Test 1 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing

Why are there 60 minutes in an hour and not 100?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be

This is test 1 of lesson 3 «Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing» 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	3 there	advmod
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 there	cop
3	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	root	root
4	60	60	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 minutes	nummod
5	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 there	obl:unmarked
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 hour	case
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 hour	det
8	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 minutes	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 100	cc
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 100	advmod
11	100	100	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	8 hour	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 there	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present					minute	there 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

A computer chose sixty in 1990

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 computer	det
2	computer	computer	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 chose	nsubj
3	chose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 chose	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 1990	case
6	1990	1990	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	3 chose	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	choose	past	a computer	sixty		1990			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sixty=Theme

Option 2

The Romans had sixty fingers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Romans	det
2	Romans	Roman	PROPN	Number=Plur	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 fingers	nummod
5	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	the Romans	sixty fingers					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finger=Patient

Option 3

Sixty is the biggest number there is, so it was the best one to use

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 number	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 number	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 number	det
4	biggest	big	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 number	amod
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	7 is	expl
7	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 number	acl:relcl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 one	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	14 one	advmod
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 one	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 one	cop
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 one	det
13	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	14 one	amod
14	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 number	appos
15	to	to	PART	_	16 use	mark
16	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 one	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	present	Sixty	the biggest number		tree rules
2	be	present	the biggest number not said here		there	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	is a	past	number	the best one		tree rules
4	use	to-infinitive	Sixty not said here			vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The Sumerians counted in sixties and we kept it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Sumerians	det
2	Sumerians	Sumerian	PROPN	Number=Plur	3 counted	nsubj
3	counted	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 sixties	case
5	sixties	sixties	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 counted	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 kept	cc
7	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	8 kept	nsubj
8	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 counted	conj
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 kept	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	past	the Sumerians			sixties			vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	keep	past	we	it					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

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/t1/