---
title: why'd they chuck tea in the sea, bit of a waste innit — The United States: a short story · tree and pragmatics
description: why'd they chuck tea in the sea, bit of a waste innit Test 1 · ★★ of lesson 38 «The United States: 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 1 · ★★ · The United States: a short story

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
why'd they chuck tea in the sea, bit of a waste innit

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** they · **What happens:** chuck · **To what, where:** tea, sea

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This is test 1 · ★★ of lesson 38 «The United States: 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/38-the-united-states-a-short-story/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t1:1
# text = why'd they chuck tea in the sea, bit of a waste innit
1	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'd	'd	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	chuck	chuck	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	waste	waste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	innit	innit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chuck** | present | they | tea |  | the sea |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent tea=Theme in sea=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
It was too hot to drink

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t1:o1:1
# text = It was too hot to drink
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | hot *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drink** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To feed the fish

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t1:o2:1
# text = To feed the fish
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	feed	feed	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feed** | to-infinitive |  |  | the fish |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Recipient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They didn't like the taste of British tea at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t1:o3:1
# text = They didn't like the taste of British tea at all
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	taste	taste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	British	British	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **like** | past · do-support | They | the taste of British tea |  | all |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot taste=Theme |
| 2 | **taste** |  |  | British tea |  |  |  |  | nom taste «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To protest against taxes they had no say in

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t1:o4:1
# text = To protest against taxes they had no say in
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	protest	protest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
3	against	against	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	taxes	tax	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	det	_	_
8	say	say	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **protest** *speech: disagree* | to-infinitive | taxes *= tax* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | against taxes | vn rebel-71.2-2 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent against tax=Topic |
| 2 | **have** | past | taxes *= tax* | no say |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent say=Patient |

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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, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/e4/)
- next →: [The United States: a short story, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/38-the-united-states-a-short-story/t2/)
- ↑ back to [The United States: a short story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/38-the-united-states-a-short-story/)