Test 5 · ★★★ · Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers

If India had never invented zero as a number, what would be harder today?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: India, number · What happens: not invent, be · To what, where: zero

This is test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 8 «Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers» 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	5 invented	mark
2	India	India	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 invented	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 invented	aux
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 invented	advmod
5	invented	invent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	zero	zero	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 invented	obj
7	as	as	ADP	_	9 number	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 number	det
9	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invented	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 harder	punct
11	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	14 harder	nsubj
12	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 harder	aux
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 harder	cop
14	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 number	acl:relcl
15	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invented	obl:unmarked
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 invented	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not invent	past · perfect	India	zero			today	as a number	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent zero=Result as number=Attribute
2	is	would	a number					hard property	tree rules

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 · ✓ the right answer

Writing big numbers and doing sums

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Writing	write	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 numbers	amod
3	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Writing	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 doing	cc
5	doing	do	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Writing	conj
6	sums	sum	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 doing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	gerund		big numbers					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Theme
2	do	gerund		sums					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sum=Eventuality

Option 2

Playing football

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Playing	play	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	root	root
2	football	football	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Playing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	play	gerund		football					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent football=Theme

Option 3

Building pillars

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Building	building	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pillars	compound
2	pillars	pillar	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 4

Growing pepper

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Growing	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 pepper	amod
2	pepper	pepper	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	gerund							vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/t5/