Exam question 3 · Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the script of the Indus civilisation.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, script · To what, where: response, script, Indus civilisation

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 script	det
11	script	script	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	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 script	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the script of the Indus civilisation		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus script=Experiencer
4	script			the Indus civilisation		nom script «communication 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

It is identical with Greek

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 identical	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 identical	cop
3	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 Greek	case
5	Greek	Greek	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 identical	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					with Greek; identical property	tree rules

Option 2

It was deciphered by means of the Rosetta Stone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 deciphered	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 deciphered	aux:pass
3	deciphered	decipher	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 means	nsubj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 means	case
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 Stone	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Stone	det
8	Rosetta	Rosetta	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Stone	compound
9	Stone	Stone	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decipher	past · passive		It					tree rules
2	mean	present						of the Rosetta Stone	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It has not hitherto been deciphered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 deciphered	nsubj:pass
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 deciphered	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 deciphered	advmod
4	hitherto	hitherto	ADV	_	6 deciphered	advmod
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 deciphered	aux:pass
6	deciphered	decipher	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not decipher	present · perfect · passive		It				hitherto property	tree rules

Option 4

It was never employed upon seals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 employed	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 employed	aux:pass
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 employed	advmod
4	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 seals	case
6	seals	seal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not employ	past · passive		It				upon seals	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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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