---
title: The robot fell over during the contest. "Back to the drawing board,… — Soft words for hard things: failure an… · tree and pragmatics
description: The robot fell over during the contest. "Back to the drawing board, team." What does the leader mean? Test 11 of lesson 34 «Soft words for hard things: 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;
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/t11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/) / [Soft words for hard things: failure an…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/) / t11

# Test 11 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The robot fell over during the contest. "Back to the drawing board, team." What does the leader mean?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** robot, leader · **What happens:** fall over, mean

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 34 «Soft words for hard things: 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/34-failure-and-mistakes/#t11).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* The robot fell over during the contest. "

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:1
# text = The robot fell over during the contest. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	robot	robot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	over	over	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	during	during	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	contest	contest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall over** | past | the robot |  |  |  | during the contest | over *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=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:* Back to the drawing board, team."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:2
# text = Back to the drawing board, team."
1	Back	back	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	drawing	drawing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	board	board	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	team	team	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

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

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 3:* What does the leader mean?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:3
# text = What does the leader mean?
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	leader	leader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	mean	mean	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 | **mean** | present · do-support | the leader |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We must draw the robot

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:o1:1
# text = We must draw the robot
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	robot	robot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **draw** | must | We | the robot |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent robot=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We must start again

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:o2:1
# text = We must start again
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | must | We |  |  |  | again |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The robot is perfect

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:o3:1
# text = The robot is perfect
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	robot	robot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	perfect	perfect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the robot |  |  |  |  | perfect *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
We have won

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:34-failure-and-mistakes:t11:o4:1
# text = We have won
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	won	win	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **win** | present · perfect | We |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: failure an…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/t10/)
- next →: [Soft words for hard things: failure an…, test 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/t12/)
- ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/34-failure-and-mistakes/)