---
title: News: "The minister said yesterday's figures were wrong and that he… — Soft words for hard things: business a… · tree and pragmatics
description: News: "The minister said yesterday's figures were wrong and that he had misspoken." What does this admit? Test 2 · ★ of lesson 23 «Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and politics and government spin» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pr
---

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# Test 2 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and p…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
News: "The minister said yesterday's figures were wrong and that he had misspoken." What does this admit?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** minister, figures, yesterday, this · **What happens:** say, be, misspeak, figure, admit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 23 «Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and politics and government spin» 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/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* News: "The minister said yesterday's figures were wrong and that he had misspoken."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t2:1
# text = News: "The minister said yesterday's figures were wrong and that he had misspoken."
1	News	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
7	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	figures	figure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	misspoken	misspeak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | the minister |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | past | yesterday's figures |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **misspeak** *in a quote* | past · perfect | minister |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **figure** *in a quote* |  | yesterday |  |  |  |  |  | nom figure «communication transitive»: poss=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 does this admit?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t2:2
# text = What does this admit?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
4	admit	admit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **admit** *speech: other* | present · do-support | this |  |  |  |  |  | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That he was misheard

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t2:o1:1
# text = That he was misheard
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	misheard	mishear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mishear** | past · passive |  | That |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That his microphone broke

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t2:o2:1
# text = That his microphone broke
1	That	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	microphone	microphone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | past | his microphone |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That what he said was false

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t2:o3:1
# text = That what he said was false
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | false *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That he spoke in French

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t2:o4:1
# text = That he spoke in French
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	French	French	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | That |  |  | French |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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: business a…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/t1/)
- next →: [Soft words for hard things: business a…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/t3/)
- ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and politics and government spin](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/)