---
title: why were the furniture and the tin soldiers singing? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, p… · tree and pragmatics
description: why were the furniture and the tin soldiers singing? Test 12 · ★ of lesson 927 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, part 138: Hjalmar sails with Ole, rescues a tired stork, and rides to a mouse wedding» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the que
---

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# Test 12 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, part 138: Hjalmar sai…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
why were the furniture and the tin soldiers singing?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** furniture, tin soldiers · **What happens:** be, sing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 927 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, part 138: Hjalmar sails with Ole, rescues a tired stork, and rides to a mouse wedding» 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/927-pg27200-part138/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:927-pg27200-part138:t12:1
# text = why were the furniture and the tin soldiers singing?
1	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	furniture	furniture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
9	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the furniture and the tin soldiers |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the tin soldiers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 bride was ready

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:927-pg27200-part138:t12:o1:1
# text = the bride was ready
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the mice had sent them a letter

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:927-pg27200-part138:t12:o2:1
# text = the mice had sent them a letter
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past · perfect · passive |  | the mice |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the wedding was done

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:927-pg27200-part138:t12:o3:1
# text = the wedding was done
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
they had finished their ballroom dance at last

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:927-pg27200-part138:t12:o4:1
# text = they had finished their ballroom dance at last
1	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	ballroom	ballroom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	dance	dance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect | they | their ballroom dance |  | last |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality dance=Eventuality |
| 2 | **dance** |  | their *= they* |  |  |  |  |  | nom dance «communication 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.

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- ← previous: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, p…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/927-pg27200-part138/t11/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, p…, test 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/927-pg27200-part138/t13/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, Ole-Luk-Oie, part 138: Hjalmar sails with Ole, rescues a tired stork, and rides to a mouse wedding](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/927-pg27200-part138/)