---
title: Report: "Our sales fell because of headwinds and challenging trading… — Soft words for hard things: business a… · tree and pragmatics
description: Report: "Our sales fell because of headwinds and challenging trading conditions." What does the firm admit? Test 7 · ★ 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 
---

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# Test 7 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and p…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Report: "Our sales fell because of headwinds and challenging trading conditions." What does the firm admit?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** sales, firm · **What happens:** fall, admit · **To what, where:** Report

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 · ★ 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/#t7).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Report: "Our sales fell because of headwinds and challenging trading conditions."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t7:1
# text = Report: "Our sales fell because of headwinds and challenging trading conditions."
1	Report	report	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	sales	sale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
7	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	9	case	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	fixed	_	_
9	headwinds	headwind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	challenging	challenging	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	trading	trading	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	conditions	condition	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	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 | **fall** *in a quote* | past | Our sales | Report *not said here* |  |  |  | because headwinds and challenging trading conditions | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient report=Result |

<!-- .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 the firm admit?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t7:2
# text = What does the firm admit?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	firm	firm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	admit	admit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Business went brilliantly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t7:o1:1
# text = Business went brilliantly
1	Business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	brilliantly	brilliantly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Business |  |  |  |  | brilliantly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Business went badly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t7:o2:1
# text = Business went badly
1	Business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Business |  |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Staff traded jobs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t7:o3:1
# text = Staff traded jobs
1	Staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	traded	trade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	amod	_	_
3	jobs	job	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **trade** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The wind blew down the shop

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:23-fees-bugs-and-spin:t7:o4:1
# text = The wind blew down the shop
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	shop	shop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **blow down** | past | the wind | the shop |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent shop=Patient |

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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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