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Test 8 · ★ · Openings that hook the reader

A lad in Cork says "Yer man's story starts with a dragon and never has one again." ("Yer man" means that fella.) What is wrong?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: lad, story, man · What happens: say, start, not have, mean, be · To what, where: one, fella · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 40 «Openings that hook the reader» of the English 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.

The question

Sentence 1: A lad in Cork says "Yer man's story starts with a dragon and never has one again."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 lad	det
2	lad	lad	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 says	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 Cork	case
4	Cork	Cork	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 lad	nmod
5	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 starts	punct
7	Yer	yer	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 man	nmod:poss
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 story	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 man	case
10	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 starts	nsubj
11	starts	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 says	ccomp
12	with	with	ADP	_	14 dragon	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 dragon	det
14	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 starts	obl
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 has	cc
16	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	17 has	advmod
17	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 says	conj
18	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 has	obj
19	again	again	ADV	_	18 one	advmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	17 has	punct
21	"	"	PUNCT	_	17 has	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	a lad in Cork						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	start in a quote	present	Yer's man's story					with a dragon	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with dragon=Subeventuality
3	not have in a quote	present	a lad in Cork not said here	one					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient

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.

Sentence 2: ("Yer man" means that fella.)

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	(	(	PUNCT	_	6 means	punct
2	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 man	punct
3	Yer	yer	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 man	nmod:poss
4	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 means	nsubj
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 man	punct
6	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	8 fella	det
8	fella	fella	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 means	obj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 means	punct
10	)	)	PUNCT	_	6 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Yer's man	that fella					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fella=Topic

Sentence 3: What is wrong?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 wrong	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wrong	cop
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 wrong	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						wrong property	tree rules

The options

Option 1

Nothing, any hook at all is fine to use

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	8 fine	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 hook	punct
3	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	4 hook	det
4	hook	hook	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Nothing	conj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 all	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 hook	nmod
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 fine	cop
8	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	to	to	PART	_	10 use	mark
10	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 fine	csubj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Nothing					fine property	tree rules
2	use	to-infinitive							vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Dragons are banned in all school stories

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dragons	dragon	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 banned	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 banned	aux:pass
3	banned	ban	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 stories	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 stories	det
6	school	school	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stories	compound
7	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 banned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ban	present · passive		Dragons		all school stories			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The hook doesn't belong to the story

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hook	det
2	hook	hook	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 belong	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 belong	aux
4	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 belong	advmod
5	belong	belong	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 story	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 story	det
8	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 belong	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not belong	present · do-support	the hook					to the story	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Stories need at least two dragons to work

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 need	nsubj
2	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	4 least	case
4	least	least	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 two	nmod
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 dragons	nummod
6	dragons	dragon	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 need	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 work	mark
8	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 need	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	Stories	two dragons					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot dragon=Theme
2	work	to-infinitive	Stories not said here						vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/40-openings-that-hook-the-reader/t8/