---
title: What's the story-teller's gig, mate? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree,… · tree and pragmatics
description: What's the story-teller's gig, mate? Test 14 · ★ of lesson 285 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 12: the Fir is cut down, decorated, and stripped bare by the children» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; 
---

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# Test 14 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 12: the Fir is…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What's the story-teller's gig, mate?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** gig · **What happens:** be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 14 · ★ of lesson 285 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 12: the Fir is cut down, decorated, and stripped bare by the children» 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/285-pg1597-part12/#t14).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:285-pg1597-part12:t14:1
# text = What's the story-teller's gig, mate?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	teller	teller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	gig	gig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the story teller's gig and mate |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
A little fat man who was once a cook in the palace

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:285-pg1597-part12:t14:o1:1
# text = A little fat man who was once a cook in the palace
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | a little fat man | a cook |  | the palace |  | once *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A little fat man

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:285-pg1597-part12:t14:o2:1
# text = A little fat man
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A plump gentleman who told the children funny tales

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:285-pg1597-part12:t14:o3:1
# text = A plump gentleman who told the children funny tales
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	plump	plump	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	iobj	_	_
8	funny	funny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	tales	tale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | a plump gentleman | funny tales | the children |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent child=Recipient tale=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An old sailor

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:285-pg1597-part12:t14:o4:1
# text = An old sailor
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	sailor	sailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

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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: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree,…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/285-pg1597-part12/t13/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree,…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/285-pg1597-part12/e1/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 12: the Fir is cut down, decorated, and stripped bare by the children](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/285-pg1597-part12/)