Test 3 · Africa: countries and capitals

«why are some african borders dead straight like someone used a ruler» Which is the best answer?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: african borders, someone · What happens: be, use · To what, where: ruler, best answer · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 of lesson 13 «Africa: countries and capitals» 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	7 dead	punct
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	7 dead	advmod
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 dead	cop
4	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	6 borders	det
5	african	African	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 borders	amod
6	borders	border	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 dead	nsubj
7	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 answer	csubj
8	straight	straight	ADV	_	11 used	advmod
9	like	like	SCONJ	_	11 used	mark
10	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	11 used	nsubj
11	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 dead	conj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 ruler	det
13	ruler	ruler	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 used	obj
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 used	punct
15	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	19 answer	nsubj
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 answer	cop
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 answer	det
18	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	19 answer	amod
19	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	19 answer	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	some african borders		dead property	tree rules
2	use in a quote	past	someone	a ruler	straight property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ruler=Patient
3	be speech: assert	present		the best answer		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 · ← Mova's choice

African kings liked straight borders best, so they marked them out with stones and walls across the land

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	African	African	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 kings	amod
2	kings	king	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 marked	nsubj
3	liked	like	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 kings	acl
4	straight	straight	ADV	_	5 borders	advmod
5	borders	border	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 liked	obj
6	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 borders	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 marked	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	10 marked	advmod
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 marked	nsubj
10	marked	mark	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 marked	obj
12	out	out	ADP	_	10 marked	compound:prt
13	with	with	ADP	_	14 stones	case
14	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 marked	obl
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 walls	cc
16	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 stones	conj
17	across	across	ADP	_	19 land	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 land	det
19	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 marked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	like	participle	African kings not said here	borders					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot border=Theme
2	mark out	past	African kings	borders = border		the land		with stones and walls	vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination with stone=Theme

Option 2

The desert winds blow the sand into straight lines

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 winds	det
2	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 winds	compound
3	winds	wind	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 blow	nsubj
4	blow	blow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sand	det
6	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 blow	obj
7	into	into	ADP	_	9 lines	case
8	straight	straight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 lines	amod
9	lines	line	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 blow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow	present	the desert winds	the sand		straight lines			vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent sand=Material into line=Product

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

European powers drew many of them on maps, often with straight lines, without asking Africans

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	European	European	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 powers	amod
2	powers	power	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drew	nsubj
3	drew	draw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 drew	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 them	case
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 many	nmod
7	on	on	ADP	_	8 maps	case
8	maps	map	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drew	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 lines	punct
10	often	often	ADV	_	13 lines	advmod
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 lines	case
12	straight	straight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 lines	amod
13	lines	line	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 drew	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 asking	punct
15	without	without	SCONJ	_	16 asking	mark
16	asking	ask	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 drew	parataxis
17	Africans	African	PROPN	Number=Plur	16 asking	iobj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	past	European powers	many of them		maps		with straight lines	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent many=Theme on map=Destination
2	ask speech: ask	gerund			Africans				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent african=Recipient

Option 4

Straight borders follow rivers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Straight	straight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 borders	amod
2	borders	border	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 follow	nsubj
3	follow	follow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 follow	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	present	Straight borders	rivers					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=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/13-africa-countries-and-capitals/t3/