Test 6 · ★ · The Middle East and Central Asia

What would happen if a desert city's only spring dried up and there was no other water?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: only spring, other water · What happens: happen, dry up, be

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 12 «The Middle East and Central Asia» of the geography 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 dried	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 city	det
6	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 city	compound
7	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 spring	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 city	case
9	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 spring	amod
10	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 dried	nsubj
11	dried	dry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
12	up	up	ADP	_	11 dried	compound:prt
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 was	cc
14	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	15 was	expl
15	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 dried	conj
16	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	18 water	det
17	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 water	amod
18	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 was	nsubj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	dry up a condition, not said to happen	participle	a desert city's only spring		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	be	past	no other water	there	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ✓ the right answer

People could not stay there unless they brought water from far away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 stay	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 stay	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 stay	advmod
4	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 stay	advmod
6	unless	unless	SCONJ	_	8 brought	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 brought	nsubj
8	brought	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 stay	advcl
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 brought	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	11 far	case
11	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	12 away	advmod
12	away	away	ADV	_	8 brought	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not stay	could	People			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	bring a condition, not said to happen	past	People	water				away property	vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent water=Theme

Option 2

Nothing, deserts don't need water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 deserts	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	deserts	desert	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 need	nsubj
4	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 need	aux
5	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 need	advmod
6	need	need	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 need	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not need	present · do-support	Nothing deserts	water					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot water=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The city would become the capital

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 city	det
2	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 capital	det
6	capital	capital	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	the city	the capital					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4

The sand would soon turn into rich soil and the people would grow food without water

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sand	det
2	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 turn	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 turn	aux
4	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 turn	advmod
5	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 soil	case
7	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 soil	amod
8	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 turn	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 grow	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 people	det
11	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 grow	nsubj
12	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 grow	aux
13	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 turn	conj
14	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 grow	obj
15	without	without	ADP	_	16 water	case
16	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	the sand			rich soil		soon property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into soil=Trajectory
2	grow	would	the people	food				without water	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location food=Theme

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/geography/12-middle-east-and-central-asia/t6/