Exam question 4 · Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius

Ascertain the maxim commonly attributed to Confucius.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, attribute · To what, where: maxim, Confucius

This is exam question 4 of lesson 10 «Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius» of the history 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 maxim	det
3	maxim	maxim	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	commonly	commonly	ADV	_	5 attributed	advmod
5	attributed	attribute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 maxim	acl
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 Confucius	case
7	Confucius	Confucius	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 attributed	obl
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the maxim					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent maxim=Topic
2	attribute	participle		the maxim not said here	Confucius			commonly property	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

Know thyself and nothing in excess

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Know	know	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	thyself	thyself	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=2 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes Style=Arch	1 Know	obj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 nothing	cc
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 thyself	conj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 excess	case
6	excess	excess	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nothing	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	imperative	you not said here	thyself					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thyself=Stimulus

Option 2

All roads lead to Rome

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 roads	det
2	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lead	nsubj
3	lead	lead	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 Rome	case
5	Rome	Rome	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 lead	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lead	present	all roads		Rome				vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to rome=Patient

Option 3

Divide and rule

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Divide	divide	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 rule	cc
3	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Divide	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Do not do unto others that which you would not have done unto yourself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Do	do	AUX	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 do	aux
2	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	3 do	advmod
3	do	do	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	unto	unto	ADP	_	5 others	case
5	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 do	obl
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 done	obj
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 done	obj
8	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	12 done	nsubj
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 done	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 done	advmod
11	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 done	aux
12	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 others	acl:relcl
13	unto	unto	ADP	_	12 done	obl
14	yourself	yourself	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=2 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	3 do	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not do	imperative · do-support	you not said here	yourself				unto others	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not do	would · perfect	you	others					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.

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