Exam question 2 · Cities: why they grow, and how water and sewers made them…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the proportion of humanity residing in urban areas prior to the twenty-first century?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: humanity · What happens: follow, characteris, reside · To what, where: proportion, urban areas

This is exam question 2 of lesson 73 «Cities: why they grow, and how water and sewers made them safe» 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	10 proportion	det
10	proportion	proportion	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 humanity	case
12	humanity	humanity	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 proportion	nmod
13	residing	reside	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 humanity	acl
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 areas	case
15	urban	urban	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 areas	amod
16	areas	area	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 residing	obl
17	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	23 century	case
18	to	to	ADP	_	17 prior	fixed
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 century	det
20	twenty	twenty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	22 first	compound
21	-	-	PUNCT	_	20 twenty	punct
22	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	23 century	amod
23	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 residing	obl
24	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the proportion of humanity			of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	reside	gerund	humanity not said here		urban areas	century		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in area=Location

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 was nil until the nineteenth century

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 nil	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 nil	cop
3	nil	nil	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	until	until	ADP	_	7 century	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 century	det
6	nineteenth	nineteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 century	amod
7	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nil	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	nil			century		tree rules

Option 2

It was precisely one half from the year eighteen hundred

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	5 half	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 half	cop
3	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	5 half	advmod
4	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 half	nummod
5	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	root	root
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 year	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 year	det
8	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 half	nmod
9	eighteen	eighteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 hundred	compound
10	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 year	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	one half			year	precisely property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It was a minority, the majority being reached only in two thousand and seven

The tree, 14 words

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 minority	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 minority	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 minority	det
4	minority	minority	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 reached	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 majority	det
7	majority	majority	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reached	nsubj:pass
8	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 reached	aux:pass
9	reached	reach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 minority	acl:relcl
10	only	only	ADV	_	13 thousand	advmod
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 thousand	case
12	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 thousand	compound
13	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 reached	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 seven	cc
15	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 thousand	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a minority					tree rules
2	reach	gerund · passive	a minority not said here	the majority		two thousand			vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme

Option 4

It was the overwhelming majority since antiquity, as the records of Rome attest

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	5 majority	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 majority	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 majority	det
4	overwhelming	overwhelming	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 majority	amod
5	majority	majority	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	since	since	ADP	_	7 antiquity	case
7	antiquity	antiquity	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 majority	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 attest	punct
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 attest	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 records	det
11	records	record	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 attest	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 Rome	case
13	Rome	Rome	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 records	nmod
14	attest	attest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 majority	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	is a	past	It	the overwhelming majority	since antiquity	tree rules
2	attest	present	the records of Rome			tree rules
3	record			Rome		nom record «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/73-cities-why-they-grow-and-how-sewers-made-them-safe/e2/