Exam question 1 · Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires
Identify the ruler under whose authority approximately 280 laws were inscribed upon a stone stele for public inspection.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, inscribe · To what, where: ruler, authority, 280 laws, stone stele
This is exam question 1 of lesson 4 «Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires» 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 | 3 ruler | det |
| 3 | ruler | ruler | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Identify | obj |
| 4 | under | under | ADP | _ | 6 authority | case |
| 5 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 6 authority | nmod:poss |
| 6 | authority | authority | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Identify | obl |
| 7 | approximately | approximately | ADV | _ | 8 280 | advmod |
| 8 | 280 | 280 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 9 laws | nummod |
| 9 | laws | law | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 inscribed | nsubj:pass |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 inscribed | aux:pass |
| 11 | inscribed | inscribe | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 Identify | parataxis |
| 12 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 15 stele | case |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 stele | det |
| 14 | stone | stone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 stele | compound |
| 15 | stele | stele | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 inscribed | obl |
| 16 | for | for | ADP | _ | 18 inspection | case |
| 17 | public | public | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 inspection | amod |
| 18 | inspection | inspection | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 stele | nmod |
| 19 | . | . | 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 ruler | authority | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent ruler=Theme | |||
| 2 | inscribe | past · passive | 280 laws | a stone stele for public inspection | vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: subject=Theme upon stele=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
Ashurbanipal of Assyria
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashurbanipal | Ashurbanipal | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 3 Assyria | case |
| 3 | Assyria | Assyria | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Ashurbanipal | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Sargon, king of Akkad
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sargon | Sargon | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 king | punct |
| 3 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Sargon | appos |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 Akkad | case |
| 5 | Akkad | Akkad | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 king | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
Cyrus the Great of Persia
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cyrus | Cyrus | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Great | det |
| 3 | Great | Great | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Cyrus | flat |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 Persia | case |
| 5 | Persia | Persia | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 Great | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
Hammurabi of Babylon
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hammurabi | Hammurabi | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 3 Babylon | case |
| 3 | Babylon | Babylon | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Hammurabi | nmod |
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/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/e1/