Test 1 · ★ · China: the Silk Road and the Tang

Mei says «China built the Silk Road», the teacher says «it was a road». What is wiser?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Mei, China, teacher · What happens: say, build, be · To what, where: Silk Road, road · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 54 «China: the Silk Road and the Tang» 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: Mei says «China built the Silk Road», the teacher says «it was a road».

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mei	Mei	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 says	nsubj
2	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	«	«	PUNCT	_	5 built	punct
4	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 built	nsubj
5	built	build	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 says	ccomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Road	det
7	Silk	Silk	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Road	compound
8	Road	Road	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 built	obj
9	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 built	punct
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 says	punct
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 teacher	det
12	teacher	teacher	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 says	nsubj
13	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 says	conj
14	«	«	PUNCT	_	18 road	punct
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 road	nsubj
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 road	cop
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 road	det
18	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 says	ccomp
19	»	»	PUNCT	_	18 road	punct
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Mei		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	build in a quote	past	China	the Silk Road	vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Product
3	say speech: assert	present	the teacher		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is a in a quote	past	teacher	a road	tree rules

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 is wiser?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 wiser	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wiser	cop
3	wiser	wise	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 wiser	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						wise property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

One long stone road that China built alone across the deserts to Rome

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 road	nummod
2	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 road	amod
3	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 road	compound
4	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 built	obl:unmarked
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 built	mark
6	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 built	nsubj
7	built	build	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 built	advmod
9	across	across	ADP	_	11 deserts	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 deserts	det
11	deserts	desert	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 built	obl
12	to	to	ADP	_	13 Rome	case
13	Rome	Rome	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 built	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	build	past	China	One long stone road	Rome	the deserts		alone property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A web of routes, with China at one end and many peoples trading

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 web	det
2	web	web	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 trading	compound
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 routes	case
4	routes	route	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 web	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 China	punct
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 China	case
7	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 routes	nmod
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 end	case
9	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 end	nummod
10	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 China	nmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 peoples	cc
12	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 peoples	amod
13	peoples	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 China	conj
14	trading	trading	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

One road the Romans built

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 road	nummod
2	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 built	obl:unmarked
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Romans	det
4	Romans	Roman	PROPN	Number=Plur	5 built	nsubj
5	built	build	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	build	past	the Romans	One road					vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4

A railway

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 railway	det
2	railway	railway	NOUN	Number=Sing	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/54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang/t1/