---
title: A girl in Belfast carries six plates and a bowl at once and drops th… — Balconies, blades, batteries and stran… · tree and pragmatics
description: A girl in Belfast carries six plates and a bowl at once and drops them. What would have worked better? Test 2 · ★ of lesson 218 «Balconies, blades, batteries and strange bottles» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each opti
---

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# Test 2 · ★ · Balconies, blades, batteries and strange bottles

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A girl in Belfast carries six plates and a bowl at once and drops them. What would have worked better?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** girl · **What happens:** carry, drop, work · **To what, where:** six plates, plates

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 218 «Balconies, blades, batteries and strange bottles» 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/218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A girl in Belfast carries six plates and a bowl at once and drops them.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles:t2:1
# text = A girl in Belfast carries six plates and a bowl at once and drops them.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Belfast	Belfast	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	plates	plate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	bowl	bowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	drops	drop	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | present | a girl in Belfast | six plates and a bowl |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plate=Theme |
| 2 | **drop** | present | a girl in Belfast *not said here* | plates *= plate* |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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 would have worked better?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles:t2:2
# text = What would have worked better?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	worked	work	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | would · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent what=Material |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Carrying a few plates at a time

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles:t2:o1:1
# text = Carrying a few plates at a time
1	Carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	plates	plate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | gerund |  | a few plates |  |  | time |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plate=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Holding them with one hand

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles:t2:o2:1
# text = Holding them with one hand
1	Holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | gerund |  | them *= they* |  |  |  | with one hand | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Carrying them faster

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles:t2:o3:1
# text = Carrying them faster
1	Carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	1	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | gerund |  | them *= they* |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Asking someone to open the door

```conllu
# sent_id = question:everyday:218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles:t2:o4:1
# text = Asking someone to open the door
1	Asking	ask	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	1	obj	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund |  | someone |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent someone=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **open** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | someone *not said here* | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Balconies, blades, batteries and stran…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles/t1/)
- next →: [Balconies, blades, batteries and stran…, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles/t3/)
- ↑ back to [Balconies, blades, batteries and strange bottles](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/218-balconies-blades-batteries-and-bottles/)