Exam question 1 · The Silk Road

Identify the principal reason for which silk commanded a high price in the Roman world.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, silk · What happens: identify, command · To what, where: principal reason, high price, Roman world · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 28 «The Silk Road» 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	8 commanded	obl
7	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 commanded	nsubj
8	commanded	command	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 price	det
10	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 price	amod
11	price	price	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 commanded	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 world	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 world	det
14	Roman	roman	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 world	amod
15	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 commanded	obl
16	.	.	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	command	past	silk	a high price		the Roman world		for the principal reason	vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.predicate»: agent=Agent price=Theme in world=Eventuality

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 Roman state levied no customs duties upon silk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 state	det
2	Roman	roman	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 state	amod
3	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 levied	nsubj
4	levied	levy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 customs	det
6	customs	custom	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 duties	compound
7	duties	duty	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 levied	obj
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 silk	case
9	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 levied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	levy	past	the Roman state	customs duties				upon silk	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The Chinese long preserved the secret of its manufacture

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Chinese	det
2	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 preserved	nsubj
3	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 preserved	advmod
4	preserved	preserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 secret	det
6	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 preserved	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 manufacture	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 manufacture	nmod:poss
9	manufacture	manufacture	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 secret	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	preserve	past	the Chinese	the secret of secret's manufacture				long property	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Beneficiary
2	manufacture		secret						nom manufacture «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Silk was manufactured exclusively from precious metal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 manufactured	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 manufactured	aux:pass
3	manufactured	manufacture	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 manufactured	advmod
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 metal	case
6	precious	precious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 metal	amod
7	metal	metal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 manufactured	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	manufacture	past · passive		Silk		precious metal		exclusively property	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: subject=Result from metal=Material

Option 4

Silk could be produced only during the winter months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 produced	nsubj:pass
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 produced	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 produced	aux:pass
4	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	only	only	ADV	_	9 months	advmod
6	during	during	ADP	_	9 months	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 months	det
8	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 months	compound
9	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 produced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	could · passive		Silk			month		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

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/28-the-silk-road/e1/