Test 8 · ★ · Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms

What would happen if someone found a long Indus text written next to a known language?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: someone · What happens: happen, find, write, know · To what, where: long Indus text, known language

This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 7 «Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms» 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	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 found	mark
5	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	6 found	nsubj
6	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 text	det
8	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 text	amod
9	Indus	Indus	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 text	compound
10	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 found	obj
11	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 text	acl
12	next	next	ADV	_	11 written	advmod
13	to	to	ADP	_	16 language	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 language	det
15	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 language	amod
16	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 written	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	happen	would					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	find a condition, not said to happen	past	someone	a long Indus text			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent text=Topic
3	write	participle		a long Indus text not said here	a known language	next property	vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V PP.recipient PP.topic»: agent=Agent to language=Recipient
4	know	participle					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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

Nothing, no writing can ever be read

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	8 read	nsubj:pass
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 writing	punct
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 writing	det
4	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Nothing	conj
5	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 read	aux
6	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	8 read	advmod
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 read	aux:pass
8	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	can · passive		Nothing			ever		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It might help us read the Indus writing

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 help	nsubj
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 help	aux
3	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 help	obj
5	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 help	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 writing	det
7	Indus	Indus	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 writing	compound
8	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 read	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	might	It	us					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent we=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	read	infinitive	us not said here	the Indus writing					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent writing=Topic

Option 3

All the cities would come back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 cities	det:predet
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 cities	det
3	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 come	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 come	aux
5	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	back	back	ADV	_	5 come	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come back	would	all cities						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

It would prove the Indus people were Romans

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 prove	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 prove	aux
3	prove	prove	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 people	det
5	Indus	Indus	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 people	compound
6	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prove	obj
7	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 Romans	cop
8	Romans	Roman	PROPN	Number=Plur	6 people	appos

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	would	It	the Indus people					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Theme
2	is a	past		Romans					tree rules

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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