Test 11 · ★★ · When civilizations meet: conquest, colonies and freedom, s…

What would happen if historians read only Spanish letters about the conquest of Mexico?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: historians · What happens: happen, read · To what, where: Spanish letters

This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 76 «When civilizations meet: conquest, colonies and freedom, seen from both sides» 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 read	mark
5	historians	historian	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 read	nsubj
6	read	read	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	only	only	ADV	_	9 letters	advmod
8	Spanish	Spanish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 letters	amod
9	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 read	obl
10	about	about	ADP	_	12 conquest	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 conquest	det
12	conquest	conquest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 letters	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 Mexico	case
14	Mexico	Mexico	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 conquest	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	read a condition, not said to happen	present	historians	Spanish letters about the conquest of Mexico					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

They would hear only the Aztec side

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hear	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 hear	aux
3	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	7 side	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 side	det
6	Aztec	Aztec	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 side	compound
7	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hear	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	would	They	the Aztec side					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2

Nothing, all sources say the same

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 say	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 sources	det
4	sources	source	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 say	nsubj
5	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 same	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 say	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Nothing	the same					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent same=Topic

Option 3

They would know everything perfectly, because the Spanish wrote down every detail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 know	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 know	aux
3	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	everything	everything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	3 know	obj
5	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	3 know	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 wrote	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 wrote	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Spanish	det
9	Spanish	Spanish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 wrote	nsubj
10	wrote	write	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 know	parataxis
11	down	down	ADP	_	10 wrote	compound:prt
12	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	13 detail	det
13	detail	detail	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 wrote	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	would	They	everything				perfectly property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer everything=Stimulus
2	write down	past	the Spanish	every detail					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent detail=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They would hear mostly one side; the Florentine Codex adds Aztec memories

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hear	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 hear	aux
3	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	mostly	mostly	ADV	_	5 one	advmod
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 side	nummod
6	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hear	obj
7	;	;	PUNCT	_	11 adds	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Codex	det
9	Florentine	Florentine	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Codex	compound
10	Codex	Codex	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 adds	nsubj
11	adds	add	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 hear	conj
12	Aztec	Aztec	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 adds	obj
13	memories	memory	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 adds	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	would	They	one side					vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer side=Stimulus
2	add speech: assert	present	the Florentine Codex	Aztec					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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/76-when-civilizations-meet-seen-from-both-sides/t11/