---
title: News: "The actor died last week after a long illness." What does the… — Soft words for hard things: illness, d… · tree and pragmatics
description: News: "The actor died last week after a long illness." What does the reader probably guess? Test 1 · ★ of lesson 4 «Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each opt
---

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# Test 1 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
News: "The actor died last week after a long illness." What does the reader probably guess?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** News, reader · **What happens:** die, guess

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★ of lesson 4 «Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body» 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/4-illness-disability-and-babies/#t1).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* News: "The actor died last week after a long illness."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:4-illness-disability-and-babies:t1:1
# text = News: "The actor died last week after a long illness."
1	News	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	actor	actor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
7	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	after	after	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	illness	illness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** *in a quote* | past | News |  |  |  | week |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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 the reader probably guess?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:4-illness-disability-and-babies:t1:2
# text = What does the reader probably guess?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	reader	reader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | present · do-support | the reader |  |  |  |  | probably *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He died very suddenly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:4-illness-disability-and-babies:t1:o1:1
# text = He died very suddenly
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | past | He |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He died of cancer or a slow disease

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:4-illness-disability-and-babies:t1:o2:1
# text = He died of cancer or a slow disease
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	cancer	cancer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	disease	disease	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | past | He |  |  |  |  | of cancer or a slow disease | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of cancer=Causer |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He died of old age only

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:4-illness-disability-and-babies:t1:o3:1
# text = He died of old age only
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | past | He |  |  |  | of old age |  | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of age=Causer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He died in a car crash on the motorway

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:4-illness-disability-and-babies:t1:o4:1
# text = He died in a car crash on the motorway
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	car	car	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	crash	crash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	motorway	motorway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | past | He |  |  |  |  | on the motorway; in a car crash | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in crash=Attribute |

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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: death and…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/e4/)
- next →: [Soft words for hard things: illness, d…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/4-illness-disability-and-babies/t2/)
- ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/4-illness-disability-and-babies/)