---
title: A US court tells the president he broke the law. Why is that possible? — The United States: a short story · tree and pragmatics
description: A US court tells the president he broke the law. Why is that possible? Test 6 · ★★ 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 6 · ★★ · The United States: a short story

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A US court tells the president he broke the law. Why is that possible?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** US court, court, that · **What happens:** tell, break, be · **To what, where:** president, law · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 · ★★ 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/#t6).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A US court tells the president he broke the law.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t6:1
# text = A US court tells the president he broke the law.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	US	US	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	president	president	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | a US court | the president |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent president=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **break** | past | court | the law |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer law=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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* Why is that possible?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t6:2
# text = Why is that possible?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
4	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is not possible

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t6:o1:1
# text = It is not possible
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | It |  |  |  |  | possible *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The president chose to obey once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t6:o2:1
# text = The president chose to obey once
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	president	president	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** | past | the president |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **obey** | to-infinitive | the president *not said here* |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Constitution makes the parts of government check each other

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t6:o3:1
# text = The Constitution makes the parts of government check each other
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Constitution	constitution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	parts	part	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	check	check	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	8	obj	_	_
10	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	fixed	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | the Constitution |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **check** | present | the parts of government | each |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent each=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Courts are above everyone and make all laws

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:38-the-united-states-a-short-story:t6:o4:1
# text = Courts are above everyone and make all laws
1	Courts	court	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	above	above	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	6	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	make	make	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	laws	law	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
```

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