Test 2 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing

lol why didn't they just use paper?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: they · What happens: use · To what, where: paper

This is test 2 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	lol	lol	INTJ	_	2 why	discourse
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	root	root
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 why	advcl:relcl
4	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	3 did	advmod
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 use	nsubj
6	just	just	ADV	_	7 use	advmod
7	use	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
8	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 use	obj
9	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 why	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present	they	paper					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paper=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

They thought paper was too boring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 thought	nsubj
2	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 boring	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 boring	cop
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 boring	advmod
6	boring	boring	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 thought	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	past	They						vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	paper					boring property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

They had no paper, but clay was everywhere

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 paper	det
4	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 clay	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 clay	cc
7	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	conj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 everywhere	cop
9	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 clay	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	They	no paper					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paper=Patient
2	is	past						everywhere property	tree rules

Option 3

They used paper but it all burned

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 used	nsubj
2	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 used	obj
4	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 burned	cc
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 burned	nsubj
6	all	all	ADV	_	7 burned	advmod
7	burned	burn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 used	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	past	They	paper					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paper=Patient
2	burn	past	paper					all property	vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Paper was banned by the kings, who hated it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 banned	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 banned	aux:pass
3	banned	ban	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 kings	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 kings	det
6	kings	king	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 banned	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 hated	punct
8	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 hated	nsubj
9	hated	hate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 kings	acl:relcl
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 hated	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ban	past · passive	the kings	Paper					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Theme
2	hate	past	the kings	Paper					vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus

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/t2/