---
title: wait, was the Ball of Fire actually cotton? — The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the… · tree and pragmatics
description: wait, was the Ball of Fire actually cotton? Test 3 · ★ of lesson 1605 «The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the Great Humbug, part 20: Oz confesses he is a humbug and shows how his tricks worked.» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and
---

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# Test 3 · ★ · The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the Great Humbug, part…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
wait, was the Ball of Fire actually cotton?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you · **What happens:** wait, be · **To what, where:** cotton, Ball

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 1605 «The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the Great Humbug, part 20: Oz confesses he is a humbug and shows how his tricks worked.» 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/1605-pg55-part20/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1605-pg55-part20:t3:1
# text = wait, was the Ball of Fire actually cotton?
1	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Ball	Ball	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Fire	Fire	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	cotton	cotton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | imperative | you *not said here* | cotton |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the Ball |  |  |  | of Fire | 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yep, wool with oil

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1605-pg55-part20:t3:o1:1
# text = Yep, wool with oil
1	Yep	yep	INTJ	UH	_	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	wool	wool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nope, it was really a ball of wax covered in silk and tied with string

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1605-pg55-part20:t3:o2:1
# text = Nope, it was really a ball of wax covered in silk and tied with string
1	Nope	nope	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	really	really	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	wax	wax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | it | a ball |  |  |  | of wax | tree rules |
| 2 | **cover** | participle |  | a ball *not said here* |  |  |  | in silk | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent in silk=Theme |
| 3 | **tie** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with string | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: agent=Patient with string=Co-Patient |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yep, cotton with oil

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1605-pg55-part20:t3:o3:1
# text = Yep, cotton with oil
1	Yep	yep	INTJ	UH	_	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	cotton	cotton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nope, it was a hot metal ball painted red and filled with burning coal and oil

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1605-pg55-part20:t3:o4:1
# text = Nope, it was a hot metal ball painted red and filled with burning coal and oil
1	Nope	nope	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	metal	metal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	painted	paint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	amod	_	_
15	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | it | a hot metal ball |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **paint** | participle |  | a hot metal ball *not said here* |  |  |  | red *property* | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **fill** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | with burning coal and oil | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with coal=Instrument |
| 4 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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: [The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1605-pg55-part20/t2/)
- next →: [The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the…, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1605-pg55-part20/t4/)
- ↑ back to [The Wizard of Oz, The Magic Art of the Great Humbug, part 20: Oz confesses he is a humbug and shows how his tricks worked.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1605-pg55-part20/)