Test 9 · ★★ · Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius

Why is paper better than clay tablets for a long letter?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: be

This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 10 «Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 better	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 better	cop
3	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 better	compound
4	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	7 tablets	case
6	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tablets	compound
7	tablets	tablet	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 better	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	11 letter	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 letter	det
10	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 letter	amod
11	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tablets	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 better	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						than clay tablets for a long letter; good 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 · ✓ the right answer

It is light and you can roll or fold it

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	3 light	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 light	cop
3	light	light	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 roll	cc
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	7 roll	nsubj
6	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 roll	aux
7	roll	roll	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 light	conj
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	9 fold	cc
9	fold	fold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 roll	conj
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 fold	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	It		light property	tree rules
2	roll	can	you			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	fold	infinitive	you not said here	it		vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 2

It cannot get wet, even in heavy rain

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 get	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 get	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 get	advmod
4	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 get	xcomp
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 rain	punct
7	even	even	ADV	_	10 rain	advmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 rain	case
9	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 rain	amod
10	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 get	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not get	can	It			heavy rain		wet property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

It is heavier and so much safer

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	3 heavier	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 heavier	cop
3	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 safer	cc
5	so	so	ADV	_	6 much	advmod
6	much	much	ADV	_	7 safer	advmod
7	safer	safe	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 heavier	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					heavy property	tree rules
2	be								tree rules

Option 4

It lasts longer if it falls into a fire

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 lasts	nsubj
2	lasts	last	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	2 lasts	advmod
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 falls	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 falls	nsubj
6	falls	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 lasts	advcl
7	into	into	ADP	_	9 fire	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 fire	det
9	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 falls	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	last	present	It					long property	vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme
2	fall a condition, not said to happen	present	it					into a fire result	vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into fire=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.

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