---
title: How can trade spread a disease? — The Silk Road · tree and pragmatics
description: How can trade spread a disease? Test 5 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 5 · The Silk Road

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How can trade spread a disease?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** trade · **What happens:** spread · **To what, where:** disease

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 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/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t5:1
# text = How can trade spread a disease?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	disease	disease	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | can | trade | a disease |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location disease=Theme |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Traders, animals and goods carry germs and fleas between places

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t5:o1:1
# text = Traders, animals and goods carry germs and fleas between places
1	Traders	trader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	conj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	goods	goods	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	1	conj	_	_
6	carry	carry	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	germs	germ	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	fleas	flea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	between	between	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | present | Traders and animals and goods | germs and fleas |  |  |  | between places | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent germ=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Silk itself causes the illness

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t5:o2:1
# text = Silk itself causes the illness
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	1	nmod:unmarked	_	_
3	causes	cause	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cause** | present | Silk  Silk | the illness |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition illness=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Diseases travel only by sea, never with traders

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t5:o3:1
# text = Diseases travel only by sea, never with traders
1	Diseases	disease	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	travel	travel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	traders	trader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **travel** | present | Diseases | sea |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme sea=Trajectory |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Trade makes the air in markets poisonous, and people breathe it in

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t5:o4:1
# text = Trade makes the air in markets poisonous, and people breathe it in
1	Trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	markets	market	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	poisonous	poisonous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	breathe	breathe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | Trade | the air |  | markets |  | poisonous *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset air=Product |
| 2 | **breathe** | present | people | air |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «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: [The Silk Road, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/t4/)
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