---
title: By what stratagem did the Shifty Lad procure the knowledge of his fu… — Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, pa… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what stratagem did the Shifty Lad procure the knowledge of his future trade? Exam question 2 of lesson 1277 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy becomes a thief's apprentice and robs a farmer at Hallowe'en» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1277-pg3454-part2/e2/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, pa…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1277-pg3454-part2/) / e2

# Exam question 2 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy become…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what stratagem did the Shifty Lad procure the knowledge of his future trade?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Shifty Lad, Lad · **What happens:** procure, trade · **To what, where:** knowledge

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 1277 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy becomes a thief's apprentice and robs a farmer at Hallowe'en» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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/1277-pg3454-part2/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1277-pg3454-part2:e2:1
# text = By what stratagem did the Shifty Lad procure the knowledge of his future trade?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obl	_	_
3	stratagem	stratagem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	Shifty	shifty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Lad	Lad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	procure	procure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **procure** | past · do-support | the Shifty Lad | the knowledge of Lad's future trade |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme |
| 2 | **trade** |  | Lad |  |  |  |  |  | nom trade «act transitive»: poss=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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by disguising his voice to call "Robbery!" from the bushes at night

<!-- fold The tree, 12 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1277-pg3454-part2:e2:o1:1
# text = by disguising his voice to call "Robbery!" from the bushes at night
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	disguising	disguise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Robbery	robbery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **disguise** | gerund |  | his voice |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme voice=Destination |
| 2 | **call** | to-infinitive |  | Robbery |  | the bushes | night |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent robbery=Theme from bush=Source |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by pretending to be the farmer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1277-pg3454-part2:e2:o2:1
# text = by pretending to be the farmer
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	pretending	pretend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | the farmer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by disguising his voice to call "Robbery!"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1277-pg3454-part2:e2:o3:1
# text = by disguising his voice to call "Robbery!"
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	disguising	disguise	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Robbery	robbery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **disguise** | gerund |  | his voice |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme voice=Destination |
| 2 | **call** | to-infinitive |  | Robbery |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent robbery=Recipient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by lying to his mother's face

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1277-pg3454-part2:e2:o4:1
# text = by lying to his mother's face
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to his mother's face | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, pa…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1277-pg3454-part2/e1/)
- next →: [Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, pa…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1277-pg3454-part2/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Celtic Fairy Tales, The Shifty Lad, part 2: the boy becomes a thief's apprentice and robs a farmer at Hallowe'en](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1277-pg3454-part2/)