---
title: What was the cat's principal occupation prior to her dismissal by Si… — Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wo… · tree and pragmatics
description: What was the cat's principal occupation prior to her dismissal by Simon? Exam question 2 of lesson 1936 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, part 73: the cruel brothers are banished, and the old cat and dog join the fox's war» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the 
---

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# Exam question 2 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, part…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What was the cat's principal occupation prior to her dismissal by Simon?

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**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** principal occupation prior, Simon · **What happens:** be, dismiss · **To what, where:** prior

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This is exam question 2 of lesson 1936 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, part 73: the cruel brothers are banished, and the old cat and dog join the fox's war» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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/1936-pg7277-part73/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1936-pg7277-part73:e2:1
# text = What was the cat's principal occupation prior to her dismissal by Simon?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	occupation	occupation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	prior	prior	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	dismissal	dismissal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Simon	Simon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the cat's principal occupation prior to prior's dismissal by Simon |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **dismiss** |  | Simon | prior |  |  |  |  | nom dismissal «act transitive»: poss=patient by=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
Sleeping by the fire

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1936-pg7277-part73:e2:o1:1
# text = Sleeping by the fire
1	Sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | by the fire | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Guarding the sausages

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1936-pg7277-part73:e2:o2:1
# text = Guarding the sausages
1	Guarding	guard	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sausages	sausage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guard** | gerund |  | the sausages |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sausage=Beneficiary |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fetching water from the well

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1936-pg7277-part73:e2:o3:1
# text = Fetching water from the well
1	Fetching	fetch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	well	well	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fetch** | gerund |  | water |  | the well |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent water=Theme from well=Source |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Catching mice in the household

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1936-pg7277-part73:e2:o4:1
# text = Catching mice in the household
1	Catching	catch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	household	household	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | gerund |  | mice |  | the household |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=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.

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- ← previous: [Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wo…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1936-pg7277-part73/e1/)
- next →: [Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wo…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1936-pg7277-part73/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, part 73: the cruel brothers are banished, and the old cat and dog join the fox's war](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1936-pg7277-part73/)