---
title: Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent". Why? — Being bad at something and keeping going · tree and pragmatics
description: Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent". Why? Test 11 of lesson 37 «Being bad at something and keeping going» of the arts course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 11 · Being bad at something and keeping going

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent". Why?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** teacher · **What happens:** shake, bear · **To what, where:** head, born talent

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 37 «Being bad at something and keeping going» of the arts 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/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/#t11).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent".

```conllu
# sent_id = question:arts:37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going:t11:1
# text = Nikhil's teacher shakes her head at "born talent".
1	Nikhil	Nikhil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	teacher	teacher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	shakes	shake	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	talent	talent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shake** | present | Nikhil's teacher | teacher's head |  | born talent |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent head=Theme at talent=Trajectory |
| 2 | **bear** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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:* Why?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:arts:37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going:t11:2
# text = Why?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Teachers do not believe that anyone has any talent

```conllu
# sent_id = question:arts:37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going:t11:o1:1
# text = Teachers do not believe that anyone has any talent
1	Teachers	teacher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	nsubj	_	_
7	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	9	det	_	_
9	talent	talent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | present · do-support | Teachers |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **have** | present | anyone | any talent |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talent=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nikhil cheated to win the drawing prize

```conllu
# sent_id = question:arts:37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going:t11:o2:1
# text = Nikhil cheated to win the drawing prize
1	Nikhil	Nikhil	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	cheated	cheat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	win	win	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	drawing	drawing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	prize	prize	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cheat** | past | Nikhil |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **win** | to-infinitive | Nikhil *not said here* | the drawing prize |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prize=Eventuality |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Even talented people improve mainly by practising

```conllu
# sent_id = question:arts:37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going:t11:o3:1
# text = Even talented people improve mainly by practising
1	Even	even	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	talented	talented	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	improve	improve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	mainly	mainly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	practising	practise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **improve** | present | talented people |  |  |  |  | mainly *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **practise** | gerund | talented people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Talent is something that only adults can have

```conllu
# sent_id = question:arts:37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going:t11:o4:1
# text = Talent is something that only adults can have
1	Talent	talent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obj	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	adults	adult	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Talent | something |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | can | adults |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=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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- ← previous: [Being bad at something and keeping going, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/t10/)
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- ↑ back to [Being bad at something and keeping going](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/arts/37-being-bad-at-something-and-keeping-going/)