---
title: Mercury told the philosopher off. Why? — Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Mercury told the philosopher off. Why? Test 14 · ★ 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 question and of e
---

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# Test 14 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice, part 15: a Cat hangs…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mercury told the philosopher off. Why?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Mercury · **What happens:** tell off · **To what, where:** philosopher

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This is test 14 · ★ 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. 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/#t14).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Mercury told the philosopher off.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:t14:1
# text = Mercury told the philosopher off.
1	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	philosopher	philosopher	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	iobj	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell off** *speech: assert* | past | Mercury |  | the philosopher |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent philosopher=Recipient |

<!-- .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?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:t14:2
# text = Why?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he doubted the gods' plan

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:t14:o1:1
# text = he doubted the gods' plan
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	doubted	doubt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	gods	god	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **doubt** | past | he | the gods's plan |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plan=Theme |
| 2 | **plan** |  | the gods |  |  |  |  |  | nom plan «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he judged Providence unfairly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:t14:o2:1
# text = he judged Providence unfairly
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	judged	judge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Providence	Providence	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	unfairly	unfairly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **judge** | past | he | Providence |  |  |  | unfairly *property* | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Agent providence=Value |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he was rude

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:t14:o3:1
# text = he was rude
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	rude	rude	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he insulted the wise king

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:394-pg21-part15:t14:o4:1
# text = he insulted the wise king
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	insulted	insult	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **insult** | past | he | the wise king |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus king=Experiencer |

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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 Cat and the Mice,…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/394-pg21-part15/t13/)
- next →: [Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Mice,…, test 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/394-pg21-part15/t15/)
- ↑ 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/)