---
title: Zheng He's biggest ships were larger than Columbus's. Do historians… — The spice trade and the Indian Ocean · tree and pragmatics
description: Zheng He's biggest ships were larger than Columbus's. Do historians agree how large? Test 10 · ★ 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 right.
---

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# Test 10 · ★ · The spice trade and the Indian Ocean

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Zheng He's biggest ships were larger than Columbus's. Do historians agree how large?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Zheng, historians · **What happens:** be, agree

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

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Zheng He's biggest ships were larger than Columbus's.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t10:1
# text = Zheng He's biggest ships were larger than Columbus's.
1	Zheng	Zheng	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	biggest	big	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Columbus	Columbus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Zheng |  |  |  |  | than Columbus; large *property* | 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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* Do historians agree how large?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t10:2
# text = Do historians agree how large?
1	Do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	historians	historian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	agree	agree	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
5	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **agree** *speech: agree* | present · do-support | historians |  |  |  |  | large *property* | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, they argue about the exact size

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t10:o1:1
# text = No, they argue about the exact size
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	argue	argue	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	exact	exact	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | present | they |  |  |  |  | about the exact size | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent about size=Topic |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, Zheng He never had any ships at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t10:o2:1
# text = No, Zheng He never had any ships at all
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	Zheng	Zheng	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	advcl	_	_
4	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **have** | past | Zheng | any ships |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ship=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, they were exactly 1 kilometre long

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t10:o3:1
# text = Yes, they were exactly 1 kilometre long
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	1	1	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	kilometre	kilometre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | they | 1 kilometre |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, they were smaller than rowing boats

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean:t10:o4:1
# text = Yes, they were smaller than rowing boats
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	rowing	row	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	advcl	_	_
8	boats	boat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | they |  |  |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **row** | gerund | they *not said here* | boats |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent boat=Location |

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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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