Exam question 4 · What trade carried: tomatoes, tea, horses, words, religion…

Ascertain the principal means whereby Islam was conveyed to the Indonesian archipelago.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: ascertain, mean, convey · To what, where: principal, Islam, Indonesian archipelago · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 71 «What trade carried: tomatoes, tea, horses, words, religions and diseases» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 means	csubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	whereby	whereby	ADV	PronType=Int	8 conveyed	advmod
6	Islam	Islam	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 conveyed	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 conveyed	aux:pass
8	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 means	ccomp
9	to	to	ADP	_	12 archipelago	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 archipelago	det
11	Indonesian	indonesian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 archipelago	amod
12	archipelago	archipelago	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 conveyed	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	infinitive	the principal			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent principal=Topic
2	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	convey	past · passive	Islam	the Indonesian archipelago	whereby property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Topic to archipelago=Recipient

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

Through the Spanish voyages of the sixteenth century

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Through	through	ADP	_	4 voyages	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 voyages	det
3	Spanish	Spanish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 voyages	amod
4	voyages	voyage	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 century	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 century	det
7	sixteenth	sixteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 century	amod
8	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 voyages	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	voyage			the sixteenth century					nom voyage «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Through a single military conquest by Arabian armies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Through	through	ADP	_	5 conquest	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 conquest	det
3	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 conquest	amod
4	military	military	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 conquest	amod
5	conquest	conquest	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 armies	case
7	Arabian	Arabian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 armies	amod
8	armies	army	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 conquest	nmod

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

Option 3

Through radio broadcasts in the twentieth century

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Through	through	ADP	_	3 broadcasts	case
2	radio	radio	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 broadcasts	compound
3	broadcasts	broadcast	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 century	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 century	det
6	twentieth	twentieth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 century	amod
7	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 broadcasts	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Through merchants and teachers from the thirteenth century onwards

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Through	through	ADP	_	2 merchants	case
2	merchants	merchant	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 teachers	cc
4	teachers	teacher	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 merchants	conj
5	from	from	ADP	_	8 century	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 century	det
7	thirteenth	thirteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 century	amod
8	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 merchants	nmod
9	onwards	onwards	ADV	_	2 merchants	advmod

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/71-what-trade-carried-tomatoes-tea-horses-words-and-diseases/e4/