Exam question 2 · Ancient Greece: city-states, Athens and Sparta

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, battle · To what, where: response, battle, 480, Thermopylae

This is exam question 2 of lesson 11 «Ancient Greece: city-states, Athens and Sparta» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 battle	det
11	battle	battle	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 Thermopylae	case
13	Thermopylae	Thermopylae	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 battle	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 480	case
15	480	480	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	11 battle	nmod
16	BC	BC	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 480	nmod:unmarked
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the battle of Thermopylae	480 BC		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus battle=Experiencer
4	battle			Thermopylae			nom battle «act transitive»: of=patient

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 Persians were defeated within one hour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Persians	det
2	Persians	Persian	PROPN	Number=Plur	4 defeated	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 defeated	aux:pass
4	defeated	defeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	within	within	ADP	_	7 hour	case
6	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 hour	nummod
7	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 defeated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	defeat	past · passive		the Persians			hour		tree rules

Option 2

The battle was fought at sea near Troy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 battle	det
2	battle	battle	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fought	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fought	aux:pass
4	fought	fight	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 sea	case
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fought	obl
7	near	near	ADP	_	8 Troy	case
8	Troy	Troy	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 fought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fight	past · passive		the battle		sea		near Troy	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The Spartans were accompanied by several thousand other Greeks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Spartans	det
2	Spartans	Spartan	PROPN	Number=Plur	4 accompanied	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 accompanied	aux:pass
4	accompanied	accompany	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	9 Greeks	case
6	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 thousand	amod
7	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 Greeks	nummod
8	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 Greeks	amod
9	Greeks	Greek	PROPN	Number=Plur	4 accompanied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accompany	past · passive	thousand other Greeks	the Spartans					vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4

Exactly three hundred combatants took part on the Greek side

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exactly	exactly	ADV	_	3 hundred	advmod
2	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 hundred	compound
3	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 combatants	nummod
4	combatants	combatant	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 took	nsubj
5	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 took	obj
7	on	on	ADP	_	10 side	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 side	det
9	Greek	Greek	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 side	amod
10	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 took	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	past	hundred combatants	part		the Greek side			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent part=Theme on side=Destination

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/11-ancient-greece-city-states-athens-and-sparta/e2/