---
title: mate wants to know how ppl sent messages before phones. — The Industrial Revolution · tree and pragmatics
description: mate wants to know how ppl sent messages before phones. Test 8 of lesson 30 «The Industrial Revolution» 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 right.
---

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# Test 8 · The Industrial Revolution

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
mate wants to know how ppl sent messages before phones.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** mate, ppl · **What happens:** want, know, send · **To what, where:** messages · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 of lesson 30 «The Industrial Revolution» 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/30-the-industrial-revolution/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:30-the-industrial-revolution:t8:1
# text = mate wants to know how ppl sent messages before phones.
1	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	ppl	people	NOUN	NNS	Abbr=Yes|Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	messages	message	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	phones	phone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | present | mate |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mate *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **send** | past | ppl | messages |  |  | before phones |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent message=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.

## The options {#options}

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By letter, messenger or telegraph

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:30-the-industrial-revolution:t8:o1:1
# text = By letter, messenger or telegraph
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
5	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	telegraph	telegraph	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By email

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:30-the-industrial-revolution:t8:o2:1
# text = By email
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	email	email	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They couldn't send any

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:30-the-industrial-revolution:t8:o3:1
# text = They couldn't send any
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **send** | could | They | any |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By text message

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:30-the-industrial-revolution:t8:o4:1
# text = By text message
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	text	text	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	message	message	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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