---
title: A school tablet 4,000 years old has a mistake on it. What does that… — Mesopotamia: the first cities and writ… · tree and pragmatics
description: A school tablet 4,000 years old has a mistake on it. What does that show? Test 5 of lesson 3 «Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing» 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 5 · Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A school tablet 4,000 years old has a mistake on it. What does that show?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** school tablet, that · **What happens:** have, show · **To what, where:** mistake

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 of lesson 3 «Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing» 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/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/#t5).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A school tablet 4,000 years old has a mistake on it.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing:t5:1
# text = A school tablet 4,000 years old has a mistake on it.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	tablet	tablet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	4,000	4,000	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
7	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | a school tablet | a mistake |  | mistake |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mistake=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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What does that show?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing:t5:2
# text = What does that show?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
4	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | present · do-support | that |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Writing was never taught to anyone, so they guessed

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing:t5:o1:1
# text = Writing was never taught to anyone, so they guessed
1	Writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	taught	teach	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	4	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **teach** *speech: other* | past · passive | anyone | Writing |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **guess** | past | they |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Children learning to write made mistakes like us

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing:t5:o2:1
# text = Children learning to write made mistakes like us
1	Children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	learning	learn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
6	mistakes	mistake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | gerund | Children |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **write** | to-infinitive | Children *not said here* | made mistakes |  |  |  | like us | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mistake=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The teacher could not write at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing:t5:o3:1
# text = The teacher could not write at all
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	write	write	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **write** | could | the teacher |  |  | all |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Clay cannot hold writing well

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing:t5:o4:1
# text = Clay cannot hold writing well
1	Clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	writing	write	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **hold** | can | Clay |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **write** | gerund | Clay *not said here* |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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