---
title: Did traders in 1300 call it the Silk Road? — The Silk Road · tree and pragmatics
description: Did traders in 1300 call it the Silk Road? Test 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 right.
---

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# Test 1 · The Silk Road

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Did traders in 1300 call it the Silk Road?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** 1300 · **What happens:** do, call · **To what, where:** traders, it · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is test 1 of lesson 28 «The Silk Road» of the geography 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/28-the-silk-road/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t1:1
# text = Did traders in 1300 call it the Silk Road?
1	Did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	traders	trader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
3	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	1300	1300	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	nsubj	_	_
5	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	Silk	Silk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	Road	Road	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  | traders |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trader=Eventuality |
| 2 | **call** | present | 1300 | it |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, it was painted on every signpost

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t1:o1:1
# text = Yes, it was painted on every signpost
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	painted	paint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	signpost	signpost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **paint** | past · passive |  | it |  | every signpost |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: subject=Theme on signpost=Destination |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, the name was invented in 1877

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t1:o2:1
# text = No, the name was invented in 1877
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	1877	1877	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invent** | past · passive |  | the name |  | 1877 |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, they called it the Spice Highway

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t1:o3:1
# text = No, they called it the Spice Highway
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Spice	Spice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Highway	Highway	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | they | it |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, Marco Polo named it in his book

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t1:o4:1
# text = Yes, Marco Polo named it in his book
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	Marco	Marco	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	Polo	Polo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	_
5	named	name	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **name** | past | Marco | it |  | Marco's book |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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.

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- ← previous: [Resources and what countries trade, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/27-resources-and-what-countries-trade/e4/)
- next →: [The Silk Road, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/t2/)
- ↑ back to [The Silk Road](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/)