Exam question 1 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing
Identify the two rivers between which the region designated Mesopotamia is situated.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, region · What happens: identify, designate, situate · To what, where: two rivers, Mesopotamia, region
This is exam question 1 of lesson 3 «Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing» 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 | Identify | identify | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 rivers | det |
| 3 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 4 rivers | nummod |
| 4 | rivers | river | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Identify | obj |
| 5 | between | between | ADP | _ | 6 which | case |
| 6 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 situated | obl |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 region | det |
| 8 | region | region | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 situated | nsubj:pass |
| 9 | designated | designate | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 region | acl |
| 10 | Mesopotamia | Mesopotamia | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 designated | obj |
| 11 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 12 situated | aux:pass |
| 12 | situated | situate | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 rivers | acl:relcl |
| 13 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Identify | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | identify | imperative | you not said here | the two rivers | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent river=Theme | ||||
| 2 | designate | participle | the region not said here | Mesopotamia | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mesopotamia=Theme | ||||
| 3 | situate | present · passive | the region | the two rivers | vn put-9.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme between which=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
The Indus and the Ganges
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Indus | det |
| 2 | Indus | Indus | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 Ganges | cc |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 Ganges | det |
| 5 | Ganges | Ganges | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Indus | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
The Danube and the Rhine
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Danube | det |
| 2 | Danube | Danube | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 Rhine | cc |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 Rhine | det |
| 5 | Rhine | Rhine | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Danube | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
The Tigris and the Euphrates
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Tigris | det |
| 2 | Tigris | Tigris | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 Euphrates | cc |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 Euphrates | det |
| 5 | Euphrates | Euphrate | PROPN | Number=Plur | 2 Tigris | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
The Nile and the Jordan
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Nile | det |
| 2 | Nile | Nile | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 Jordan | cc |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 Jordan | det |
| 5 | Jordan | Jordan | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Nile | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/e1/