---
title: Dude, what were the people at home doing with the letter? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Willow-Tre… · tree and pragmatics
description: Dude, what were the people at home doing with the letter? Test 11 · ★ of lesson 1018 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Willow-Tree: Knud dreams under the willow and is found frozen to death» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each 
---

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# Test 11 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Willow-Tree: Knud dreams under…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dude, what were the people at home doing with the letter?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Dude, people · **What happens:** be, do · **To what, where:** people, home

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 1018 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Willow-Tree: Knud dreams under the willow and is found frozen to death» of the books 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/books/1018-pg27200-part229/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1018-pg27200-part229:t11:1
# text = Dude, what were the people at home doing with the letter?
1	Dude	dude	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	appos	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Dude | the people |  | home |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | gerund | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the letter | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Reading it aloud again and again while the snow fell heavily over the village roofs

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1018-pg27200-part229:t11:o1:1
# text = Reading it aloud again and again while the snow fell heavily over the village roofs
1	Reading	read	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	csubj	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
4	again	again	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	conj	_	_
7	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	roofs	roof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** | gerund |  | it |  |  | again | aloud *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the snow |  |  | the village roofs |  | heavily *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over roof=Location |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Laughing and crying over it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1018-pg27200-part229:t11:o2:1
# text = Laughing and crying over it
1	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
4	over	over	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | gerund |  |  |  | it |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Reading it aloud softly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1018-pg27200-part229:t11:o3:1
# text = Reading it aloud softly
1	Reading	read	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
4	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **read** | gerund |  | it |  |  |  | aloud, softly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Laughing and crying over it together while sitting around the warm fire at home

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1018-pg27200-part229:t11:o4:1
# text = Laughing and crying over it together while sitting around the warm fire at home
1	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
4	over	over	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	1	advcl	_	_
9	around	around	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  | it |  | together *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over it=Location |
| 3 | **sit** | gerund |  |  |  | the warm fire |  | at home | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent around fire=Location |

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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.

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