---
title: Was the old house still standing in spring, or what? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Was the old house still standing in spring, or what? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 299 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, the pewter soldier leaves and the old man dies» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choic
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/299-pg1597-part26/t9/)

<!-- 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/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House,…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/299-pg1597-part26/) / t9

# Test 9 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, the pewter soldier…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Was the old house still standing in spring, or what?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** be, stand · **To what, where:** old house

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 299 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, the pewter soldier leaves and the old man dies» 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/299-pg1597-part26/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:299-pg1597-part26:t9:1
# text = Was the old house still standing in spring, or what?
1	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	csubj	_	_
5	still	still	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the old house |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | gerund |  |  |  |  | still; spring |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
no, they tore it down and sold the bricks

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:299-pg1597-part26:t9:o1:1
# text = no, they tore it down and sold the bricks
1	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	sold	sell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bricks	brick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tore down** | past | they | it |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sell** | past | they *not said here* | the bricks |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brick=Theme |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yes, but it was pulled down later that spring

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:299-pg1597-part26:t9:o2:1
# text = yes, but it was pulled down later that spring
1	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull down** | past · passive |  | it |  |  | spring | late *property* | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yes, it was standing

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:299-pg1597-part26:t9:o3:1
# text = yes, it was standing
1	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
no, they pulled it down

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:299-pg1597-part26:t9:o4:1
# text = no, they pulled it down
1	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull down** | past | they | it |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- 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: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House,…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/299-pg1597-part26/t8/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House,…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/299-pg1597-part26/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Old House, the pewter soldier leaves and the old man dies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/299-pg1597-part26/)