---
title: what's Uncle Remus doing with his knife in the last bit? — Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a ta… · tree and pragmatics
description: what's Uncle Remus doing with his knife in the last bit? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 578 «Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets eaten» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

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# Test 12 · ★ · Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
what's Uncle Remus doing with his knife in the last bit?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Uncle Remus · **What happens:** do · **To what, where:** last bit

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 578 «Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets eaten» 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/578-pg2306-part14/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:578-pg2306-part14:t12:1
# text = what's Uncle Remus doing with his knife in the last bit?
1	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present · progressive | Uncle Remus |  |  | the last bit |  | with Remus's knife | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
whetting it on his palm, slow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:578-pg2306-part14:t12:o1:1
# text = whetting it on his palm, slow
1	whetting	whet	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whet** | gerund |  | it |  | his palm |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
sharpening it on a stone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:578-pg2306-part14:t12:o2:1
# text = sharpening it on a stone
1	sharpening	sharpen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sharpen** | gerund |  | it |  | a stone |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
sharpening it on his boot

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:578-pg2306-part14:t12:o3:1
# text = sharpening it on his boot
1	sharpening	sharpen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	boot	boot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sharpen** | gerund |  | it |  | his boot |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
whetting it on his palm, slow and steady, while the boy watched

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:578-pg2306-part14:t12:o4:1
# text = whetting it on his palm, slow and steady, while the boy watched
1	whetting	whet	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	csubj	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	steady	steady	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **whet** | gerund |  | it |  | his palm |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **watch** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |

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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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