Exam question 4 · The Mongols

Ascertain the principal advantage conferred upon Mongol forces by each rider's possession of several horses.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, rider · What happens: ascertain, confer, possess · To what, where: principal advantage, several horses

This is exam question 4 of lesson 23 «The Mongols» 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	4 advantage	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 advantage	amod
4	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	conferred	confer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 advantage	acl
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 forces	case
7	Mongol	mongol	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 forces	amod
8	forces	force	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 conferred	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	13 possession	case
10	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	11 rider	det
11	rider	rider	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 possession	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 rider	case
13	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conferred	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 horses	case
15	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 horses	amod
16	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 possession	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal advantage		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advantage=Topic
2	confer	participle		the principal advantage not said here	upon Mongol forces; by each rider's possession of several horses	vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	possess		each rider	several horses		nom possession «act transitive»: poss=agent 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

Increased weight of armour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Increased	increase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 weight	amod
2	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 armour	case
4	armour	armour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 weight	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	participle							vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2

The capacity to cross the ocean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 capacity	det
2	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 cross	mark
4	cross	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 capacity	acl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ocean	det
6	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cross	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cross	to-infinitive		the ocean					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ocean=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Sustained speed through the use of fresh mounts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sustained	sustain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sustained	obj
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 use	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 use	det
5	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sustained	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 mounts	case
7	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 mounts	amod
8	mounts	mount	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 use	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sustain	participle		speed				through the use of fresh mounts	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent speed=Theme through use=Instrument
2	use			fresh mounts					nom use «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Exemption from the payment of tribute

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exemption	exemption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	4 payment	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 payment	det
4	payment	payment	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exemption	nmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 tribute	case
6	tribute	tribute	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 payment	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay			tribute					nom payment «possession transitive»: of=patient

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/23-the-mongols/e4/