---
title: What would happen to Samarkand if caravans stopped coming? — The Silk Road · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to Samarkand if caravans stopped coming? Test 9 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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# Test 9 · The Silk Road

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to Samarkand if caravans stopped coming?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** caravans · **What happens:** happen, stop, come · **To what, where:** Samarkand

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This is test 9 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/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t9:1
# text = What would happen to Samarkand if caravans stopped coming?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Samarkand	Samarkand	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	caravans	caravan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
9	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  | Samarkand |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stop** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | caravans |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **come** | gerund | caravans *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would grow much richer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t9:o1:1
# text = It would grow much richer
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	richer	rich	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | It |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would turn into a sea port

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t9:o2:1
# text = It would turn into a sea port
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	port	port	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | It |  |  | a sea port |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into port=Trajectory |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing at all, because it never depended on trade

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t9:o3:1
# text = Nothing at all, because it never depended on trade
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	depended	depend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **depend** | past | Nothing |  |  |  |  | on trade | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent on trade=Theme |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would lose much of its trade and wealth

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:28-the-silk-road:t9:o4:1
# text = It would lose much of its trade and wealth
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	wealth	wealth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | would | It | much of its trade and wealth |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent much=Eventuality |
| 2 | **trade** |  | its *= it* |  |  |  |  |  | nom trade «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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