---
title: A boy waters his cactus every day, and it goes soft and brown at the… — Chores and broken things · tree and pragmatics
description: A boy waters his cactus every day, and it goes soft and brown at the bottom. What went wrong? Test 3 · ★ of lesson 111 «Chores and broken things» 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 3 · ★ · Chores and broken things

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A boy waters his cactus every day, and it goes soft and brown at the bottom. What went wrong?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** boy, cactus · **What happens:** water, go · **To what, where:** cactus

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This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 111 «Chores and broken things» 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/111-chores-and-broken-things/#t3).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A boy waters his cactus every day, and it goes soft and brown at the bottom.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:111-chores-and-broken-things:t3:1
# text = A boy waters his cactus every day, and it goes soft and brown at the bottom.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	waters	water	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	cactus	cactus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
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	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **water** | present | a boy | boy's cactus |  |  | day |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent cactus=Destination |
| 2 | **go** | present | cactus |  |  |  |  | soft *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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:* What went wrong?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:111-chores-and-broken-things:t3:2
# text = What went wrong?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past |  |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was much too dry in its little pot

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:111-chores-and-broken-things:t3:o1:1
# text = It was much too dry in its little pot
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	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  | its little pot |  | dry *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It needed even more water every day

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:111-chores-and-broken-things:t3:o2:1
# text = It needed even more water every day
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	even	even	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | past | It | more water |  |  | day |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot water=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Cacti hate being looked at too often

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:111-chores-and-broken-things:t3:o3:1
# text = Cacti hate being looked at too often
1	Cacti	cactus	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	hate	hate	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	looked	look	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	often	often	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hate** | present | Cacti |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **look at** *not said to happen* | gerund · passive | Cacti *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute» |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Too much water rotted its roots

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:111-chores-and-broken-things:t3:o4:1
# text = Too much water rotted its roots
1	Too	too	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	rotted	rot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rot** | past | much water | water's roots |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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: [Chores and broken things, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/111-chores-and-broken-things/t2/)
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