---
title: What quality did the mistress ascribe to the poor when she spoke of… — Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part… · tree and pragmatics
description: What quality did the mistress ascribe to the poor when she spoke of them? Exam question 4 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 t
---

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# Exam question 4 · Andersen's Tales, The Laundress, part 55: the laundress co…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What quality did the mistress ascribe to the poor when she spoke of them?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** mistress · **What happens:** ascribe, speak · **To what, where:** quality · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 4 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/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e4:1
# text = What quality did the mistress ascribe to the poor when she spoke of them?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
2	quality	quality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	ascribe	ascribe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ascribe** | past · do-support | the mistress | quality |  |  |  | to the poor | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | mistress |  |  |  |  | of them *= they* | vn talk-37.5 «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 -->
they are often more virtuous than the rich and proud

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e4:o1:1
# text = they are often more virtuous than the rich and proud
1	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	virtuous	virtuous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	proud	proud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | they |  |  |  |  | than the rich; often, virtuous *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | they *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
they may stand higher in God's sight

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e4:o2:1
# text = they may stand higher in God's sight
1	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | may | they |  |  | God's sight |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sight=Location |
| 2 | **sight** |  | God |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
they often win the world's favour

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e4:o3:1
# text = they often win the world's favour
1	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	win	win	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **win** | present | they | the world's favour |  |  |  | often *property* | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent favour=Eventuality |
| 2 | **favour** |  | the world |  |  |  |  |  | nom favour «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
they may stand higher in God's sight than the rich

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:844-pg27200-part55:e4:o4:1
# text = they may stand higher in God's sight than the rich
1	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | may | they |  |  | God's sight |  | than the rich | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in sight=Location |
| 2 | **sight** |  | God |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition 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 Tales, The Laundress, part…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/844-pg27200-part55/e3/)
- next →: [Andersen's Tales, The Glovemaker's Widow, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/845-pg27200-part56/t1/)
- ↑ 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/)