---
title: were the swans the ones flying in a triangle? — Andersen's Tales, The Storks: Helga be… · tree and pragmatics
description: were the swans the ones flying in a triangle? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 895 «Andersen's Tales, The Storks: Helga becomes a swan, flies to Egypt, and wakes her grandfather» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choi
---

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# Test 8 · ★ · Andersen's Tales, The Storks: Helga becomes a swan, flies…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
were the swans the ones flying in a triangle?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** ones · **What happens:** be, fly · **To what, where:** swans, triangle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 895 «Andersen's Tales, The Storks: Helga becomes a swan, flies to Egypt, and wakes her grandfather» 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/895-pg27200-part106/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:895-pg27200-part106:t8:1
# text = were the swans the ones flying in a triangle?
1	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
6	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	triangle	triangle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the swans and the ones |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | the ones *not said here* |  |  | a triangle |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in triangle=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
yes

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:895-pg27200-part106:t8:o1:1
# text = yes
1	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
no, the plovers did

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:895-pg27200-part106:t8:o2:1
# text = no, the plovers did
1	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	plovers	plover	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the plovers |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yes, the storks did it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:895-pg27200-part106:t8:o3:1
# text = yes, the storks did it
1	yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the storks | it |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
no, that was the cranes

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:895-pg27200-part106:t8:o4:1
# text = no, that was the cranes
1	no	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cranes	crane	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | that | the cranes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- div src -->

**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 Storks: Helga be…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/895-pg27200-part106/t7/)
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