---
title: News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire." Who fired the s… — Soft words for hard things: politics a… · tree and pragmatics
description: News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire." Who fired the shots? Test 1 · ★ of lesson 25 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question a
---

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# Test 1 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire." Who fired the shots?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** friendly fire · **What happens:** kill, fire · **To what, where:** Three soldiers, shots

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 25 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence» 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/25-spin-war-and-violence/#t1).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:25-spin-war-and-violence:t1:1
# text = News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire."
1	News	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	Three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	conj	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** *in a quote* | past · passive | friendly fire | Three soldiers |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |

<!-- .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:* Who fired the shots?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:25-spin-war-and-violence:t1:2
# text = Who fired the shots?
1	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fired	fire	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	shots	shot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fire** | past |  | the shots |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shot=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody, it was an accident with a fire

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:25-spin-war-and-violence:t1:o1:1
# text = Nobody, it was an accident with a fire
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Nobody | a accident |  |  |  | with a fire | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A friendly neighbour

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:25-spin-war-and-violence:t1:o2:1
# text = A friendly neighbour
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The enemy, on purpose

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:25-spin-war-and-violence:t1:o3:1
# text = The enemy, on purpose
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their own side, by mistake

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:25-spin-war-and-violence:t1:o4:1
# text = Their own side, by mistake
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .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: politics a…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/24-government-spin/e4/)
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