Test 3 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing

What would happen to Uruk's fields if all the canals filled with mud?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: canals · What happens: happen, fill

This is test 3 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 fields	case
5	Uruk	Uruk	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 fields	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 Uruk	case
7	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 happen	obl
8	if	if	SCONJ	_	12 filled	mark
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 canals	det:predet
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 canals	det
11	canals	canal	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 filled	nsubj
12	filled	fill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 happen	advcl
13	with	with	ADP	_	14 mud	case
14	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 filled	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would						to Uruk's fields	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	fill a condition, not said to happen	participle	all canals					with mud	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with mud=Instrument

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

The river would flow uphill instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 river	det
2	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 flow	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 flow	aux
4	flow	flow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	uphill	uphill	ADV	_	4 flow	advmod
6	instead	instead	ADV	_	4 flow	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flow	would	the river					instead, uphill property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The fields would grow more wheat than ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fields	det
2	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 grow	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 wheat	amod
6	wheat	wheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 grow	obj
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 ever	case
8	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	the fields	more wheat					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wheat=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The crops would dry up and the city go hungry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 crops	det
2	crops	crop	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dry	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 dry	aux
4	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 dry	compound:prt
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 go	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 city	det
8	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 go	nsubj
9	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 dry	conj
10	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 go	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dry up	would	the crops						vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	go	infinitive	the city					hungry property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Nothing, it rained there every day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 rained	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 rained	nsubj
4	rained	rain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 rained	advmod
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 day	det
7	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 rained	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rain	past	Nothing			there	day		vn weather-57 «It V PP.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.

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