---
title: "I spilled blue ink on my drawing and it looked like the sea — a hap… — Soft words for hard things: failure an… · tree and pragmatics
description: "I spilled blue ink on my drawing and it looked like the sea — a happy accident!" How did the spill turn out? Test 3 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
---

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# Test 3 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupi…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I spilled blue ink on my drawing and it looked like the sea — a happy accident!" How did the spill turn out?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** I, ink, my, spill · **What happens:** spill, look, draw, turn out · **To what, where:** blue ink, drawing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 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/#t3).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* "I spilled blue ink on my drawing and it looked like the sea — a happy accident!"

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t3:1
# text = "I spilled blue ink on my drawing and it looked like the sea — a happy accident!"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spilled	spill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	ink	ink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	drawing	drawing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spill** *in a quote* | past | I | blue ink |  | my drawing |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ink=Theme |
| 2 | **look** *in a quote* | past | ink |  |  |  |  | like the sea | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **draw** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom drawing «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:* How did the spill turn out?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t3:2
# text = How did the spill turn out?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	spill	spill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn out** | past · do-support | the spill |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Badly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t3:o1:1
# text = Badly
1	Badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

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

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Well

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t3:o2:1
# text = Well
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody saw it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t3:o3:1
# text = Nobody saw it
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Nobody | it |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was planned

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:35-mistakes-and-stupidity:t3:o4:1
# text = It was planned
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	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 |  | It |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |

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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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