---
title: The Hare laughed and said the Tortoise was what, exactly? — Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Torto… · tree and pragmatics
description: The Hare laughed and said the Tortoise was what, exactly? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 384 «Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Tortoise: a boastful Hare loses a race to a slow but steady Tortoise» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of eac
---

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# Test 12 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Tortoise: a boastful Hare…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Hare laughed and said the Tortoise was what, exactly?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Hare, Tortoise · **What happens:** laugh, say, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 384 «Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Tortoise: a boastful Hare loses a race to a slow but steady Tortoise» 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/384-pg21-part5/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:384-pg21-part5:t12:1
# text = The Hare laughed and said the Tortoise was what, exactly?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Hare	Hare	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | the Hare |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the Tortoise |  |  |  |  | exactly *property* | 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 -->
too small

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:384-pg21-part5:t12:o1:1
# text = too small
1	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
late

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:384-pg21-part5:t12:o2:1
# text = late
1	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
too slow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:384-pg21-part5:t12:o3:1
# text = too slow
1	too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
slow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:384-pg21-part5:t12:o4:1
# text = slow
1	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	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: [Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Torto…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/384-pg21-part5/t11/)
- next →: [Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Torto…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/384-pg21-part5/t13/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop's Fables, The Hare and the Tortoise: a boastful Hare loses a race to a slow but steady Tortoise](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/384-pg21-part5/)