---
title: Report from a company: "Sales this year were suboptimal." What reall… — Soft words for hard things: religion a… · tree and pragmatics
description: Report from a company: "Sales this year were suboptimal." What really happened? Test 2 of lesson 32 «Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; 
---

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# Test 2 · Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Report from a company: "Sales this year were suboptimal." What really happened?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Report · **What happens:** be, happen

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This is test 2 of lesson 32 «Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes» 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/32-religion-fate-failure/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Report from a company: "Sales this year were suboptimal."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:32-religion-fate-failure:t2:1
# text = Report from a company: "Sales this year were suboptimal."
1	Report	report	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
2	from	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Sales	sale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:unmarked	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	suboptimal	suboptimal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | past | Report from a company |  |  |  |  | suboptimal *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 really happened?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:32-religion-fate-failure:t2:2
# text = What really happened?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	really	really	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 -->
Sales stopped completely forever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:32-religion-fate-failure:t2:o1:1
# text = Sales stopped completely forever
1	Sales	sale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	completely	completely	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | Sales |  |  |  |  | completely, forever *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sales were exactly as planned

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:32-religion-fate-failure:t2:o2:1
# text = Sales were exactly as planned
1	Sales	sale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
3	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	planned	plan	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 | **plan** | past · passive |  | Sales |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sales were poor

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:32-religion-fate-failure:t2:o3:1
# text = Sales were poor
1	Sales	sale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Sales |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sales were excellent

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:32-religion-fate-failure:t2:o4:1
# text = Sales were excellent
1	Sales	sale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	excellent	excellent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Sales |  |  |  |  | excellent *property* | tree rules |

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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: religion a…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/t1/)
- next →: [Soft words for hard things: religion a…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/t3/)
- ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/32-religion-fate-failure/)