---
title: Why did Britain's sugar boycott put pressure on slave owners? — Slavery and its abolition · tree and pragmatics
description: Why did Britain's sugar boycott put pressure on slave owners? Test 2 · ★ of lesson 31 «Slavery and its abolition» 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 2 · ★ · Slavery and its abolition

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why did Britain's sugar boycott put pressure on slave owners?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** sugar boycott, Britain · **What happens:** do, put, boycott · **To what, where:** sugar boycott, pressure, slave owners

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This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 31 «Slavery and its abolition» 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/31-slavery-and-its-abolition/#t2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:31-slavery-and-its-abolition:t2:1
# text = Why did Britain's sugar boycott put pressure on slave owners?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	boycott	boycott	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	pressure	pressure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	owners	owner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  | Britain's sugar boycott |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boycott=Eventuality |
| 2 | **put** | participle | Britain's sugar boycott *not said here* | pressure |  | slave owners |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent pressure=Theme on owner=Destination |
| 3 | **boycott** |  | Britain |  |  |  |  |  | nom boycott «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It made sugar sweeter

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:31-slavery-and-its-abolition:t2:o1:1
# text = It made sugar sweeter
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	sweeter	sweet	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | It | sugar |  |  |  | sweet *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material sugar=Product |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sugar became illegal everywhere in the world at once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:31-slavery-and-its-abolition:t2:o2:1
# text = Sugar became illegal everywhere in the world at once
1	Sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	illegal	illegal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
4	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	2	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | Sugar |  |  |  |  | in the world *result*; everywhere, illegal *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in world=Result |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It had no effect on anyone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:31-slavery-and-its-abolition:t2:o3:1
# text = It had no effect on anyone
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	effect	effect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	2	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fewer people bought their sugar, so they earned less

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:31-slavery-and-its-abolition:t2:o4:1
# text = Fewer people bought their sugar, so they earned less
1	Fewer	few	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	amod	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	sugar	sugar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	earned	earn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** | past | Fewer people | people's sugar |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sugar=Theme |
| 2 | **earn** | past | people |  |  |  |  | less *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: 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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