---
title: What were the cats gossiping about? — Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part… · tree and pragmatics
description: What were the cats gossiping about? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 858 «Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 69: Rudy walks home over the mountains, meets the strange maiden, then visits Babette at the mill» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the questio
---

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# Test 8 · ★ · Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 69: Rudy walks home…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What were the cats gossiping about?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** cats · **What happens:** be, gossip · **To what, where:** cats

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 858 «Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 69: Rudy walks home over the mountains, meets the strange maiden, then visits Babette at the mill» 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/858-pg27200-part69/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:858-pg27200-part69:t8:1
# text = What were the cats gossiping about?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	gossiping	gossip	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the cats |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **gossip** *speech: other* | gerund | the cats *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «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 -->
the eagle and the English gent's gold coins

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:858-pg27200-part69:t8:o1:1
# text = the eagle and the English gent's gold coins
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	gent	gent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	coins	coin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **coin** |  | the English gent |  |  |  |  |  | nom coin «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Rudy and Babette, secret footsie under the table

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:858-pg27200-part69:t8:o2:1
# text = Rudy and Babette, secret footsie under the table
1	Rudy	Rudy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	Babette	Babette	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	secret	secret	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	footsie	footsie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
7	under	under	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the weather and the rain

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:858-pg27200-part69:t8:o3:1
# text = the weather and the rain
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	weather	weather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the hunters and their two stolen silver cups

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:858-pg27200-part69:t8:o4:1
# text = the hunters and their two stolen silver cups
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hunters	hunter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
6	stolen	steal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	amod	_	_
7	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	cups	cup	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 Ice Maiden, part…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/858-pg27200-part69/t7/)
- next →: [Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/858-pg27200-part69/t9/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Tales, The Ice Maiden, part 69: Rudy walks home over the mountains, meets the strange maiden, then visits Babette at the mill](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/858-pg27200-part69/)