---
title: Mate, what was the lad trying to nick from the master's room? — English Fairy Tales, The Master and Hi… · tree and pragmatics
description: Mate, what was the lad trying to nick from the master's room? Test 1 · ★ of lesson 1953 «English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil: a curious lad calls up a demon and nearly drowns in water» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1953-pg7439-part12/t1/)

<!-- 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 Master and Hi…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1953-pg7439-part12/) / t1

# Test 1 · ★ · English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil: a curious l…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mate, what was the lad trying to nick from the master's room?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Mate, lad · **What happens:** be, try, nick · **To what, where:** lad, room

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 1953 «English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil: a curious lad calls up a demon and nearly drowns in water» 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/1953-pg7439-part12/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1953-pg7439-part12:t1:1
# text = Mate, what was the lad trying to nick from the master's room?
1	Mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
7	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	nick	nick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Mate and the lad | the lad |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | gerund | the lad *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **nick** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the lad *not said here* |  |  | the master's room |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
the gold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1953-pg7439-part12:t1:o1:1
# text = the gold
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the silver-making tools

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1953-pg7439-part12:t1:o2:1
# text = the silver-making tools
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	making	making	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	tools	tool	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the gold-making kit

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1953-pg7439-part12:t1:o3:1
# text = the gold-making kit
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	making	make	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
5	kit	kit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the master's gold coins

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1953-pg7439-part12:t1:o4:1
# text = the master's gold coins
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	coins	coin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **coin** |  | the master |  |  |  |  |  | nom coin «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- 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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1952-pg7439-part11/e4/)
- next →: [English Fairy Tales, The Master and Hi…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1953-pg7439-part12/t2/)
- ↑ back to [English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil: a curious lad calls up a demon and nearly drowns in water](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1953-pg7439-part12/)