---
title: Did the mirror ever tell a porky? — Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75… · tree and pragmatics
description: Did the mirror ever tell a porky? Test 4 · ★ of lesson 1578 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75: the peddler's lace and the poisonous comb» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 4 · ★ · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75: the peddler's lace…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Did the mirror ever tell a porky?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** tell · **To what, where:** porky · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 1578 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75: the peddler's lace and the poisonous comb» 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/1578-pg540-part75/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1578-pg540-part75:t4:1
# text = Did the mirror ever tell a porky?
1	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	porky	porky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · do-support |  | a porky |  |  | ever |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent porky=Recipient |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, it always said the truth

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1578-pg540-part75:t4:o1:1
# text = Nah, it always said the truth
1	Nah	nah	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	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	5	advmod	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | it | the truth |  |  |  | always *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent truth=Topic |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, it was a fib

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1578-pg540-part75:t4:o2:1
# text = Nah, it was a fib
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fib	fib	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, it told the Queen a massive fib about Snowdrop once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1578-pg540-part75:t4:o3:1
# text = Yeah, it told the Queen a massive fib about Snowdrop once
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	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	massive	massive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	fib	fib	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Snowdrop	Snowdrop	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | it | a massive fib | the Queen |  |  | about Snowdrop; once *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent queen=Recipient fib=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, it lied a bit

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1578-pg540-part75:t4:o4:1
# text = Yeah, it lied a bit
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	lied	lie	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	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | it | a bit |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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: [Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1578-pg540-part75/t3/)
- next →: [Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1578-pg540-part75/t5/)
- ↑ back to [Grimm's Fairy Tales, Snowdrop, part 75: the peddler's lace and the poisonous comb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1578-pg540-part75/)