---
title: Why do millions of Americans have Irish ancestors? — Britain and Ireland: a short story · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do millions of Americans have Irish ancestors? Test 4 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» 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.
---

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# Test 4 · Britain and Ireland: a short story

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why do millions of Americans have Irish ancestors?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** millions · **What happens:** do, have · **To what, where:** Irish ancestors

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» 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/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t4:1
# text = Why do millions of Americans have Irish ancestors?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
3	millions	million	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Americans	American	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Irish	Irish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	ancestors	ancestor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present | millions of Americans *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **have** | present | millions of Americans | Irish ancestors |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ancestor=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
The Irish invented America

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t4:o1:1
# text = The Irish invented America
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	Irish	Irish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	invented	invent	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	amod	_	_
4	America	America	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invent** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Over a million people left Ireland in the Great Famine, many for America

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t4:o2:1
# text = Over a million people left Ireland in the Great Famine, many for America
1	Over	over	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	million	million	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	obl	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	Great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	Famine	Famine	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	America	America	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | people | Ireland |  | a million |  | in the Great Famine; for many America | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent ireland=Theme over million=Location |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Everyone in America is Irish

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t4:o3:1
# text = Everyone in America is Irish
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	5	nsubj	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	America	America	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	Irish	Irish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Everyone |  |  |  |  | irish *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ireland was part of America

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story:t4:o4:1
# text = Ireland was part of America
1	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	America	America	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Ireland | part |  |  |  | of America | 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: [Britain and Ireland: a short story, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/t3/)
- next →: [Britain and Ireland: a short story, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/t5/)
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