---
title: Why did sea routes take over from the Silk Road? — The Silk Road · tree and pragmatics
description: Why did sea routes take over from the Silk Road? Test 10 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/t10/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Geography](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/) / [The Silk Road](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/) / t10

# Test 10 · The Silk Road

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why did sea routes take over from the Silk Road?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** sea routes · **What happens:** take over · **To what, where:** Silk Road

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 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/#t10).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t10:1
# text = Why did sea routes take over from the Silk Road?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	routes	route	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	take	take	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	over	over	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Silk	Silk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	Road	Road	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take over** | present | sea routes |  |  | the Silk Road |  | over *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from road=Source |

<!-- .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 -->
The Silk Road was flooded

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t10:o1:1
# text = The Silk Road was flooded
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Silk	Silk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Road	Road	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	flooded	flood	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flood** | past · passive |  | the Silk Road |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ships could carry far more goods more cheaply

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t10:o2:1
# text = Ships could carry far more goods more cheaply
1	Ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	goods	goods	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	3	obj	_	_
7	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
8	cheaply	cheaply	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | could | Ships | more goods |  |  |  | cheaply *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goods=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Camels were banned by the Pope in all Christian lands

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t10:o3:1
# text = Camels were banned by the Pope in all Christian lands
1	Camels	camel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	banned	ban	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Pope	Pope	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
9	Christian	Christian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	lands	land	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ban** | past · passive | the Pope | Camels |  | all Christian lands |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Theme |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sea routes became shorter after 1500

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t10:o4:1
# text = The sea routes became shorter after 1500
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	routes	route	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	xcomp	_	_
6	after	after	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	1500	1500	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | the sea routes |  |  |  | after 1500 | short *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The Silk Road, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/t9/)
- next →: [The Silk Road, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/t11/)
- ↑ back to [The Silk Road](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/)