---
title: How did the Mouse respond to the Cat's deception? — Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice,… · tree and pragmatics
description: How did the Mouse respond to the Cat's deception? Exam question 2 of lesson 394 «Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice, part 15: a Cat hangs from a peg, pretends to be dead, and fails to lure the Mice out» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the qu
---

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# Exam question 2 · Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice, part 15: a Cat hangs…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How did the Mouse respond to the Cat's deception?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Cat · **What happens:** do, deceive · **To what, where:** Mouse respond

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 394 «Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice, part 15: a Cat hangs from a peg, pretends to be dead, and fails to lure the Mice out» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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/394-pg21-part15/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:e2:1
# text = How did the Mouse respond to the Cat's deception?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	Mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	respond	respond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	deception	deception	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  | the Mouse respond |  |  |  | to the Cat's deception | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent respond=Eventuality |
| 2 | **deceive** |  | the Cat |  |  |  |  |  | nom deception «communication transitive»: poss=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 -->
he declined to approach her and warned the other mice to stay away

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:e2:o1:1
# text = he declined to approach her and warned the other mice to stay away
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	declined	decline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	approach	approach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	warned	warn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decline** | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **approach** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | her *= she* |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 3 | **warn** *speech: warn* | past | he *not said here* |  | the other mice |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S\_INF»: agent=Agent mouse=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **stay away** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he declined to approach her, though the cheese smelled very tempting

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:e2:o2:1
# text = he declined to approach her, though the cheese smelled very tempting
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	declined	decline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	approach	approach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cheese	cheese	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	smelled	smell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	tempting	tempting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decline** | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **approach** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | her *= she* |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 3 | **smell** | past | the cheese | tempting |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tempting=Stimulus |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he declined to approach her

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:e2:o3:1
# text = he declined to approach her
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	declined	decline	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	approach	approach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decline** | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **approach** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | her *= she* |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he approached her slowly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:e2:o4:1
# text = he approached her slowly
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | he | her *= she* |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

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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: [Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice,…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/394-pg21-part15/e1/)
- next →: [Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice,…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/394-pg21-part15/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice, part 15: a Cat hangs from a peg, pretends to be dead, and fails to lure the Mice out](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/394-pg21-part15/)