---
title: Long droughts hit a big city with too many people. What lesson does… — The Maya · tree and pragmatics
description: Long droughts hit a big city with too many people. What lesson does the Maya story teach? Test 8 · ★★ of lesson 18 «The Maya» 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 wrong.
---

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# Test 8 · ★★ · The Maya

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Long droughts hit a big city with too many people. What lesson does the Maya story teach?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Long droughts, lesson · **What happens:** hit, do · **To what, where:** big city, Maya story teach

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This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 18 «The Maya» 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/18-the-maya/#t8).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Long droughts hit a big city with too many people.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:18-the-maya:t8:1
# text = Long droughts hit a big city with too many people.
1	Long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	droughts	drought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hit** | past | Long droughts | a big city |  |  |  | with many people | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent city=Patient with people=Instrument |

<!-- .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 lesson does the Maya story teach?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:18-the-maya:t8:2
# text = What lesson does the Maya story teach?
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	lesson	lesson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	Maya	Maya	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
6	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	teach	teach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present | what lesson | the Maya story teach |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent teach=Eventuality |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Build taller pyramids and pray harder to the rain god

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:18-the-maya:t8:o1:1
# text = Build taller pyramids and pray harder to the rain god
1	Build	build	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	pyramids	pyramid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
6	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | imperative | you *not said here* | taller pyramids |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset pyramid=Product |
| 2 | **pray** | present | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Never play ball games

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:18-the-maya:t8:o2:1
# text = Never play ball games
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
2	play	play	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	games	game	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **play** | imperative | you *not said here* | ball games |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent game=Theme |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Look after the land and water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:18-the-maya:t8:o3:1
# text = Look after the land and water
1	Look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	after	after	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  | after the land and water |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Burn more books

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:18-the-maya:t8:o4:1
# text = Burn more books
1	Burn	burn	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burn** | imperative | you *not said here* | more books |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent book=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: [The Maya, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/18-the-maya/t7/)
- next →: [The Maya, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/18-the-maya/t9/)
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