Test 1 · ★★ · Building tension and suspense
Your mate goes "scary stories need loads of blood and gore or they're mid." ("Mid" means not very good.) What is the truth?
Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, scary stories, stories, Mid, truth · What happens: go, need, be, not mean · To what, where: loads · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 1 · ★★ of lesson 42 «Building tension and suspense» 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: Your mate goes "scary stories need loads of blood and gore or they're mid."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 mate | nmod:poss |
| 2 | mate | mate | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 goes | nsubj |
| 3 | goes | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 need | punct |
| 5 | scary | scary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 stories | amod |
| 6 | stories | story | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 need | nsubj |
| 7 | need | need | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 goes | ccomp |
| 8 | loads | load | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 need | obj |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 blood | case |
| 10 | blood | blood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 loads | nmod |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 gore | cc |
| 12 | gore | gore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 blood | conj |
| 13 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 16 mid | cc |
| 14 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 mid | nsubj |
| 15 | 're | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 mid | cop |
| 16 | mid | mid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 need | conj |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 goes | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 goes | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | present | Your mate | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | need in a quote | present | scary stories | loads of blood and gore | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot load=Theme | ||||
| 3 | is in a quote | present | stories = story | mid property | tree rules |
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: ("Mid" means not very good.)
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| 2 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Mid | punct |
| 3 | Mid | Mid | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 means | nsubj |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Mid | punct |
| 5 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 means | advmod |
| 7 | very | very | ADV | _ | 8 good | advmod |
| 8 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 means | xcomp |
| 9 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| 10 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 5 means | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not mean | present | Mid | good property | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
Sentence 3: What is the truth?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 What | cop |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 truth | det |
| 4 | truth | truth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 What | nsubj |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 What | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | the truth | tree rules |
The options
Option 1
Stories are only scary if someone dies
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stories | story | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 scary | nsubj |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 scary | cop |
| 3 | only | only | ADV | _ | 4 scary | advmod |
| 4 | scary | scary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 7 dies | mark |
| 6 | someone | someone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 7 dies | nsubj |
| 7 | dies | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 scary | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | Stories | scary property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | die a condition, not said to happen | present | someone | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
Waiting and hints scare readers more than gore
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waiting | wait | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 scare | nsubj |
| 2 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 3 hints | cc |
| 3 | hints | hint | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Waiting | conj |
| 4 | scare | scare | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | readers | reader | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 scare | obj |
| 6 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp ExtPos=ADV | 8 gore | advmod |
| 7 | than | than | ADP | _ | 6 more | fixed |
| 8 | gore | gore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 scare | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wait | gerund | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 2 | scare | present | readers | gore obl | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus reader=Experiencer |
Option 3
The more gore, the scarier the story
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 gore | det |
| 2 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 3 gore | amod |
| 3 | gore | gore | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 scarier | punct |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 scarier | det |
| 6 | scarier | scarey | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 3 gore | acl:relcl |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 story | det |
| 8 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 scarier | nsubj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ← Mova's choice
Nothing can make a story scary
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 3 make | nsubj |
| 2 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 make | aux |
| 3 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 story | det |
| 5 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 make | obj |
| 6 | scary | scary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 make | xcomp |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make | can | Nothing | a story | scary property | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material story=Product |
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/42-building-tension-and-suspense/t1/