Test 9 · How we got here: the big steps on one long timeline

What would have happened if farming had never begun?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: farming · What happens: happen, not begin

This is test 9 of lesson 61 «How we got here: the big steps on one long timeline» 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	4 happened	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 happened	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 happened	aux
4	happened	happen	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	9 begun	mark
6	farming	farming	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 begun	nsubj
7	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 begun	aux
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	9 begun	advmod
9	begun	begin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 happened	advcl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 happened	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would · perfect							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	not begin a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect	farming						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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

Dinosaurs would still be alive and ruling Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 alive	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 alive	aux
3	still	still	ADV	_	5 alive	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 alive	cop
5	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 ruling	cc
7	ruling	rule	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 alive	conj
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 ruling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	Dinosaurs				still	alive property	tree rules
2	rule	gerund	Dinosaurs not said here	Earth					vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent earth=Result

Option 2

More people than today, all of them hunters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	More	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 people	amod
2	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	than	than	ADP	_	4 today	case
4	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 people	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 hunters	punct
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 hunters	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 them	case
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 all	nmod
9	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 people	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hunter		all						tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Exactly the same number of cities as today

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exactly	exactly	ADV	_	4 number	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 number	det
3	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 number	amod
4	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 cities	case
6	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 number	nmod
7	as	as	ADP	_	8 today	case
8	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 number	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Far fewer people, and no big towns or cities

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 fewer	advmod
2	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 people	amod
3	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 towns	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 towns	cc
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 towns	det
7	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 towns	amod
8	towns	town	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 people	conj
9	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 cities	cc
10	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 people	conj

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/61-how-we-got-here-the-big-steps-on-one-long-timeline/t9/