---
title: Identify the principal reason for which silk commanded a high price… — The Silk Road · tree and pragmatics
description: Identify the principal reason for which silk commanded a high price in the Roman world. Exam question 1 of lesson 28 «The Silk Road» of the geography course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Exam question 1 · The Silk Road

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Identify the principal reason for which silk commanded a high price in the Roman world.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you, silk · **What happens:** identify, command · **To what, where:** principal reason, high price, Roman world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 1 of lesson 28 «The Silk Road» of the geography 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/28-the-silk-road/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:e1:1
# text = Identify the principal reason for which silk commanded a high price in the Roman world.
1	Identify	identify	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obl	_	_
7	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **identify** | imperative | you *not said here* | the principal reason |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme |
| 2 | **command** | past | silk | a high price |  | the Roman world |  | for the principal reason | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.predicate»: agent=Agent price=Theme in world=Eventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Roman state levied no customs duties upon silk

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:e1:o1:1
# text = The Roman state levied no customs duties upon silk
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Roman	roman	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	state	state	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	levied	levy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	customs	custom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	compound	_	_
7	duties	duty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **levy** | past | the Roman state | customs duties |  |  |  | upon silk | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Chinese long preserved the secret of its manufacture

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:e1:o2:1
# text = The Chinese long preserved the secret of its manufacture
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	nsubj	_	_
3	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
4	preserved	preserve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	manufacture	manufacture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **preserve** | past | the Chinese | the secret of secret's manufacture |  |  |  | long *property* | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **manufacture** |  | secret |  |  |  |  |  | nom manufacture «act transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Silk was manufactured exclusively from precious metal

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:e1:o3:1
# text = Silk was manufactured exclusively from precious metal
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	manufactured	manufacture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	metal	metal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **manufacture** | past · passive |  | Silk |  | precious metal |  | exclusively *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: subject=Result from metal=Material |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Silk could be produced only during the winter months

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:e1:o4:1
# text = Silk could be produced only during the winter months
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	produced	produce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	during	during	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **produce** | could · passive |  | Silk |  |  | month |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

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**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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [The Silk Road, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/t11/)
- next →: [The Silk Road, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/e2/)
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