictures	conj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 thousands	case
6	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tens	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 years	case
8	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 thousands	nmod
9	before	before	ADP	_	10 writing	case
10	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pictures	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Cave pictures, tens of thousands of years before writing, which was invented only in the last few thousand years

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pictures	compound
2	pictures	picture	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 tens	punct
4	tens	ten	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pictures	conj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 thousands	case
6	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tens	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 years	case
8	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 thousands	nmod
9	before	before	ADP	_	10 writing	case
10	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tens	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 invented	punct
12	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 invented	nsubj:pass
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 invented	aux:pass
14	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 pictures	acl
15	only	only	ADV	_	21 years	advmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	21 years	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 years	det
18	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 years	amod
19	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 thousand	amod
20	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	21 years	nummod
21	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 invented	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invent	past · passive		Cave pictures and tens of thousands of years before writing			year		vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

Option 3

Cave pictures, tens of thousands of years before writing, and before even the first farms and villages were built

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pictures	compound
2	pictures	picture	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 tens	punct
4	tens	ten	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pictures	conj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 thousands	case
6	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tens	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 years	case
8	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 thousands	nmod
9	before	before	ADP	_	10 writing	case
10	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tens	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 farms	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 farms	cc
13	before	before	ADP	_	17 farms	case
14	even	even	ADV	_	17 farms	advmod
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 farms	det
16	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	17 farms	amod
17	farms	farm	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pictures	conj
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 villages	cc
19	villages	village	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 farms	conj
20	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 built	aux:pass
21	built	build	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 farms	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	build	past · passive		the first farms and villages not said here					vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»

Option 4

Stories were told aloud, then written down later on clay

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 told	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 told	aux:pass
3	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	aloud	aloud	ADV	_	3 told	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 written	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 written	advmod
7	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 told	conj
8	down	down	ADP	_	7 written	compound:prt
9	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	7 written	advmod
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 clay	case
11	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 written	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · passive		Stories				aloud property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	write down	participle				clay	then	late property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on clay=Destination

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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