---
title: What was the dragon doing when the thief nicked the princess? — Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Four Skillful… · tree and pragmatics
description: What was the dragon doing when the thief nicked the princess? Test 5 · ★ of lesson 768 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Four Skillful Brothers: the brothers save the princess and share the reward» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of e
---

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# Test 5 · ★ · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Four Skillful Brothers: the broth…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What was the dragon doing when the thief nicked the princess?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** dragon, thief · **What happens:** be, do, nick · **To what, where:** princess

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This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 768 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Four Skillful Brothers: the brothers save the princess and share the reward» 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/768-pg2591-part44/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:768-pg2591-part44:t5:1
# text = What was the dragon doing when the thief nicked the princess?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	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	4	det	_	_
4	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	nicked	nick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the dragon |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | gerund | the dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **nick** | past | the thief | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent princess=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
Snoring

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:768-pg2591-part44:t5:o1:1
# text = Snoring
1	Snoring	snoring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sleep

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:768-pg2591-part44:t5:o2:1
# text = Sleep
1	Sleep	sleep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Eating

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:768-pg2591-part44:t5:o3:1
# text = Eating
1	Eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hunting

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:768-pg2591-part44:t5:o4:1
# text = Hunting
1	Hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

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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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