---
title: Mei says China kept silk secret for exactly 3,000 years. What is wis… — China: five thousand years and the old… · tree and pragmatics
description: Mei says China kept silk secret for exactly 3,000 years. What is wiser to say? Test 10 of lesson 51 «China: five thousand years and the oldest dynasties» 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 righ
---

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# Test 10 · China: five thousand years and the oldest dynasties

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mei says China kept silk secret for exactly 3,000 years. What is wiser to say?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Mei, China · **What happens:** say, keep, be · **To what, where:** silk secret · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 of lesson 51 «China: five thousand years and the oldest dynasties» 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/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/#t10).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Mei says China kept silk secret for exactly 3,000 years.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties:t10:1
# text = Mei says China kept silk secret for exactly 3,000 years.
1	Mei	Mei	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	3,000	3000	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Mei |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **keep** | past | China | silk secret |  |  | year |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What is wiser to say?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties:t10:2
# text = What is wiser to say?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
China guarded it a very long time; the exact length is unknown

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties:t10:o1:1
# text = China guarded it a very long time; the exact length is unknown
1	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	guarded	guard	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	exact	exact	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guard** | past | China | it |  |  | time |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **is** | present | the exact length |  |  |  |  | unknown *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Silk came from Rome

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties:t10:o2:1
# text = Silk came from Rome
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Silk |  |  | Rome |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from rome=Initial\_Location |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Exactly 3,000 years, to the very day, as written in the old books

<!-- fold The tree, 13 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties:t10:o3:1
# text = Exactly 3,000 years, to the very day, as written in the old books
1	Exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	3,000	3000	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | participle · passive |  | 3,000 years to the day |  | the old books |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in book=Destination |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Silk was never secret

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties:t10:o4:1
# text = Silk was never secret
1	Silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	secret	secret	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | Silk |  |  |  |  | secret *property* | tree rules |

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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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- ↑ back to [China: five thousand years and the oldest dynasties](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/51-china-five-thousand-years-the-oldest-dynasties/)