---
title: why was the country mouse starving at the end? — Aesop's Fables, The Town Mouse and the… · tree and pragmatics
description: why was the country mouse starving at the end? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 400 «Aesop's Fables, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: a country mouse visits his grand city friend, gets a scare, and goes home» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the quest
---

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# Test 8 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: a co…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
why was the country mouse starving at the end?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** country mouse · **What happens:** be, starve · **To what, where:** end

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 400 «Aesop's Fables, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: a country mouse visits his grand city friend, gets a scare, and goes home» 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/400-pg21-part21/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:400-pg21-part21:t8:1
# text = why was the country mouse starving at the end?
1	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
6	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the country mouse |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **starve** | gerund | the country mouse *not said here* |  |  |  | at the end |  | 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 -->
he skipped dinner, too scared

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:400-pg21-part21:t8:o1:1
# text = he skipped dinner, too scared
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	skipped	skip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	scared	scared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **skip** | past | he | dinner |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he hadn't eaten, he was too scared

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:400-pg21-part21:t8:o2:1
# text = he hadn't eaten, he was too scared
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	scared	scared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **eat** | past · perfect | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | he |  |  |  |  | scared *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he hadn't eaten a single bite, cause he was too scared the whole time

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:400-pg21-part21:t8:o3:1
# text = he hadn't eaten a single bite, cause he was too scared the whole time
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	bite	bite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	cause	cause	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	too	too	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	scared	scared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **eat** | past · perfect | he | a single bite |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bite=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | he |  |  |  | time | scared *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
he hadn't eaten, he was too scared to go back for the food

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:400-pg21-part21:t8:o4:1
# text = he hadn't eaten, he was too scared to go back for the food
1	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	too	too	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	scared	scared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **eat** | past · perfect | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | he |  |  |  |  | scared *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **go back** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the food | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient |

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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 Town Mouse and the…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/400-pg21-part21/t7/)
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