Test 6 · ★★★ · Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers

Why did Roman ladies pay a lot for Indian pepper?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Roman ladies · What happens: pay · To what, where: lot

This is test 6 · ★★★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 pay	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 ladies	aux
3	Roman	roman	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 ladies	amod
4	ladies	lady	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 pay	nsubj
5	pay	pay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 lot	det
7	lot	lot	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pay	obj
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 pepper	case
9	Indian	Indian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 pepper	amod
10	pepper	pepper	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pay	obl
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 pay	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	present	Roman ladies	a lot				for Indian pepper	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent lot=Asset for pepper=Theme

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

Pepper was banned in India

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pepper	pepper	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 banned	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 banned	aux:pass
3	banned	ban	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 India	case
5	India	India	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 banned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ban	past · passive		Pepper		India			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Pepper grew everywhere in Italy, so it was a fashion

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pepper	pepper	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grew	nsubj
2	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	PronType=Tot	2 grew	advmod
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 Italy	case
5	Italy	Italy	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 grew	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 fashion	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	11 fashion	advmod
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 fashion	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 fashion	cop
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 fashion	det
11	fashion	fashion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grew	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	past	Pepper			Italy		everywhere property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in italy=Location
2	is a	past	Pepper	a fashion					tree rules

Option 3

It was used as money for soldiers

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 used	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 used	aux:pass
3	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 money	case
5	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 used	obl
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 soldiers	case
7	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 used	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	past · passive		It				as money; for soldiers	vn spend_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Duration as money=Attribute

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It came from very far and was rare in Rome

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	2 came	nsubj
2	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 far	case
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 far	advmod
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 came	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 rare	cc
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 rare	cop
8	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 came	conj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 Rome	case
10	Rome	Rome	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 rare	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past	It						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from far=Initial_Location
2	is	past				Rome		rare property	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.

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