---
title: Mate, wasn't the sponge plan proper clever? — Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burden… · tree and pragmatics
description: Mate, wasn't the sponge plan proper clever? Test 4 · ★ of lesson 137 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burdens: a clever donkey tries to cheat his master with salt and sponges» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mo
---

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# Test 4 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burdens: a clever donkey t…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mate, wasn't the sponge plan proper clever?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** not be · **To what, where:** sponge plan

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 137 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burdens: a clever donkey tries to cheat his master with salt and sponges» 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/137-pg11339-part7/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:137-pg11339-part7:t4:1
# text = Mate, wasn't the sponge plan proper clever?
1	Mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	sponge	sponge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	proper	properly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past |  | the sponge plan |  |  |  | Mate *vocative*; clever *nmod* | 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 -->
Yeah, it worked a treat

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:137-pg11339-part7:t4:o1:1
# text = Yeah, it worked a treat
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	treat	treat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | past | it | a treat |  |  |  |  | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent treat=Material |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, it backfired big time

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:137-pg11339-part7:t4:o2:1
# text = Nah, it backfired big time
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	backfired	backfire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **backfire** | past | it |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, it was brilliant because the bloke never noticed anything at all until the end

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:137-pg11339-part7:t4:o3:1
# text = Yeah, it was brilliant because the bloke never noticed anything at all until the end
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|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	brilliant	brilliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bloke	bloke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	nmod	_	_
14	until	until	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | brilliant *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **notice** | past | the bloke | anything |  | all | until the end |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, it was quite dumb

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:137-pg11339-part7:t4:o4:1
# text = Nah, it was quite dumb
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	dumb	dumb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | dumb *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: [Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burden…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/137-pg11339-part7/t3/)
- next →: [Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burden…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/137-pg11339-part7/t5/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burdens: a clever donkey tries to cheat his master with salt and sponges](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/137-pg11339-part7/)