Test 3 · ★★★ · Australia and New Zealand: a short story

Before writing came to Australia, how could a person find their way across hundreds of kilometres?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: person · What happens: come, find · To what, where: Australia, way, hundreds

This is test 3 · ★★★ of lesson 40 «Australia and New Zealand: a short story» 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	Before	before	ADP	_	2 writing	case
2	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 came	obl
3	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 Australia	case
5	Australia	Australia	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 came	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 find	punct
7	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	11 find	advmod
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 find	aux
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 person	det
10	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 find	nsubj
11	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 came	conj
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 way	nmod:poss
13	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 find	obj
14	across	across	ADP	_	15 hundreds	case
15	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 find	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 kilometres	case
17	kilometres	kilometre	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 hundreds	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 came	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past				Australia	before writing		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to australia=Initial_Location
2	find	could	a person	their way		hundreds of kilometres			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic

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 could not travel at all

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	4 travel	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 travel	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 travel	advmod
4	travel	travel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 all	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 travel	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not travel	could	They			all			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at all=Trajectory

Option 2

By reading street signs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 reading	mark
2	reading	read	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	street	street	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 signs	compound
4	signs	sign	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reading	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	gerund		street signs					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sign=Topic

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By following a songline that carries the map of the land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 following	mark
2	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 songline	det
4	songline	songline	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 following	obj
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 carries	nsubj
6	carries	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 songline	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 map	det
8	map	map	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 carries	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 land	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 land	det
11	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 map	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund		a songline					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent songline=Theme
2	carry	present	a songline	the map of the land					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent map=Theme

Option 4

By using a compass and a paper map brought over from Britain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 using	mark
2	using	use	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 brought	advcl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 compass	det
4	compass	compass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 using	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 map	cc
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 map	det
7	paper	paper	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 map	compound
8	map	map	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 compass	conj
9	brought	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	over	over	ADV	_	9 brought	advmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 Britain	case
12	Britain	Britain	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 brought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	gerund		a compass and a paper map					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent compass=Patient
2	bring over	past				Britain		over property	vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent from britain=Initial_Location

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/40-australia-and-new-zealand-a-short-story/t3/