Test 4 · ★★ · Straits: Bosporus, Gibraltar, Malacca, Hormuz and the othe…

Why did the Portuguese want to capture Malacca in 1511?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Portuguese · What happens: do, want, capture · To what, where: Malacca, 1511

This is test 4 · ★★ of lesson 19 «Straits: Bosporus, Gibraltar, Malacca, Hormuz and the other narrow doors» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 did	advmod
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Portuguese	det
4	Portuguese	portuguese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 want	nsubj
5	want	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	ccomp
6	to	to	PART	_	7 capture	mark
7	capture	capture	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 want	xcomp
8	Malacca	Malacca	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 capture	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 1511	case
10	1511	1511	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 capture	obl
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	do	past				tree rules
2	want	present	the Portuguese			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	capture not said to happen	to-infinitive	the Portuguese not said here	Malacca	1511	vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent malacca=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 · ← Mova's choice

It was the only good harbour on the whole east coast of Africa for ships

The tree, 15 words

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	6 harbour	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 harbour	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 harbour	det
4	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 harbour	amod
5	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 harbour	amod
6	harbour	harbour	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	on	on	ADP	_	11 coast	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 coast	det
9	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 coast	amod
10	east	east	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 coast	amod
11	coast	coast	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 harbour	nmod
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 Africa	case
13	Africa	Africa	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 coast	nmod
14	for	for	ADP	_	15 ships	case
15	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 harbour	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	the only good harbour		the whole east coast of Africa		for ships	tree rules

Option 2

It was the capital of the Chinese emperor and the richest and biggest city in all of China

The tree, 18 words

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	4 capital	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 capital	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 capital	det
4	capital	capital	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 emperor	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 emperor	det
7	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 emperor	amod
8	emperor	emperor	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 capital	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 city	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 city	det
11	richest	rich	ADJ	Degree=Sup	14 city	amod
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 biggest	cc
13	biggest	big	ADJ	Degree=Sup	14 city	amod
14	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 capital	conj
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 all	case
16	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	14 city	nmod
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 China	case
18	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 city	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	the capital and the richest biggest city in all of China				of the Chinese emperor	tree rules

Option 3

It had the biggest gold mine in Asia, worked by thousands of miners

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 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 mine	det
4	biggest	big	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 mine	amod
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 mine	compound
6	mine	mine	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 Asia	case
8	Asia	Asia	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 mine	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 worked	punct
10	worked	work	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 mine	acl
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 thousands	case
12	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 worked	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 miners	case
14	miners	miner	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 thousands	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	It	the biggest gold mine		Asia			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mine=Patient
2	work	participle		the biggest gold mine not said here				by thousands of miners	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It controlled a narrow, busy sea route for the spice trade between two oceans

The tree, 14 words

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 controlled	nsubj
2	controlled	control	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 route	det
4	narrow	narrow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 route	amod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 narrow	punct
6	busy	busy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 route	amod
7	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 route	compound
8	route	route	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 controlled	obj
9	for	for	ADP	_	12 trade	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 trade	det
11	spice	spice	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 trade	compound
12	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 route	nmod
13	between	between	ADP	_	15 oceans	case
14	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 oceans	nummod
15	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 trade	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	control	past	It	a narrow busy sea route				for the spice trade between two oceans	vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent route=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/19-straits-the-narrow-doors/t4/