---
title: hold up, what did Alexander say he could do? — Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a f… · tree and pragmatics
description: hold up, what did Alexander say he could do? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 353 «Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a friend offers to take his friend's place in prison» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was 
---

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# Test 9 · ★ · Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a friend offers to take…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
hold up, what did Alexander say he could do?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you, Alexander · **What happens:** hold up, say, do · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 353 «Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a friend offers to take his friend's place in prison» 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/353-pg18442-part13/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:353-pg18442-part13:t9:1
# text = hold up, what did Alexander say he could do?
1	hold	hold	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	up	up	ADP	RP	_	1	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	_
5	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	Alexander	Alexander	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	conj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold up** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn support-15.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | Alexander |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | could | Alexander |  |  |  |  |  | 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ride it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:353-pg18442-part13:t9:o1:1
# text = Ride it
1	Ride	ride	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ride** | imperative | you *not said here* | it |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent it=Location |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Tame the wild horse and win the king's favor forever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:353-pg18442-part13:t9:o2:1
# text = Tame the wild horse and win the king's favor forever
1	Tame	tame	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	win	win	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	favor	favor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
11	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tame** | imperative | you *not said here* | the wild horse |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 2 | **win** | present | you *not said here* | the king's favor |  |  |  | forever *property* | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favor=Eventuality |
| 3 | **favor** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom favor «act transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Tame the horse and then ride it all the way to Athens

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:353-pg18442-part13:t9:o3:1
# text = Tame the horse and then ride it all the way to Athens
1	Tame	tame	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	ride	ride	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Athens	Athens	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tame** | imperative | you *not said here* | the horse |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |
| 2 | **ride** | infinitive | you *not said here* | horse | Athens |  | then | all way *obl:unmarked* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent it=Location |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Tame the horse

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:353-pg18442-part13:t9:o4:1
# text = Tame the horse
1	Tame	tame	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tame** | imperative | you *not said here* | the horse |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent horse=Patient |

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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: [Tales of Honor, Damon and Pythias: a f…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/353-pg18442-part13/t8/)
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