---
title: If officials were chosen only by birth, what would be lost? — Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em… · tree and pragmatics
description: If officials were chosen only by birth, what would be lost? Test 4 of lesson 9 «Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall» 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/t4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/) / [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/) / t4

# Test 4 · Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If officials were chosen only by birth, what would be lost?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** birth · **What happens:** choose, lose · **To what, where:** officials

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 of lesson 9 «Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall» 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/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall:t4:1
# text = If officials were chosen only by birth, what would be lost?
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	officials	official	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	obj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive | birth | officials |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** | would · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Clever poor people could never get the job

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall:t4:o1:1
# text = Clever poor people could never get the job
1	Clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	job	job	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **get** | could | Clever poor people | the job |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer job=Stimulus |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody would be rich

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall:t4:o2:1
# text = Nobody would be rich
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | Nobody |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There would be no emperor

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall:t4:o3:1
# text = There would be no emperor
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | would | no emperor |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Exams would be much harder

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall:t4:o4:1
# text = Exams would be much harder
1	Exams	exam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	1	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | Exams *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |

<!-- 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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/t3/)
- next →: [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Em…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/t5/)
- ↑ back to [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/)