---
title: An old book says invaders wiped out the Indus cities in one day. Wha… — Ancient India: the Indus cities and th… · tree and pragmatics
description: An old book says invaders wiped out the Indus cities in one day. What do historians think now? Test 2 · ★ of lesson 7 «Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms» of the history course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; M
---

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# Test 2 · ★ · Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An old book says invaders wiped out the Indus cities in one day. What do historians think now?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** old book, invaders, historians · **What happens:** say, wipe out, think · **To what, where:** Indus cities · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 7 «Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms» 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/7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* An old book says invaders wiped out the Indus cities in one day.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms:t2:1
# text = An old book says invaders wiped out the Indus cities in one day.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	invaders	invader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	wiped	wipe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Indus	Indus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	cities	city	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | a old book |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **wipe out** | past | invaders | the Indus cities |  |  | day |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent city=Source |

<!-- .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 do historians think now?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms:t2:2
# text = What do historians think now?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	historians	historian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | present · do-support | historians |  |  |  | now |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Volcanoes destroyed them

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms:t2:o1:1
# text = Volcanoes destroyed them
1	Volcanoes	volcano	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	destroyed	destroy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **destroy** | past | Volcanoes | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Aliens took the people away

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms:t2:o2:1
# text = Aliens took the people away
1	Aliens	alien	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take away** | past | Aliens | the people |  |  |  | away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The book is right in every detail

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms:t2:o3:1
# text = The book is right in every detail
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	detail	detail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cities faded slowly, probably from river and climate changes

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms:t2:o4:1
# text = The cities faded slowly, probably from river and climate changes
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cities	city	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	faded	fade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	climate	climate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	changes	change	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fade** | past | the cities |  |  | river and climate changes |  | slowly *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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