---
title: "The new bridge fell short of what was promised." What does this say… — Soft words for hard things: failure an… · tree and pragmatics
description: "The new bridge fell short of what was promised." What does this say about the bridge? Test 2 of lesson 35 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of ea
---

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# Test 2 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupi…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"The new bridge fell short of what was promised." What does this say about the bridge?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** new bridge, this · **What happens:** fall, promise, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is test 2 of lesson 35 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness» 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/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* "The new bridge fell short of what was promised."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t2:1
# text = "The new bridge fell short of what was promised."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	obl	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** *in a quote* | past | the new bridge |  |  |  |  | short *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* *in a quote* | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S» |

<!-- .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 say about the bridge?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t2:2
# text = What does this say about the bridge?
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	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · do-support | this |  |  |  |  | about the bridge | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It fell down

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t2:o1:1
# text = It fell down
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall down** | past | It |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was too short to cross the river

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t2:o2:1
# text = It was too short to cross the river
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cross** | to-infinitive |  | the river |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was finished early

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t2:o3:1
# text = It was finished early
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · passive |  | It |  |  |  | early *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was not as good as promised

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t2:o4:1
# text = It was not as good as promised
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: 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.

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