---
title: News: "Witnesses describe the suspect as a heavyset man in his forti… — Soft words for hard things: weight and… · tree and pragmatics
description: News: "Witnesses describe the suspect as a heavyset man in his forties." What did the suspect look like? Test 3 of lesson 10 «Soft words for hard things: weight and pregnancy and birth» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of 
---

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# Test 3 · Soft words for hard things: weight and pregnancy and birth

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
News: "Witnesses describe the suspect as a heavyset man in his forties." What did the suspect look like?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** News Witnesses, suspect · **What happens:** describe, do, look · **To what, where:** suspect, forties

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 of lesson 10 «Soft words for hard things: weight and pregnancy and birth» of the euphemisms 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/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/#t3).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* News: "Witnesses describe the suspect as a heavyset man in his forties."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:10-weight-and-babies:t3:1
# text = News: "Witnesses describe the suspect as a heavyset man in his forties."
1	News	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	Witnesses	witness	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	describe	describe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	suspect	suspect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	heavyset	heavyset	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	forties	forty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **describe** *in a quote* | present | News Witnesses | the suspect |  | man's forties |  | as a heavyset man | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent suspect=Theme as man=Attribute |

<!-- .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 did the suspect look like?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:10-weight-and-babies:t3:2
# text = What did the suspect look like?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	suspect	suspect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **look** | infinitive | the suspect |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Very tired

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:10-weight-and-babies:t3:o1:1
# text = Very tired
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fat or heavily built

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:10-weight-and-babies:t3:o2:1
# text = Fat or heavily built
1	Fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | heavily *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Carrying heavy bags of shopping

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:10-weight-and-babies:t3:o3:1
# text = Carrying heavy bags of shopping
1	Carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	bags	bag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	shopping	shopping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | gerund |  | heavy bags of shopping |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bag=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Very short

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:10-weight-and-babies:t3:o4:1
# text = Very short
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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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: [Soft words for hard things: weight and…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/t2/)
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