---
title: Why does the Mole talk «casually» about the harvest instead of telli… — The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, p… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why does the Mole talk «casually» about the harvest instead of telling the Rat off? Test 4 · ★ of lesson 60 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 5: Wayfarers All (the spell, the Mole and the cure)» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the que
---

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# Test 4 · ★ · The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 5: Wayfarers All…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why does the Mole talk «casually» about the harvest instead of telling the Rat off?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Rat · **What happens:** do, tell off · **To what, where:** Mole talk

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 60 «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 5: Wayfarers All (the spell, the Mole and the cure)» 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/60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure:t4:1
# text = Why does the Mole talk «casually» about the harvest instead of telling the Rat off?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	Mole	mole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	casually	casually	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	harvest	harvest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
12	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	14	mark	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	off	off	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present |  | the Mole talk |  |  |  | about the harvest | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talk=Eventuality |
| 2 | **tell off** *speech: assert* | gerund | the Rat |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To be polite

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure:t4:o1:1
# text = To be polite
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
2	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
3	polite	polite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because scolding would make the Rat angry and he would run off

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure:t4:o2:1
# text = Because scolding would make the Rat angry and he would run off
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	scolding	scolding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | would | scolding | the Rat |  |  |  | angry *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset rat=Product |
| 2 | **run off** | would | scolding |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Gently turning his mind back to home and its seasons works better

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure:t4:o3:1
# text = Gently turning his mind back to home and its seasons works better
1	Gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	csubj	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	seasons	season	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
11	works	work	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn back** | gerund |  | his mind |  | home and mind's seasons |  | gently *property* | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent mind=Theme to home=Destination |
| 2 | **work** | present | turning |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **mind** |  | his *= he* |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because he was too shy to speak about the sea

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure:t4:o4:1
# text = Because he was too shy to speak about the sea
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	shy	shy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | he |  |  |  |  | shy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | he *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the sea | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about sea=Topic |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, p…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure/t3/)
- next →: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, p…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure/t5/)
- ↑ back to [The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 5: Wayfarers All (the spell, the Mole and the cure)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure/)