---
title: How could a small quarrel over a boat turn deadly in Hawaii? — Explorers: Cook and the Pacific · tree and pragmatics
description: How could a small quarrel over a boat turn deadly in Hawaii? Test 9 of lesson 28 «Explorers: Cook and the Pacific» of the history course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific/t9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/) / [Explorers: Cook and the Pacific](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific/) / t9

# Test 9 · Explorers: Cook and the Pacific

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How could a small quarrel over a boat turn deadly in Hawaii?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** small quarrel · **What happens:** turn · **To what, where:** Hawaii

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 of lesson 28 «Explorers: Cook and the Pacific» of the history 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/history/28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific:t9:1
# text = How could a small quarrel over a boat turn deadly in Hawaii?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	quarrel	quarrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
6	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Hawaii	Hawaii	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | could | a small quarrel over a boat |  |  | Hawaii |  | deadly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in hawaii=Trajectory |

<!-- .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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Boats were sacred weapons that only kings could touch

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific:t9:o1:1
# text = Boats were sacred weapons that only kings could touch
1	Boats	boat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	sacred	sacred	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	weapons	weapon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Boats | sacred weapons |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** | could | kings | sacred weapons |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme that=Co-Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Cook ordered a war over it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific:t9:o2:1
# text = Cook ordered a war over it
1	Cook	Cook	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	over	over	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **order** | past | Cook | a war |  | war |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent war=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It never happened

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific:t9:o3:1
# text = It never happened
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **happen** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Misunderstandings between peoples could turn violent

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific:t9:o4:1
# text = Misunderstandings between peoples could turn violent
1	Misunderstandings	misunderstanding	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	between	between	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	peoples	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	violent	violent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | could | Misunderstandings between peoples |  |  |  |  | violent *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Explorers: Cook and the Pacific, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific/t8/)
- next →: [Explorers: Cook and the Pacific, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific/t10/)
- ↑ back to [Explorers: Cook and the Pacific](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/28-explorers-cook-and-the-pacific/)