---
title: Mum at the school gate: "He's slow to warm up, he'll talk to you aft… — Soft words for hard things: children's… · tree and pragmatics
description: Mum at the school gate: "He's slow to warm up, he'll talk to you after a while." What is the boy like? Test 13 · ★ of lesson 15 «Soft words for hard things: children's behaviour and school reports and teachers» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatic
---

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# Test 13 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: children's behaviour and schoo…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mum at the school gate: "He's slow to warm up, he'll talk to you after a while." What is the boy like?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Mum, he, boy · **What happens:** be, warm up, talk · **To what, where:** you

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This is test 13 · ★ of lesson 15 «Soft words for hard things: children's behaviour and school reports and teachers» 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/15-behaviour-and-school-reports/#t13).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Mum at the school gate: "He's slow to warm up, he'll talk to you after a while."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:15-behaviour-and-school-reports:t13:1
# text = Mum at the school gate: "He's slow to warm up, he'll talk to you after a while."
1	Mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	warm	warm	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	'll	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	after	after	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Mum at the school gate |  |  |  |  | slow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **warm up** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Mum at the school gate *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **talk** *in a quote* | future | he |  | you |  | while |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to you=Co-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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What is the boy like?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:15-behaviour-and-school-reports:t13:2
# text = What is the boy like?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Shy with new people

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:15-behaviour-and-school-reports:t13:o1:1
# text = Shy with new people
1	Shy	shy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Late every morning

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:15-behaviour-and-school-reports:t13:o2:1
# text = Late every morning
1	Late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Always cold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:15-behaviour-and-school-reports:t13:o3:1
# text = Always cold
1	Always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	2	advmod	_	_
2	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Slow at sports

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:15-behaviour-and-school-reports:t13:o4:1
# text = Slow at sports
1	Slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	sports	sport	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .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: children's…, test 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/15-behaviour-and-school-reports/t12/)
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