---
title: A mum carries a baby upstairs. Why is her other hand on the rail? — Going up and down stairs safely · tree and pragmatics
description: A mum carries a baby upstairs. Why is her other hand on the rail? Test 9 of lesson 1 «Going up and down stairs safely» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 9 · Going up and down stairs safely

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A mum carries a baby upstairs. Why is her other hand on the rail?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** mum · **What happens:** carry, be · **To what, where:** baby, other hand, rail

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This is test 9 of lesson 1 «Going up and down stairs safely» of the everyday 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/everyday/1-stairs/#t9).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A mum carries a baby upstairs.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:1-stairs:t9:1
# text = A mum carries a baby upstairs.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	upstairs	upstairs	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | present | a mum | a baby |  |  |  | upstairs *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=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:* Why is her other hand on the rail?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:1-stairs:t9:2
# text = Why is her other hand on the rail?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
4	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rail	rail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | mum's other hand |  | the rail |  |  | tree rules |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To count the steps

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:1-stairs:t9:o1:1
# text = To count the steps
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	count	count	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | to-infinitive |  | the steps |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent step=Theme |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To keep the rail clean

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:1-stairs:t9:o2:1
# text = To keep the rail clean
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	rail	rail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | the rail |  |  |  | clean *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rail=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because the baby likes the rail

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:1-stairs:t9:o3:1
# text = Because the baby likes the rail
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	likes	like	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	rail	rail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** | present | the baby | the rail |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot rail=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So she can hold on if she slips

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:1-stairs:t9:o4:1
# text = So she can hold on if she slips
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	slips	slip	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold on** | can | she |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **slip** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | she |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=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: [Going up and down stairs safely, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/1-stairs/t8/)
- next →: [Going up and down stairs safely, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/1-stairs/t10/)
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