Feuds between families Lesson 474 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 32 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: the lesson at school .
0 A feud is a long quarrel between families or groups, sometimes lasting years after everyone has forgotten how it started. 1 Kieran's family and Jake's family haven't spoken since a row about a parking space three years ago, and the boys are told not to play together. 2 Then they land in the same class and get on, quietly, keeping it secret at home. 3 It feels horrible. 5 One day Kieran asks his mum why she won't talk to Jake's mum. 7 It's a start. 8 Kids often pay for grown-ups' rows. 9 Two families on Sam's street go to war over a hedge, with solicitor's letters (a solicitor is a kind of lawyer), and the two best mates are banned from playing. 10 They still play football at school and wave from their bedroom windows. 12 Some feuds end with one kind move. 13 Maddie's nan and Mrs Dobbs haven't spoken for twenty years («She knows what she did», nobody else does). 14 When Nan gets pneumonia, a bad chest illness, Mrs Dobbs leaves soup on the step. 15 Nan cries, and they talk over the fence again. 16 On Chloe's road two Irish grannies have feuded since a 1997 wedding: «That eejit never paid for the cake!» (an eejit is an idiot). 17 «Sure the cake was stale!» At a christening they end up singing together, crying, and it's over. 18 Some are only a game: Mia's uncle in Texas yells over the fence every Fourth of July, «Y'all's brisket is drier than the Alamo!», and the cook-off ends with everyone eating both. 19 Connor has never met his cousins, because his dad and his uncle haven't spoken for eight years; he finally meets them at his grandma's funeral, and they get on straight away. 20 And some never end. 21 Sam's grandad and his brother Roy fell out for forty years over their mum's clock. 22 When Roy dies, Grandad doesn't go to the funeral. 23 Later he tells Sam, «I'd give that clock away ten times to have one more pint with him.» 24 A feud is a long quarrel between families or groups; it can last years after the reason is forgotten. 25 Children are often caught in the middle of grown-ups' feuds, even though they did nothing wrong. 26 It is fine to tell a parent honestly how a family feud makes you feel. 27 Children can stay friends even when their parents have fallen out. 28 One kind act, like bringing soup to someone ill, can end a feud. 29 Asking «why are we still fighting?» can help grown-ups see a feud has no reason left. 30 It is fairer to judge a person by what they do, not by their family. 31 Sad events like funerals sometimes bring families back together, but it is better not to wait for one. 32 Some feuds are never mended, and people often regret it for the rest of their lives. 33 A joke feud, like a cooking contest between neighbours, is fine as long as everyone is in on the joke. 34 «Y'all» is Southern US for «you all»; «eejit» is Irish for idiot; «sure» at the start of an Irish sentence just means «well». ← previous The ball over the fence and the grumpy old man next doornext → The row over a game↑ back to Everyday This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/474-feuds-between-families/