Test 9 · Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great…

Why do the oracle bones matter so much to historians?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: oracle bones · What happens: do, matter · To what, where: much

This is test 9 of lesson 9 «Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall» 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	2 do	advmod
2	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 matter	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bones	det
4	oracle	oracle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bones	compound
5	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 matter	nsubj
6	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	so	so	ADV	_	8 much	advmod
8	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 matter	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 historians	case
10	historians	historian	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 much	nmod
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 matter	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	the oracle bones not said here						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	matter	present	the oracle bones	much				to historians	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

They show a map of China

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 show	nsubj
2	show	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 map	det
4	map	map	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 show	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 China	case
6	China	China	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 map	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	They	a map of China					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent map=Recipient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They hold the oldest known Chinese writing

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 hold	nsubj
2	hold	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 writing	det
4	oldest	old	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 writing	amod
5	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 writing	amod
6	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 writing	amod
7	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hold	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	They	the oldest known Chinese writing					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent writing=Theme
2	know	participle							vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

They are the bones of a real dragon from the river

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	4 bones	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 bones	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bones	det
4	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 dragon	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 dragon	det
7	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 dragon	amod
8	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bones	nmod
9	from	from	ADP	_	11 river	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 river	det
11	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dragon	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	They	the bones				of a real dragon from the river	tree rules

Option 4

They were made of solid gold from the emperor's mines

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 made	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 made	aux:pass
3	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 gold	case
5	solid	solid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 gold	amod
6	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 made	obl
7	from	from	ADP	_	11 mines	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 emperor	det
9	emperor	emperor	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 mines	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 emperor	case
11	mines	mine	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 made	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	past · passive		They		the emperor's mines		of solid gold	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V PP»: subject=Product from mine=Material

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/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/t9/