---
title: was the poor boy a puny kid, like skinny and weak? — Heroic Children, Charney's Plant, part… · tree and pragmatics
description: was the poor boy a puny kid, like skinny and weak? Test 7 · ★ of lesson 360 «Heroic Children, Charney's Plant, part 20: a boy dies on a burning ship, a poor boy carves a butter lion, a prisoner finds a seed» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the
---

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# Test 7 · ★ · Heroic Children, Charney's Plant, part 20: a boy dies on a…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
was the poor boy a puny kid, like skinny and weak?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** poor boy

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 · ★ of lesson 360 «Heroic Children, Charney's Plant, part 20: a boy dies on a burning ship, a poor boy carves a butter lion, a prisoner finds a seed» 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/360-pg18442-part20/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:360-pg18442-part20:t7:1
# text = was the poor boy a puny kid, like skinny and weak?
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	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	csubj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	puny	puny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	kid	kid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	skinny	skinny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the poor boy |  |  |  |  | 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No, he was strong but his grandfather kept him home from the stone yard entirely

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:360-pg18442-part20:t7:o1:1
# text = No, he was strong but his grandfather kept him home from the stone yard entirely
1	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	home	home	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	entirely	entirely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | he |  |  |  |  | entirely, strong *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | past | his grandfather |  | him *= he* |  |  | from the stone yard; home *property* | vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer he=Beneficiary from yard=Eventuality |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, not strong enough to work

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:360-pg18442-part20:t7:o2:1
# text = Yes, not strong enough to work
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, he was too weak to lift stone or do any heavy work in the yard

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:360-pg18442-part20:t7:o3:1
# text = Yes, he was too weak to lift stone or do any heavy work in the yard
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	lift	lift	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
9	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
12	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
13	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | he |  |  |  |  | weak *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lift** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | stone |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | infinitive | he *not said here* | any heavy work |  |  |  | in the yard | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, too frail for hard work

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:360-pg18442-part20:t7:o4:1
# text = Yes, too frail for hard work
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	frail	frail	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Heroic Children, Charney's Plant, part…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/360-pg18442-part20/t6/)
- next →: [Heroic Children, Charney's Plant, part…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/360-pg18442-part20/t8/)
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