---
title: What were the girls doing at dinner, mate? — Arabian Nights, The Story of the Encha… · tree and pragmatics
description: What were the girls doing at dinner, mate? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 223 «Arabian Nights, The Story of the Enchanted Horse, part 63: the prince tells his flight and dines with the princess» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each 
---

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# Test 12 · ★ · Arabian Nights, The Story of the Enchanted Horse, part 63:…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What were the girls doing at dinner, mate?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** girls · **What happens:** be, do · **To what, where:** girls, dinner

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This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 223 «Arabian Nights, The Story of the Enchanted Horse, part 63: the prince tells his flight and dines with the princess» 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/223-pg128-part63/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:223-pg128-part63:t12:1
# text = What were the girls doing at dinner, mate?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the girls |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | gerund | the girls *not said here* |  |  | dinner and mate |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Singing to instruments

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:223-pg128-part63:t12:o1:1
# text = Singing to instruments
1	Singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	instruments	instrument	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  | instruments |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to instrument=Recipient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Eating

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:223-pg128-part63:t12:o2:1
# text = Eating
1	Eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dancing

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:223-pg128-part63:t12:o3:1
# text = Dancing
1	Dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Serving food to the guests

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:223-pg128-part63:t12:o4:1
# text = Serving food to the guests
1	Serving	serve	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **serve** | gerund |  | food | the guests |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent food=Theme to guest=Recipient |

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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: [Arabian Nights, The Story of the Encha…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/223-pg128-part63/t11/)
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