---
title: In a cartoon, a robot "improves" a story by replacing every word wit… — Editing and redrafting · tree and pragmatics
description: In a cartoon, a robot "improves" a story by replacing every word with the longest synonym. What happens? Test 3 of lesson 43 «Editing and redrafting» 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.
---

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# Test 3 · Editing and redrafting

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a cartoon, a robot "improves" a story by replacing every word with the longest synonym. What happens?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** robot, story · **What happens:** improve, replace, happen · **To what, where:** story, cartoon, word

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 of lesson 43 «Editing and redrafting» 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/43-editing-and-redrafting/#t3).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* In a cartoon, a robot "improves" a story by replacing every word with the longest synonym.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:43-editing-and-redrafting:t3:1
# text = In a cartoon, a robot "improves" a story by replacing every word with the longest synonym.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	robot	robot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	improves	improve	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	replacing	replace	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	longest	long	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	synonym	synonym	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **improve** *in a quote* | present | a robot | a story |  | a cartoon |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent story=Patient |
| 2 | **replace** | gerund | a story *not said here* | every word |  |  |  | with the longest synonym | vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme word=Location with synonym=Co-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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What happens?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:43-editing-and-redrafting:t3:2
# text = What happens?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happens	happen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing changes at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:43-editing-and-redrafting:t3:o1:1
# text = Nothing changes at all
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	changes	change	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | present | Nothing |  |  | all |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story becomes harder to read

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:43-editing-and-redrafting:t3:o2:1
# text = The story becomes harder to read
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	becomes	become	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | present | the story |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **read** | to-infinitive | the story *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story becomes much clearer and simpler for everyone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:43-editing-and-redrafting:t3:o3:1
# text = The story becomes much clearer and simpler for everyone
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	becomes	become	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	clearer	clear	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	simpler	simple	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	conj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | present | the story |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story turns into a poem

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:43-editing-and-redrafting:t3:o4:1
# text = The story turns into a poem
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turns	turn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	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** | present | the story |  |  | a poem |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into poem=Trajectory |

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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: [Editing and redrafting, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/t2/)
- next →: [Editing and redrafting, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/t4/)
- ↑ back to [Editing and redrafting](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/)