---
title: Nah, what did the old linen say about falling apart? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flax: the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Nah, what did the old linen say about falling apart? Test 14 · ★ of lesson 827 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flax: the fir-tree burns, and the flax becomes linen and then paper» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; M
---

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# Test 14 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flax: the fir-tree burns, and…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, what did the old linen say about falling apart?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** old linen · **What happens:** do, say, fall apart · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 14 · ★ of lesson 827 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flax: the fir-tree burns, and the flax becomes linen and then paper» 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/827-pg27200-part38/#t14).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:827-pg27200-part38:t14:1
# text = Nah, what did the old linen say about falling apart?
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	linen	linen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
11	apart	apart	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the old linen |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **fall apart** | gerund | the old linen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | apart *property* | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
it did not care

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:827-pg27200-part38:t14:o1:1
# text = it did not care
1	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **care** | past · do-support | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
it could not last much longer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:827-pg27200-part38:t14:o2:1
# text = it could not last much longer
1	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	last	last	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **last** | could | it |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
it was not afraid of breaking

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:827-pg27200-part38:t14:o3:1
# text = it was not afraid of breaking
1	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	breaking	breaking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | of breaking; afraid *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
it was not afraid

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:827-pg27200-part38:t14:o4:1
# text = it was not afraid
1	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |

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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: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flax: the…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/827-pg27200-part38/t13/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Flax: the…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/827-pg27200-part38/e1/)
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