---
title: Mei says China invented paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder.… — China: the four great inventions · tree and pragmatics
description: Mei says China invented paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder. What does the teacher say? Test 1 of lesson 53 «China: the four great inventions» 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 1 · China: the four great inventions

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mei says China invented paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder. What does the teacher say?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Mei, China, teacher · **What happens:** say, invent · **To what, where:** paper · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 of lesson 53 «China: the four great inventions» 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/53-china-the-four-great-inventions/#t1).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Mei says China invented paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:53-china-the-four-great-inventions:t1:1
# text = Mei says China invented paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder.
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	invented	invent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	printing	printing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	compass	compass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	gunpowder	gunpowder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	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 | **invent** | past | China | paper and printing and the compass and gunpowder |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paper=Result |

<!-- .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 the teacher say?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:53-china-the-four-great-inventions:t1:2
# text = What does the teacher say?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · do-support | the teacher |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He agrees; this one is true

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:53-china-the-four-great-inventions:t1:o1:1
# text = He agrees; this one is true
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	agrees	agree	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **agree** *speech: agree* | present | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | this one |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He says Egypt invented them all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:53-china-the-four-great-inventions:t1:o2:1
# text = He says Egypt invented them all
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	invented	invent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	nmod:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **invent** | past | Egypt | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Result |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He says nobody knows

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:53-china-the-four-great-inventions:t1:o3:1
# text = He says nobody knows
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
4	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **know** | present | nobody |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He says Europe invented them all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:53-china-the-four-great-inventions:t1:o4:1
# text = He says Europe invented them all
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Europe	Europe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	invented	invent	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	nmod:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **invent** | past | Europe | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Result |

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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: [China: the First Emperor, the Terracot…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/52-china-the-first-emperor-the-terracotta-army-and-the-great-wall/e4/)
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