---
title: What would happen if every sentence in a story started «Then,»? — Fronted adverbials · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if every sentence in a story started «Then,»? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 29 «Fronted adverbials» of the English course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/29-fronted-adverbials/t8/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/) / [Fronted adverbials](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/29-fronted-adverbials/) / t8

# Test 8 · ★ · Fronted adverbials

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if every sentence in a story started «Then,»?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** sentence · **What happens:** happen, start

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 29 «Fronted adverbials» of the English 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/english/29-fronted-adverbials/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:29-fronted-adverbials:t8:1
# text = What would happen if every sentence in a story started «Then,»?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
11	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **start** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | every sentence in a story |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story would sound repetitive and clunky

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:29-fronted-adverbials:t8:o1:1
# text = The story would sound repetitive and clunky
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sound	sound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	repetitive	repetitive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	clunky	clunky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sound** | would | the story |  |  |  |  | repetitive *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would turn into a poem

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:29-fronted-adverbials:t8:o2:1
# text = It would turn into a poem
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	poem	poem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | It |  |  | a poem |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into poem=Trajectory |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Readers would learn lots of new words from every page

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:29-fronted-adverbials:t8:o3:1
# text = Readers would learn lots of new words from every page
1	Readers	reader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	lots	lot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	page	page	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | would | Readers | lots of new words |  | every page |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent lot=Topic from page=Source |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story would sound exciting and varied

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:29-fronted-adverbials:t8:o4:1
# text = The story would sound exciting and varied
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sound	sound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	exciting	exciting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	varied	varied	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sound** | would | the story |  |  |  |  | exciting *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- 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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Fronted adverbials, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/29-fronted-adverbials/t7/)
- next →: [Fronted adverbials, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/29-fronted-adverbials/t9/)
- ↑ back to [Fronted adverbials](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/29-fronted-adverbials/)