---
title: What was the principal cause of the family's financial ruin? — Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part… · tree and pragmatics
description: What was the principal cause of the family's financial ruin? Exam question 2 of lesson 844 «Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress collapses in the street and tells her sad story» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question a
---

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# Exam question 2 · Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress co…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What was the principal cause of the family's financial ruin?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** family · **What happens:** be, ruin · **To what, where:** principal cause

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 844 «Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress collapses in the street and tells her sad story» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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/844-pg27200-part55/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e2:1
# text = What was the principal cause of the family's financial ruin?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	principal	principal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	financial	financial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	ruin	ruin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the principal cause |  |  |  | of the family's financial ruin | tree rules |
| 2 | **ruin** |  | the family |  |  |  |  |  | nom ruin «state transitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the husband's long illness and the medical bills

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e2:o1:1
# text = the husband's long illness and the medical bills
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	medical	medical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	bills	bill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the illness that ate the family savings

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e2:o2:1
# text = the illness that ate the family savings
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	savings	savings	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	4	obj	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the shipwreck that lost the borrowed money

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e2:o3:1
# text = the shipwreck that lost the borrowed money
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shipwreck	shipwreck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	borrowed	borrow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	amod	_	_
7	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | past | the shipwreck | the borrowed money |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Eventuality |
| 2 | **borrow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the shipwreck and a bank that failed in town

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e2:o4:1
# text = the shipwreck and a bank that failed in town
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shipwreck	shipwreck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	failed	fail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fail** | past | the shipwreck and a bank |  |  | town |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V PP.eventuality S\_ING»: agent=Agent in town=Eventuality |

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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 Tales, The Laundress, part…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/844-pg27200-part55/e1/)
- next →: [Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/844-pg27200-part55/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress collapses in the street and tells her sad story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/844-pg27200-part55/)