---
title: By what means did the learned man secure his book of secrets? — English Fairy Tales, The Three Little… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what means did the learned man secure his book of secrets? Exam question 4 of lesson 1952 «English Fairy Tales, The Three Little Pigs: the wolf fails at three houses and ends up boiled in the pot» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the questio
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1952-pg7439-part11/e4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [English Fairy Tales, The Three Little…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1952-pg7439-part11/) / e4

# Exam question 4 · English Fairy Tales, The Three Little Pigs: the wolf fails…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what means did the learned man secure his book of secrets?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** learned man · **What happens:** mean, learn, secure · **To what, where:** book

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 4 of lesson 1952 «English Fairy Tales, The Three Little Pigs: the wolf fails at three houses and ends up boiled in the pot» 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/1952-pg7439-part11/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1952-pg7439-part11:e4:1
# text = By what means did the learned man secure his book of secrets?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	obl	_	_
3	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	secure	secure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	secrets	secret	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **learn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **secure** | past · do-support | the learned man | man's book of secrets |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition book=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
with a silver key

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1952-pg7439-part11:e4:o1:1
# text = with a silver key
1	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	silver	silver	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by a key

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1952-pg7439-part11:e4:o2:1
# text = by a key
1	by	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
with an iron key

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1952-pg7439-part11:e4:o3:1
# text = with an iron key
1	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
with a lock

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1952-pg7439-part11:e4:o4:1
# text = with a lock
1	with	with	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	lock	lock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [English Fairy Tales, The Three Little…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1952-pg7439-part11/e3/)
- next →: [English Fairy Tales, The Master and Hi…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1953-pg7439-part12/t1/)
- ↑ back to [English Fairy Tales, The Three Little Pigs: the wolf fails at three houses and ends up boiled in the pot](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1952-pg7439-part11/)