---
title: the horse was mean to the ass, innit? — Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver… · tree and pragmatics
description: the horse was mean to the ass, innit? Test 10 · ★ of lesson 404 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver: a bolting ass is hauled back by the tail, and the fables that follow each end with a small lesson.» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the qu
---

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# Test 10 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver: a bolting ass is h…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the horse was mean to the ass, innit?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** horse · **What happens:** be, innit

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 404 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver: a bolting ass is hauled back by the tail, and the fables that follow each end with a small lesson.» 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/404-pg21-part25/#t10).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:404-pg21-part25:t10:1
# text = the horse was mean to the ass, innit?
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	mean	mean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	innit	innit	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the horse |  |  |  |  | to the ass; mean *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **innit** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, he wouldn't spare a bit of feed

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:404-pg21-part25:t10:o1:1
# text = yeah, he wouldn't spare a bit of feed
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	spare	spare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	feed	feed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **spare** | would | he | a bit of feed |  |  |  |  | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent bit=Asset |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, he kicked him out, lol

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:404-pg21-part25:t10:o2:1
# text = yeah, he kicked him out, lol
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	kicked	kick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	lol	lol	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kick out** | past | he | him *= he* |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
nah, he shared his food

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:404-pg21-part25:t10:o3:1
# text = nah, he shared his food
1	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	shared	share	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
nah, he gave him some barley

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:404-pg21-part25:t10:o4:1
# text = nah, he gave him some barley
1	nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	barley	barley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | he | some barley | him *= he* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient barley=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.

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- ← previous: [Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/404-pg21-part25/t9/)
- next →: [Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/404-pg21-part25/t11/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver: a bolting ass is hauled back by the tail, and the fables that follow each end with a small lesson.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/404-pg21-part25/)