---
title: Why did pepper cost so much more in Europe than in India? — The spice trade and the Indian Ocean · tree and pragmatics
description: Why did pepper cost so much more in Europe than in India? Test 1 · ★ of lesson 29 «The spice trade and the Indian Ocean» 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 1 · ★ · The spice trade and the Indian Ocean

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why did pepper cost so much more in Europe than in India?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** do · **To what, where:** pepper cost, Europe

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 29 «The spice trade and the Indian Ocean» 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/29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t1:1
# text = Why did pepper cost so much more in Europe than in India?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	pepper	pepper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	much	much	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Europe	Europe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	India	India	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  | pepper cost |  | Europe |  | than India | tree rules |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Each trader along the way added a profit and a cost

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t1:o1:1
# text = Each trader along the way added a profit and a cost
1	Each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	trader	trader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	along	along	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	added	add	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	profit	profit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **add** *speech: assert* | past | each trader along the way | a profit and a cost |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent profit=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Indian pepper was mixed with gold dust

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t1:o2:1
# text = Indian pepper was mixed with gold dust
1	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	pepper	pepper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	mixed	mix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mix** | past · passive |  | Indian pepper |  |  |  | with gold dust | vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient with dust=Co-Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
European pepper was a different and much rarer plant

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t1:o3:1
# text = European pepper was a different and much rarer plant
1	European	European	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	pepper	pepper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	much	much	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	rarer	rare	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	_
9	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | European pepper |  |  |  |  | different *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was cheaper in Europe, not dearer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t1:o4:1
# text = It was cheaper in Europe, not dearer
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	cheaper	cheap	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Europe	Europe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	dearer	dear	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  | Europe |  | cheap *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/28-the-silk-road/e4/)
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