Test 1 · ★ · Why some places grew rich

Noah's dad: "This Diamond bloke reckons geography explains everything, case closed." What would a careful historian say?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Diamond bloke, dad, careful historian · What happens: reckon, explain, close, say · To what, where: geography, everything · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 72 «Why some places grew rich» 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

Sentence 1: Noah's dad: "This Diamond bloke reckons geography explains everything, case closed."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Noah	Noah	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 dad	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Noah	case
3	dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 explains	nsubj
4	:	:	PUNCT	_	9 reckons	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 reckons	punct
6	This	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	8 bloke	det
7	Diamond	Diamond	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 bloke	compound
8	bloke	bloke	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reckons	nsubj
9	reckons	reckon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 dad	acl:relcl
10	geography	geography	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reckons	obj
11	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	everything	everything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	11 explains	obj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 case	punct
14	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 everything	conj
15	closed	close	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 everything	acl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	11 explains	punct
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 explains	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	reckon in a quote	present	this Diamond bloke	geography	vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent geography=Attribute
2	explain speech: assert in a quote	present	Noah's dad	everything	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent everything=Topic
3	close in a quote	participle			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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.

Sentence 2: What would a careful historian say?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 say	obj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 say	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 historian	det
4	careful	careful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 historian	amod
5	historian	historian	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 say	nsubj
6	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	a careful historian						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

Geography matters a lot, but choices and politics matter too, and it is debated

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Geography	geography	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 matters	nsubj
2	matters	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 lot	det
4	lot	lot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 matters	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 matter	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	10 matter	cc
7	choices	choice	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 matter	nsubj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 politics	cc
9	politics	politics	NOUN	Number=Ptan	7 choices	conj
10	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 matters	parataxis
11	too	too	ADV	_	10 matter	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 debated	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 debated	cc
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 debated	nsubj:pass
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 debated	aux:pass
16	debated	debate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 matters	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	matter	present	Geography	a lot	vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	matter	present	choices and politics		vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
3	debate	present · passive		Geography	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent

Option 2

Only the weather decides history, not maps

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	4 decides	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 weather	det
3	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 decides	nsubj
4	decides	decide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 decides	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 maps	punct
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 maps	advmod
8	maps	map	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 decides	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decide	present	the weather	history				maps obl	vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent history=Topic

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Your dad's right: geography explains every single thing, so the case really is closed

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 dad	nmod:poss
2	dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 right	nsubj
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 right	cop
4	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	:	:	PUNCT	_	7 explains	punct
6	geography	geography	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 explains	nsubj
7	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 right	advcl
8	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 thing	det
9	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 thing	amod
10	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 explains	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 closed	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	17 closed	advmod
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 case	det
14	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 closed	nsubj:pass
15	really	really	ADV	_	17 closed	advmod
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 closed	aux:pass
17	closed	close	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 right	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	Your dad		right property	tree rules
2	explain speech: assert	present	geography	every single thing		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic
3	close	present · passive		the case		vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Geography explains nothing at all about history

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Geography	geography	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 explains	nsubj
2	explains	explain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 explains	obj
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 all	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 nothing	nmod
6	about	about	ADP	_	7 history	case
7	history	history	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nothing	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	present	Geography	nothing		all		about history	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic

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/72-why-some-places-grew-rich/t1/