---
title: Was the stepmum nice at the start, mate? — Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part… · tree and pragmatics
description: Was the stepmum nice at the start, mate? Test 11 · ★ of lesson 1361 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part 21: a dying mother gives her daughter a mirror, and a stepmother accuses the girl» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of 
---

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# Test 11 · ★ · Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part 21: a dying mother…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Was the stepmum nice at the start, mate?

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

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 1361 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part 21: a dying mother gives her daughter a mirror, and a stepmother accuses the girl» 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/1361-pg4018-part21/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1361-pg4018-part21:t11:1
# text = Was the stepmum nice at the start, mate?
1	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	stepmum	stepmum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	start	start	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the stepmum |  |  | the start and mate |  | nice *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
nah, she was mean

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1361-pg4018-part21:t11:o1:1
# text = nah, she was mean
1	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	mean	mean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | she |  |  |  |  | mean *property* | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, her first smiles were nice

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1361-pg4018-part21:t11:o2:1
# text = yeah, her first smiles were nice
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	amod	_	_
5	smiles	smile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | her first smiles |  |  |  |  | nice *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **smile** |  | her *= she* |  |  |  |  |  | nom smile «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, she was alright at first

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1361-pg4018-part21:t11:o3:1
# text = yeah, she was alright at first
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	alright	alright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | she |  |  |  |  | alright *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
nah, she was cold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1361-pg4018-part21:t11:o4:1
# text = nah, she was cold
1	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | she |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | tree rules |

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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: [Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1361-pg4018-part21/t10/)
- next →: [Japanese Fairy Tales, The Mirror, part…, test 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1361-pg4018-part21/t12/)
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