---
title: The teacher says Buddhism is Indian, Mei says Chinese. Who is right? — China: the Silk Road and the Tang · tree and pragmatics
description: The teacher says Buddhism is Indian, Mei says Chinese. Who is right? Test 3 · ★ of lesson 54 «China: the Silk Road and the Tang» 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 3 · ★ · China: the Silk Road and the Tang

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The teacher says Buddhism is Indian, Mei says Chinese. Who is right?

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

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 54 «China: the Silk Road and the Tang» 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/54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang/#t3).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* The teacher says Buddhism is Indian, Mei says Chinese.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang:t3:1
# text = The teacher says Buddhism is Indian, Mei says Chinese.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	Buddhism	Buddhism	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	Mei	Mei	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	Chinese	Chinese	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the teacher |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | Buddhism |  |  |  |  | indian *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Mei |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* Who is right?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang:t3:2
# text = Who is right?
1	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | right *property* | tree rules |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only Mei, because it first began in China under the Tang

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang:t3:o1:1
# text = Only Mei, because it first began in China under the Tang
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	Mei	Mei	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	advmod	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	under	under	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Tang	Tang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Mei |  |  | China |  | under the Tang; first *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Both: Indian in origin, Chinese in many later forms

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang:t3:o2:1
# text = Both: Indian in origin, Chinese in many later forms
1	Both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
3	Indian	Indian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	origin	origin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
11	forms	form	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only the teacher

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang:t3:o3:1
# text = Only the teacher
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Neither; it began in Rome

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:54-china-the-silk-road-and-the-tang:t3:o4:1
# text = Neither; it began in Rome
1	Neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Rome	Rome	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | it |  |  | Rome |  | neither *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

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