---
title: Why could ideas and religions also travel the Silk Road? — Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk R… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why could ideas and religions also travel the Silk Road? Test 6 · ★★ of lesson 10 «Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius» of the history 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 6 · ★★ · Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why could ideas and religions also travel the Silk Road?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** ideas · **What happens:** travel · **To what, where:** Silk Road

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 · ★★ of lesson 10 «Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius» of the history 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/history/10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius:t6:1
# text = Why could ideas and religions also travel the Silk Road?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
3	ideas	idea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	religions	religion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
6	also	also	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	travel	travel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Silk	Silk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	Road	Road	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **travel** | could | ideas and religions | the Silk Road |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location road=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 talked, met people and carried books

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius:t6:o1:1
# text = Traders talked, met people and carried books
1	Traders	trader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | Traders |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **meet** | past | Traders *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **carry** | past | Traders *not said here* | books |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ideas flew by themselves

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius:t6:o2:1
# text = Ideas flew by themselves
1	Ideas	idea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | Ideas |  |  |  |  | by Ideas *= idea* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by themselves=Location |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody ever talked on the road

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius:t6:o3:1
# text = Nobody ever talked on the road
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
2	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	advmod	_	_
3	talked	talk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past | Nobody |  |  | the road | ever |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The emperor posted them by plane

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius:t6:o4:1
# text = The emperor posted them by plane
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	posted	post	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	plane	plane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **post** | past | the emperor | them *= they* |  |  |  | by plane | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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: [Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk R…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius/t5/)
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- ↑ back to [Ancient China: paper, silk, the Silk Road and Confucius](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/10-ancient-china-paper-silk-the-silk-road-and-confucius/)