Exam question 1 · Population and cities

Identify the principal reason for which the majority of the world's great cities arose at particular locations.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, majority · What happens: identify, arise · To what, where: principal reason, particular locations

This is exam question 1 of lesson 24 «Population and cities» of the geography 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 arose	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 majority	det
8	majority	majority	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 arose	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	14 cities	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 world	det
11	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 cities	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 world	case
13	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 cities	amod
14	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 majority	nmod
15	arose	arise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 locations	case
17	particular	particular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 locations	amod
18	locations	location	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 arose	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	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	arise	past	the majority of the world's great cities			particular locations		for the principal reason	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at location=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

Such locations were selected at random by the rulers of the period, without regard to geography

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 locations	amod
2	locations	location	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 selected	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 selected	aux:pass
4	selected	select	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 random	case
6	random	random	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 selected	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 rulers	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 rulers	det
9	rulers	ruler	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 selected	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 period	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 period	det
12	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rulers	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 regard	punct
14	without	without	ADP	_	15 regard	case
15	regard	regard	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 selected	obl
16	to	to	ADP	_	17 geography	case
17	geography	geography	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 regard	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select	past · passive		Such locations		random		by the rulers of the period; without regard to geography	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Such locations were invariably elevated mountain summits

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 locations	amod
2	locations	location	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 elevated	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 elevated	aux:pass
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 elevated	advmod
5	elevated	elevate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 summits	compound
7	summits	summit	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 elevated	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	elevate	past · passive		Such locations				invariably property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme summit=Destination

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Such locations afforded river crossings, sheltered harbours or the convergence of trade routes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 locations	amod
2	locations	location	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	afforded	afford	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 crossings	amod
4	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 crossings	compound
5	crossings	crossing	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 locations	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 harbours	punct
7	sheltered	shelter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 harbours	amod
8	harbours	harbour	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 locations	conj
9	or	or	CCONJ	_	11 convergence	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 convergence	det
11	convergence	convergence	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 harbours	conj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 routes	case
13	trade	trade	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 routes	compound
14	routes	route	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 convergence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	afford	participle		tree rules
2	shelter	participle		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	converge		trade routes	nom convergence «event intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

Such locations were distant from all sources of water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 locations	amod
2	locations	location	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 distant	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 distant	cop
4	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 sources	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 sources	det
7	sources	source	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 distant	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 water	case
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sources	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Such locations			all sources of water		distant property	tree rules

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/24-population-and-cities/e1/