---
title: Bare long story, what was the wooden Mercury for? — Aesop's Fables, The Lion, the Bear, an… · tree and pragmatics
description: Bare long story, what was the wooden Mercury for? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 142 «Aesop's Fables, The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox: a sly Fox steals a kid while two beasts lie wounded» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; 
---

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# Test 8 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox: a sly Fox…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Bare long story, what was the wooden Mercury for?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Bare long story · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** wooden Mercury

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 142 «Aesop's Fables, The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox: a sly Fox steals a kid while two beasts lie wounded» 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/142-pg11339-part12/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:142-pg11339-part12:t8:1
# text = Bare long story, what was the wooden Mercury for?
1	Bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Bare long story | the wooden Mercury |  |  |  |  | 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 -->
Selling it for some gold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:142-pg11339-part12:t8:o1:1
# text = Selling it for some gold
1	Selling	sell	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	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell** | gerund |  | it |  |  |  | for some gold | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent it=Theme for gold=Asset |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was going to flog it off at the market for a bit of quick cash

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:142-pg11339-part12:t8:o2:1
# text = He was going to flog it off at the market for a bit of quick cash
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	flog	flog	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	cash	cash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · progressive | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **flog off** | to-infinitive | He *not said here* | it |  | the market |  | for a bit of quick cash | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Patient at market=Location |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Flogging it at the market for quick cash to buy food

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:142-pg11339-part12:t8:o3:1
# text = Flogging it at the market for quick cash to buy food
1	Flogging	flog	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	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	cash	cash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
11	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flog** | gerund |  | it |  | the market |  | for quick cash | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Patient at market=Location |
| 2 | **buy** | to-infinitive |  | food |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Theme |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Flogging it for quick cash

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:142-pg11339-part12:t8:o4:1
# text = Flogging it for quick cash
1	Flogging	flog	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	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	cash	cash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flog** | gerund |  | it |  |  |  | for quick cash | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent it=Theme for cash=Beneficiary |

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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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- ← previous: [Aesop's Fables, The Lion, the Bear, an…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/142-pg11339-part12/t7/)
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