Exam question 2 · Games vs history: tech trees, barbarians, empty lands, won…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the circumstances of the Maya following the decline of their southern cities around the ninth century?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: circumstances, southern cities · What happens: follow, characteris, decline · To what, where: circumstances, decline

This is exam question 2 of lesson 80 «Games vs history: tech trees, barbarians, empty lands, wonders and falls» 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 circumstances	det
10	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 Maya	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Maya	det
13	Maya	Maya	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 circumstances	nmod
14	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 circumstances	acl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 decline	det
16	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 following	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	20 cities	case
18	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 cities	nmod:poss
19	southern	southern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 cities	amod
20	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 decline	nmod
21	around	around	ADP	_	24 century	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 century	det
23	ninth	ninth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 century	amod
24	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 cities	nmod
25	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the circumstances of the Maya	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	follow	gerund	the circumstances of the Maya not said here	the decline of circumstances's southern cities around the ninth century		vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent decline=Theme
4	decline		circumstances's southern cities around the ninth century			nom decline «process intransitive»: of=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

They disappeared entirely during the ninth century and left behind no descendants of any kind

The tree, 15 words

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	2 disappeared	nsubj
2	disappeared	disappear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 disappeared	advmod
4	during	during	ADP	_	7 century	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 century	det
6	ninth	ninth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 century	amod
7	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 disappeared	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 left	cc
9	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 disappeared	conj
10	behind	behind	ADP	_	12 descendants	case
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 descendants	det
12	descendants	descendant	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 left	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 kind	case
14	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 kind	det
15	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 descendants	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disappear	past	They				century	entirely property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	leave	participle	They not said here			no descendants of any kind			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent behind descendant=Location

Option 2

They were transported to Europe

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 transported	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 transported	aux:pass
3	transported	transport	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 Europe	case
5	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 transported	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	transport	past · passive		They	Europe				vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to europe=Destination

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Their cities never declined in any respect

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 cities	nmod:poss
2	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 declined	nsubj
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 declined	advmod
4	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 respect	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 respect	det
7	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 declined	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not decline	past	Their cities					in any respect	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in respect=Attribute

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Their descendants persisted, numbering millions and speaking Mayan languages to this day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 descendants	nmod:poss
2	descendants	descendant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 persisted	nsubj
3	persisted	persist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 numbering	punct
5	numbering	number	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 persisted	advcl
6	millions	million	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 numbering	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 speaking	cc
8	speaking	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 numbering	conj
9	Mayan	mayan	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 languages	amod
10	languages	language	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 speaking	obj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 day	case
12	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	13 day	det
13	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 speaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	persist	past	Their descendants			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	number	gerund	Their descendants not said here	millions		vn classify-29.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent million=Theme
3	speak speech: other	gerund	Their descendants not said here	Mayan languages	day	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/80-games-vs-history-tech-trees-barbarians-empty-lands-wonders-and-falls/e2/