---
title: Ascertain the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenou… — Native peoples of North America · tree and pragmatics
description: Ascertain the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenous peoples following contact with Europeans. Exam question 3 of lesson 17 «Native peoples of North America» of the history course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; M
---

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# Exam question 3 · Native peoples of North America

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ascertain the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenous peoples following contact with Europeans.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you, indigenous peoples · **What happens:** ascertain, follow, cause · **To what, where:** principal cause, contact, great mortality

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 3 of lesson 17 «Native peoples of North America» of the history course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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/17-native-peoples-of-north-america/#e3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:17-native-peoples-of-north-america:e3:1
# text = Ascertain the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenous peoples following contact with Europeans.
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	mortality	mortality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	among	among	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	indigenous	indigenous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	peoples	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
13	contact	contact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Europeans	European	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ascertain** | imperative | you *not said here* | the principal cause of the great mortality among indigenous peoples |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic |
| 2 | **follow** | gerund | indigenous peoples *not said here* | contact |  |  |  | with Europeans | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent contact=Theme |
| 3 | **cause** |  |  | the great mortality among indigenous peoples |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
Volcanic eruptions

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:17-native-peoples-of-north-america:e3:o1:1
# text = Volcanic eruptions
1	Volcanic	volcanic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	eruptions	eruption	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Diseases such as smallpox, against which they had no resistance

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:17-native-peoples-of-north-america:e3:o2:1
# text = Diseases such as smallpox, against which they had no resistance
1	Diseases	disease	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
2	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	4	case	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	2	fixed	_	_
4	smallpox	smallpox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obl	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	resistance	resistance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Diseases such smallpox | no resistance |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent resistance=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The failure of the bison herds alone, which left every nation starving

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:17-native-peoples-of-north-america:e3:o3:1
# text = The failure of the bison herds alone, which left every nation starving
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	failure	failure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	bison	bison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	herds	herd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
7	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	nation	nation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | the failure of the bison herds | every nation |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **starve** | gerund | every nation *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fail** |  | the bison herds |  |  |  |  |  | nom failure «act intransitive»: of=agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A renewed ice age

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:17-native-peoples-of-north-america:e3:o4:1
# text = A renewed ice age
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	renewed	renew	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
3	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **renew** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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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