---
title: What are the people whispering about Telephassa? — Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth,… · tree and pragmatics
description: What are the people whispering about Telephassa? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 2057 «Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth, part 16: Cilix stays behind, Thasus stops, and Telephassa and Cadmus walk on alone» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question 
---

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# Test 9 · ★ · Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth, part 16: Cilix stays…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What are the people whispering about Telephassa?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** people · **What happens:** be, whisper

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 2057 «Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth, part 16: Cilix stays behind, Thasus stops, and Telephassa and Cadmus walk on alone» 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/2057-pg976-part16/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2057-pg976-part16:t9:1
# text = What are the people whispering about Telephassa?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nsubj	_	_
5	whispering	whisper	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	acl	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Telephassa	Telephassa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | gerund | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about Telephassa | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about telephassa=Topic |

<!-- .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 -->
She's been crying all day long

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2057-pg976-part16:t9:o1:1
# text = She's been crying all day long
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux	_	_
4	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | present · progressive | She |  |  |  | day | long *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She's not in her right mind and should be taken back to the city

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2057-pg976-part16:t9:o2:1
# text = She's not in her right mind and should be taken back to the city
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | She |  |  | her right mind |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take back** | should · passive | She *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the city *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: to city=Result |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She's sick

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2057-pg976-part16:t9:o3:1
# text = She's sick
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | She |  |  |  |  | sick *property* | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She's not in her right mind

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2057-pg976-part16:t9:o4:1
# text = She's not in her right mind
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | She |  |  | her right mind |  |  | tree rules |

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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: [Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth,…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2057-pg976-part16/t8/)
- next →: [Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth,…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2057-pg976-part16/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth, part 16: Cilix stays behind, Thasus stops, and Telephassa and Cadmus walk on alone](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2057-pg976-part16/)