Test 4 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing
A friend says writing began with poems and stories. What really came first?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: friend, writing · What happens: say, begin, come · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 4 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
Sentence 1: A friend says writing began with poems and stories.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 friend | det |
| 2 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 says | nsubj |
| 3 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | writing | writing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 began | nsubj |
| 5 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 says | ccomp |
| 6 | with | with | ADP | _ | 7 poems | case |
| 7 | poems | poem | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 began | obl |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 stories | cc |
| 9 | stories | story | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 poems | conj |
| 10 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 says | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | a friend | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | begin | past | writing | with poems and stories | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with poem=Subeventuality |
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.
Sentence 2: What really came first?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 came | obj |
| 2 | really | really | ADV | _ | 3 came | advmod |
| 3 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | first | first | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 3 came | advmod |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 came | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | first property | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location what=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Road signs for carts
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 signs | compound |
| 2 | signs | sign | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 4 carts | case |
| 4 | carts | cart | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 signs | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Long poems about the gods
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 poems | amod |
| 2 | poems | poem | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 3 | about | about | ADP | _ | 5 gods | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 gods | det |
| 5 | gods | god | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 poems | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Lists counting grain and sheep
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lists | list | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 2 | counting | count | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 1 Lists | acl |
| 3 | grain | grain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 counting | obj |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 sheep | cc |
| 5 | sheep | sheep | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 grain | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | count | gerund | Lists not said here | grain and sheep | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grain=Theme |
Option 4
Letters to friends far away
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Letters | letter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 far | obl:unmarked |
| 2 | to | to | ADP | _ | 3 friends | case |
| 3 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Letters | nmod |
| 4 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 5 away | advmod |
| 5 | away | away | ADV | _ | root | root |
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/t4/