Test 2 · The first people: hunters, gatherers and cave painters
A cartoon shows cavemen as grunting and stupid. What is closer to the truth?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cartoon · What happens: show, be · To what, where: cavemen
This is test 2 of lesson 1 «The first people: hunters, gatherers and cave painters» of the history 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
Sentence 1: A cartoon shows cavemen as grunting and stupid.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 cartoon | det |
| 2 | cartoon | cartoon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 shows | nsubj |
| 3 | shows | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | cavemen | caveman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 shows | obj |
| 5 | as | as | ADP | _ | 6 grunting | case |
| 6 | grunting | grunting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 shows | obl |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 stupid | cc |
| 8 | stupid | stupid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 grunting | conj |
| 9 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 shows | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | show | present | a cartoon | cavemen | as grunting | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent caveman=Recipient |
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.
Sentence 2: What is closer to the truth?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 closer | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 closer | cop |
| 3 | closer | close | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | ADP | _ | 6 truth | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 truth | det |
| 6 | truth | truth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 closer | obl |
| 7 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 closer | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | to the truth; close property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
They really could not talk at all
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 talk | nsubj |
| 2 | really | really | ADV | _ | 5 talk | advmod |
| 3 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 talk | aux |
| 4 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 talk | advmod |
| 5 | talk | talk | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | at | at | ADP | _ | 7 all | case |
| 7 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 5 talk | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not talk | could | They | all | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
They only knew how to hunt and nothing else
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 knew | nsubj |
| 2 | only | only | ADV | _ | 3 knew | advmod |
| 3 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 6 hunt | advmod |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 hunt | mark |
| 6 | hunt | hunt | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 knew | xcomp |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 nothing | cc |
| 8 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 3 knew | conj |
| 9 | else | else | ADV | _ | 8 nothing | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | know | past | They | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | hunt | to-infinitive | They not said here | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 3
They were cleverer than anyone alive today
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 cleverer | nsubj |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 cleverer | cop |
| 3 | cleverer | clever | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | root | root |
| 4 | than | than | ADP | _ | 5 anyone | case |
| 5 | anyone | anyone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 3 cleverer | obl |
| 6 | alive | alive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 anyone | amod |
| 7 | today | today | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 cleverer | obl:unmarked |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | They | today | than anyone; clever property | tree rules |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
They were as clever as us and knew hundreds of plants
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 clever | nsubj |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 clever | cop |
| 3 | as | as | ADV | _ | 4 clever | advmod |
| 4 | clever | clever | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | as | as | ADP | _ | 6 us | case |
| 6 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 clever | obl |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 knew | cc |
| 8 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 clever | conj |
| 9 | hundreds | hundred | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 knew | obj |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 plants | case |
| 11 | plants | plant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 hundreds | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | They | as us; clever property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | know | past | They not said here | hundreds of plants | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer hundred=Stimulus |
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/history/1-the-first-people/t2/