---
title: the oaks were moaning to jupiter, weren't they? about what? — Aesop's Fables, The Image of Mercury a… · tree and pragmatics
description: the oaks were moaning to jupiter, weren't they? about what? Test 9 · ★ of lesson 395 «Aesop's Fables, The Image of Mercury and the Carpenter: a poor carpenter smashes his idol and gets gold» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of 
---

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# Test 9 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Image of Mercury and the Carpenter: a…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the oaks were moaning to jupiter, weren't they? about what?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** oaks · **What happens:** moan, not be · **To what, where:** jupiter, oaks

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 395 «Aesop's Fables, The Image of Mercury and the Carpenter: a poor carpenter smashes his idol and gets gold» 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/395-pg21-part16/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:395-pg21-part16:t9:1
# text = the oaks were moaning to jupiter, weren't they? about what?
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	oaks	oak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	moaning	moan	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	jupiter	jupiter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **moan** | past · progressive | the oaks |  | jupiter |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.topic PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to jupiter=Recipient about what=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | past |  | oaks *= oak* |  |  |  |  | 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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the woodsman's chopping

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:395-pg21-part16:t9:o1:1
# text = the woodsman's chopping
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woodsman	woodsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	chopping	chopping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the fire

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:395-pg21-part16:t9:o2:1
# text = the fire
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the axe chopping them

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:395-pg21-part16:t9:o3:1
# text = the axe chopping them
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	chopping	chop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chop** | gerund | the axe *not said here* | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the woodcutter's axe chopping them down one by one in the forest

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:395-pg21-part16:t9:o4:1
# text = the woodcutter's axe chopping them down one by one in the forest
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woodcutter	woodcutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	chopping	chop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	obj	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nmod	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chop down** | gerund | the woodcutter's axe *not said here* | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent they=Patient one=Result |

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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 Image of Mercury a…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/395-pg21-part16/t8/)
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