---
title: Fr, how did people tell how old a fir-tree was? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Fr, how did people tell how old a fir-tree was? Test 3 · ★ of lesson 825 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir-tree longs to be tall, is cut down, and is dressed for Christmas» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question
---

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# Test 3 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fr, how did people tell how old a fir-tree was?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Fr · **What happens:** tell, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 825 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir-tree longs to be tall, is cut down, and is dressed for Christmas» 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/825-pg27200-part36/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:825-pg27200-part36:t3:1
# text = Fr, how did people tell how old a fir-tree was?
1	Fr	fr	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | Fr |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | a fir tree *obl*; old *property* | 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 -->
By counting every single joint in its long stem from the root up

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:825-pg27200-part36:t3:o1:1
# text = By counting every single joint in its long stem from the root up
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	counting	count	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
4	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	joint	joint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	root	root	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count up** | gerund |  | every single joint |  | joint's long stem |  | from the root | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent joint=Theme |
| 2 | **stem** |  | joint |  |  |  |  |  | nom stem «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By checking its bark and its needles

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:825-pg27200-part36:t3:o2:1
# text = By checking its bark and its needles
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	checking	check	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	needles	needle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **check** | gerund |  | its bark and its needles |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bark=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By counting the joints in its stem and measuring its branches

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:825-pg27200-part36:t3:o3:1
# text = By counting the joints in its stem and measuring its branches
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	counting	count	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	joints	joint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	measuring	measure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | gerund |  | the joints |  | its stem |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent joint=Theme |
| 2 | **measure** | gerund |  | stem's branches |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme branch=Value |
| 3 | **stem** |  | its *= it* |  |  |  |  |  | nom stem «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By counting the joints in its stem

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:825-pg27200-part36:t3:o4:1
# text = By counting the joints in its stem
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	counting	count	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	joints	joint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | gerund |  | the joints |  | its stem |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent joint=Theme |
| 2 | **stem** |  | its *= it* |  |  |  |  |  | nom stem «communication transitive»: poss=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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree,…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/825-pg27200-part36/t2/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree,…, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/825-pg27200-part36/t4/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree, part 1: a little fir-tree longs to be tall, is cut down, and is dressed for Christmas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/825-pg27200-part36/)