---
title: What would happen if a writer used "he" all the way through a story… — Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a tex… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a writer used "he" all the way through a story about three boys? Test 4 · ★ of lesson 37 «Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together» 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 w
---

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# Test 4 · ★ · Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a writer used "he" all the way through a story about three boys?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** writer · **What happens:** happen, use · **To what, where:** writer, he

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 37 «Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together» 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/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together:t4:1
# text = What would happen if a writer used "he" all the way through a story about three boys?
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	_	6	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	writer	writer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
11	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	13	det:predet	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
14	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  | a writer |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **use** | participle | a writer *not said here* | he |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 -->
It would become a non-fiction report

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together:t4:o1:1
# text = It would become a non-fiction report
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	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	non-fiction	non-fiction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	report	report	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | would | It | a non-fiction report |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Readers would get confused about who does what

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together:t4:o2:1
# text = Readers would get confused about who does what
1	Readers	reader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	confused	confused	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | would | Readers |  |  |  |  | confused *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **do** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, readers can always guess

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together:t4:o3:1
# text = Nothing, readers can always guess
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	readers	reader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
6	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | can | Nothing readers |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story would be much clearer and a lot shorter to read

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together:t4:o4:1
# text = The story would be much clearer and a lot shorter to read
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	clearer	clear	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	lot	lot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	shorter	short	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | the story |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the story *not said here* | a lot |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **read** | to-infinitive | the story *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: 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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a tex…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/t3/)
- next →: [Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a tex…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/t5/)
- ↑ back to [Paragraphs and cohesion: holding a text together](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/37-paragraphs-and-cohesion-holding-a-text-together/)