Test 4 · ★★ · The Mongols

Why was it easier to carry silk from China to Europe in 1300 than in 1200?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: it · What happens: be, carry · To what, where: silk, Europe, China

This is test 4 · ★★ of lesson 23 «The Mongols» 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 easier	advmod
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 easier	cop
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 easier	nsubj
4	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 carry	mark
6	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 easier	xcomp
7	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 carry	obj
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 China	case
9	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 carry	obl
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 Europe	case
11	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 carry	obl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 1300	case
13	1300	1300	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	6 carry	obl
14	than	than	ADP	_	16 1200	case
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 1200	case
16	1200	1200	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	13 1300	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 easier	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	it					easy property	tree rules
2	carry	to-infinitive		silk	Europe	China		in 1300 than 1200	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent silk=Theme from china=Initial_Location to europe=Destination

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

Someone built a long motorway across the desert

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	2 built	nsubj
2	built	build	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 motorway	det
4	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 motorway	amod
5	motorway	motorway	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 built	obj
6	across	across	ADP	_	8 desert	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 desert	det
8	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 built	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	build	past	Someone	a long motorway		the desert			vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent motorway=Product

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

One power controlled most of the Silk Road and kept it safe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 power	nummod
2	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 controlled	nsubj
3	controlled	control	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 controlled	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 Road	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Road	det
7	Silk	Silk	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Road	compound
8	Road	Road	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 most	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 kept	cc
10	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 controlled	conj
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 kept	obj
12	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 kept	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	control	past	One power	most of the Silk Road					vn enforce-63 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent most=Theme
2	keep	past	One power not said here	power				safe property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

Silk became lighter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 became	nsubj
2	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 became	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past	Silk					light property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4

The sea between them dried up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dried	nsubj:pass
3	between	between	ADP	_	4 them	case
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sea	nmod
5	dried	dry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	up	up	ADP	_	5 dried	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dry up	participle · passive		the sea between them					vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/23-the-mongols/t4/