---
title: The Wild Wood is «like a black reef in some still southern sea». Why… — The Wind in the Willows, chapter III,… · tree and pragmatics
description: The Wild Wood is «like a black reef in some still southern sea». Why is a reef a scary thing to compare it to? Test 13 · ★★ of lesson 33 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter III, part 1: The Wild Wood (winter, and the Mole sets out alone)» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependen
---

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# Test 13 · ★★ · The Wind in the Willows, chapter III, part 1: The Wild Woo…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Wild Wood is «like a black reef in some still southern sea». Why is a reef a scary thing to compare it to?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Wild Wood, reef · **What happens:** be, compare · **To what, where:** southern sea, scary thing, reef

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 13 · ★★ of lesson 33 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter III, part 1: The Wild Wood (winter, and the Mole sets out 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/33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood/#t13).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* The Wild Wood is «like a black reef in some still southern sea».

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood:t13:1
# text = The Wild Wood is «like a black reef in some still southern sea».
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Wild	Wild	PROPN	NNP	_	3	flat	_	_
3	Wood	Wood	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
5	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	reef	reef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
12	still	still	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	southern	southern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the Wild Wood |  |  | some southern sea |  | like a black reef | 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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* Why is a reef a scary thing to compare it to?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood:t13:2
# text = Why is a reef a scary thing to compare it to?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	reef	reef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	scary	scary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	compare	compare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | a reef | a scary thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **compare** | to-infinitive |  | reef |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Reefs are warm

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood:t13:o1:1
# text = Reefs are warm
1	Reefs	reef	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Reefs wreck ships that come too close

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood:t13:o2:1
# text = Reefs wreck ships that come too close
1	Reefs	reef	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wreck	wreck	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wreck** | present | Reefs | ships |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ship=Patient |
| 2 | **come** | present | ships |  |  |  |  | close *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Reefs are pretty

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood:t13:o3:1
# text = Reefs are pretty
1	Reefs	reef	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **does** | present | Reefs |  |  |  |  | pretty *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Reefs are home to many small fish

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood:t13:o4:1
# text = Reefs are home to many small fish
1	Reefs	reef	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	home	home	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Reefs |  |  |  |  | to many small fish; home *property* | tree rules |

<!-- 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 -->

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- ← previous: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter III,…, test 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood/t12/)
- next →: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter III,…, test 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood/t14/)
- ↑ back to [The Wind in the Willows, chapter III, part 1: The Wild Wood (winter, and the Mole sets out alone)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood/)

