---
title: A friend says every Commonwealth country was once a British colony.… — Today's world: the UN, the EU and the… · tree and pragmatics
description: A friend says every Commonwealth country was once a British colony. What is wrong? Test 3 of lesson 38 «Today's world: the UN, the EU and the Commonwealth» 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 
---

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# Test 3 · Today's world: the UN, the EU and the Commonwealth

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A friend says every Commonwealth country was once a British colony. What is wrong?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** friend, Commonwealth country · **What happens:** say, be · **To what, where:** British colony · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 of lesson 38 «Today's world: the UN, the EU and the Commonwealth» 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/38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth/#t3).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A friend says every Commonwealth country was once a British colony.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth:t3:1
# text = A friend says every Commonwealth country was once a British colony.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
5	Commonwealth	Commonwealth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	11	advmod	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	colony	colony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | a friend |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | every Commonwealth country | a British colony |  |  |  | once *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:* What is wrong?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth:t3:2
# text = What is wrong?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only France is in it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth:t3:o1:1
# text = Only France is in it
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	France	France	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | France |  |  | it |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=Location |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, every member was a colony

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth:t3:o2:1
# text = Nothing, every member was a colony
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	det	_	_
4	member	member	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	colony	colony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Nothing | a colony |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Commonwealth has no members at all, only a flag

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth:t3:o3:1
# text = The Commonwealth has no members at all, only a flag
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Commonwealth	Commonwealth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	members	member	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	flag	flag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the Commonwealth | no members and a flag |  | all |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent member=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Some, like Rwanda and Mozambique, never were

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth:t3:o4:1
# text = Some, like Rwanda and Mozambique, never were
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Rwanda	Rwanda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	Mozambique	Mozambique	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **be** | past | some Rwanda and Mozambique |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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- ↑ back to [Today's world: the UN, the EU and the Commonwealth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/38-todays-world-the-un-the-eu-and-the-commonwealth/)