---
title: News: "The factory announced a reduction in force affecting 400 staf… — Soft words for hard things: work, firi… · tree and pragmatics
description: News: "The factory announced a reduction in force affecting 400 staff." What happened? Test 1 · ★ of lesson 21 «Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mov
---

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# Test 1 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
News: "The factory announced a reduction in force affecting 400 staff." What happened?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** News, reduction · **What happens:** announce, affect, happen · **To what, where:** reduction, force, 400 staff

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 21 «Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy» 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/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/#t1).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* News: "The factory announced a reduction in force affecting 400 staff."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:21-work-firing-and-the-economy:t1:1
# text = News: "The factory announced a reduction in force affecting 400 staff."
1	News	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	factory	factory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	announced	announce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	reduction	reduction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	force	force	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	affecting	affect	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
12	400	400	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **announce** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | News | a reduction |  | force |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reduction=Theme |
| 2 | **affect** *in a quote* | gerund | a reduction *not said here* | 400 staff |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus staff=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 happened?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:21-work-firing-and-the-economy:t1:2
# text = What happened?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|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** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
400 new soldiers joined the army

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:21-work-firing-and-the-economy:t1:o1:1
# text = 400 new soldiers joined the army
1	400	400	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
2	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	joined	join	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **join** | past | 400 new soldiers | the army |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent army=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
About 400 workers lost their jobs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:21-work-firing-and-the-economy:t1:o2:1
# text = About 400 workers lost their jobs
1	About	about	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	400	400	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	workers	worker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	jobs	job	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | past | 400 workers | workers's jobs |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent job=Eventuality |
| 2 | **job** |  | workers *= worker* |  |  |  |  |  | nom job «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
400 workers moved to another office

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:21-work-firing-and-the-economy:t1:o3:1
# text = 400 workers moved to another office
1	400	400	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	workers	worker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **move** | past | 400 workers |  |  | another office |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to office=Trajectory |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
400 workers got a pay rise

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:21-work-firing-and-the-economy:t1:o4:1
# text = 400 workers got a pay rise
1	400	400	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	workers	worker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	pay	pay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	rise	rise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | 400 workers | a pay rise |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rise=Stimulus |

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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: [Soft words for hard things: money and…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/20-debt-and-jobs/e4/)
- next →: [Soft words for hard things: work, firi…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/t2/)
- ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/)