---
title: With reference to the passage, explain why the road-inspectors cause… — Andersen's Tales, The Old Grave-Stone,… · tree and pragmatics
description: With reference to the passage, explain why the road-inspectors caused the old house of the couple to be demolished. Exam question 3 of lesson 920 «Andersen's Tales, The Old Grave-Stone, part 131: the old grave-stone is remembered, and a new tale begins with an old house and a leaking dragon gutter» 
---

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# Exam question 3 · Andersen's Tales, The Old Grave-Stone, part 131: the old g…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With reference to the passage, explain why the road-inspectors caused the old house of the couple to be demolished.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** you, road inspectors · **What happens:** explain, cause, demolish · **To what, where:** old house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 3 of lesson 920 «Andersen's Tales, The Old Grave-Stone, part 131: the old grave-stone is remembered, and a new tale begins with an old house and a leaking dragon gutter» 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/920-pg27200-part131/#e3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:920-pg27200-part131:e3:1
# text = With reference to the passage, explain why the road-inspectors caused the old house of the couple to be demolished.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	reference	reference	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	explain	explain	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	inspectors	inspector	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	demolished	demolish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with reference to the passage | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **cause** | past | the road inspectors | the old house of the couple |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition house=Patient |
| 3 | **demolish** | to-infinitive · passive | the road inspectors *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The house was judged too old and rotten to stand

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:920-pg27200-part131:e3:o1:1
# text = The house was judged too old and rotten to stand
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	judged	judge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	rotten	rotten	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **judge** | past · passive |  | the house |  |  |  | old *property* | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V NP.value»: subject=Value |
| 2 | **stand** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was too old

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:920-pg27200-part131:e3:o2:1
# text = It was too old
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The inspectors wanted the land for the new road

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:920-pg27200-part131:e3:o3:1
# text = The inspectors wanted the land for the new road
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	inspectors	inspector	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the inspectors | the land |  |  |  | for the new road | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot land=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The authorities declared the old timbers unsafe for living

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:920-pg27200-part131:e3:o4:1
# text = The authorities declared the old timbers unsafe for living
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	authorities	authority	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	timbers	timber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	unsafe	unsafe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | the authorities | the old timbers |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent timber=Attribute |

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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 Old Grave-Stone,…, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/920-pg27200-part131/e2/)
- next →: [Andersen's Tales, The Old Grave-Stone,…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/920-pg27200-part131/e4/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Tales, The Old Grave-Stone, part 131: the old grave-stone is remembered, and a new tale begins with an old house and a leaking dragon gutter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/920-pg27200-part131/)