---
title: Did Helga actually listen to the Christ story, or was it just backgr… — Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Dau… · tree and pragmatics
description: Did Helga actually listen to the Christ story, or was it just background noise? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 891 «Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 102: Helga grows wild, and the Vikings bring home a Christian priest.» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree a
---

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# Test 12 · ★ · Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 102: Hel…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Did Helga actually listen to the Christ story, or was it just background noise?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Helga, story · **What happens:** listen, be · **To what, where:** background noise

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 891 «Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 102: Helga grows wild, and the Vikings bring home a Christian priest.» 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/891-pg27200-part102/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:891-pg27200-part102:t12:1
# text = Did Helga actually listen to the Christ story, or was it just background noise?
1	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	Helga	Helga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Christ	Christ	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	just	just	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	background	background	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past · do-support | Helga |  |  |  |  | to the Christ story; actually *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to story=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | story | background noise |  |  |  |  | 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, not really

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:891-pg27200-part102:t12:o1:1
# text = Nah, not really
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	really	really	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, it went in one ear and out the other

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:891-pg27200-part102:t12:o2:1
# text = Nah, it went in one ear and out the other
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | it |  |  | one ear |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in ear=Location |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nah, she was daydreaming about frogs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:891-pg27200-part102:t12:o3:1
# text = Nah, she was daydreaming about frogs
1	Nah	nah	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	daydreaming	daydream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **daydream** | past · progressive | she |  |  |  |  | about frogs | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about frog=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yeah, she was kinda listening, mate

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:891-pg27200-part102:t12:o4:1
# text = Yeah, she was kinda listening, mate
1	Yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	kinda	kinda	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	vocative	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past · progressive | she |  |  |  |  | mate *vocative*; kinda *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=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.

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- ← previous: [Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Dau…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/891-pg27200-part102/t11/)
- next →: [Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Dau…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/891-pg27200-part102/t13/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Tales, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 102: Helga grows wild, and the Vikings bring home a Christian priest.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/891-pg27200-part102/)