---
title: A cartoon says "Before Mia ate breakfast, she fed the cat" means bre… — Olympiad: tricky comprehension · tree and pragmatics
description: A cartoon says "Before Mia ate breakfast, she fed the cat" means breakfast came first. Fix it. Test 8 · ★★★ of lesson 60 «Olympiad: tricky comprehension» 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 wron
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/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/) / [Olympiad: tricky comprehension](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/) / t8

# Test 8 · ★★★ · Olympiad: tricky comprehension

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A cartoon says "Before Mia ate breakfast, she fed the cat" means breakfast came first. Fix it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** cartoon, Mia, breakfast, you · **What happens:** say, eat, feed, mean, come, fix · **To what, where:** breakfast, cat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★★★ of lesson 60 «Olympiad: tricky comprehension» 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/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/#t8).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A cartoon says "Before Mia ate breakfast, she fed the cat" means breakfast came first.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension:t8:1
# text = A cartoon says "Before Mia ate breakfast, she fed the cat" means breakfast came first.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	Mia	Mia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	csubj	_	_
8	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	fed	feed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
15	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
16	breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
18	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | a cartoon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | past | Mia | breakfast |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breakfast=Patient |
| 3 | **feed** *in a quote* | past | Mia |  | the cat |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Recipient |
| 4 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** | past | breakfast |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* Fix it.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension:t8:2
# text = Fix it.
1	Fix	fix	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fix** | imperative | you *not said here* | cat |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Breakfast really came first

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension:t8:o1:1
# text = Breakfast really came first
1	Breakfast	breakfast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	really	really	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Breakfast |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Feeding the cat came first

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension:t8:o2:1
# text = Feeding the cat came first
1	Feeding	feed	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	csubj	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feed** | gerund |  |  | the cat |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Recipient |
| 2 | **come** | past | Feeding |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The text doesn't say which

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension:t8:o3:1
# text = The text doesn't say which
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	text	text	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | present · do-support | the text |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent which=Topic |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Both happened at once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension:t8:o4:1
# text = Both happened at once
1	Both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	obl	_	_
```

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

<!-- 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: [Olympiad: tricky comprehension, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/t7/)
- next →: [Olympiad: tricky comprehension, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/t9/)
- ↑ back to [Olympiad: tricky comprehension](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/60-olympiad-tricky-comprehension/)