Exam question 2 · Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the urban arrangements of the Indus civilisation?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, arrange · To what, where: urban arrangements, Indus civilisation

This is exam question 2 of lesson 7 «Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 arrangements	det
10	urban	urban	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 arrangements	amod
11	arrangements	arrangement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 civilisation	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 civilisation	det
14	Indus	Indus	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 civilisation	compound
15	civilisation	civilisation	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 arrangements	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the urban arrangements of the Indus civilisation	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	arrange		the Indus civilisation		nom arrangement «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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

Towers of glass and iron

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 glass	case
3	glass	glass	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Towers	nmod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 iron	cc
5	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 glass	conj

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

Option 2

Wooden huts disposed at random

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wooden	wooden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 huts	amod
2	huts	hut	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	disposed	dispose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 huts	acl
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 random	case
5	random	random	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 disposed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dispose	participle		Wooden huts not said here		random			vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Streets laid out upon a grid, with standard bricks and covered drains

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Streets	street	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	laid	lay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Streets	acl
3	out	out	ADP	_	2 laid	compound:prt
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 grid	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 grid	det
6	grid	grid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 laid	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 bricks	punct
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 bricks	case
9	standard	standard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bricks	amod
10	bricks	brick	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Streets	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 drains	cc
12	covered	cover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 drains	amod
13	drains	drain	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Streets	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay out	participle		Streets and standard bricks and covered drains not said here		a grid			vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent upon grid=Destination
2	cover	participle							vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Circular streets without drainage of any kind

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Circular	circular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 streets	amod
2	streets	street	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	without	without	ADP	_	4 drainage	case
4	drainage	drainage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 streets	nmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 kind	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 kind	det
7	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 drainage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drain		any kind						nom drainage «act intransitive»: of=agent

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.

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