---
title: Why is the beaver on Canadian things like the five-cent coin? — Canada: a short story · tree and pragmatics
description: Why is the beaver on Canadian things like the five-cent coin? Test 3 of lesson 39 «Canada: 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 3 · Canada: a short story

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why is the beaver on Canadian things like the five-cent coin?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** beaver · **What happens:** be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 of lesson 39 «Canada: 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/39-canada-a-short-story/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:39-canada-a-short-story:t3:1
# text = Why is the beaver on Canadian things like the five-cent coin?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	Canadian	Canadian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	cent	cent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	coin	coin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the beaver on Canadian things like the cent coin |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 the king's pet

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:39-canada-a-short-story:t3:o1:1
# text = It was the king's pet
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	pet	pet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | It | the king's pet |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is a joke from 2020

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:39-canada-a-short-story:t3:o2:1
# text = It is a joke from 2020
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	2020	2020	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	4	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | It | a joke |  | 2020 |  |  | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fur trade made the beaver a symbol of Canada

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:39-canada-a-short-story:t3:o3:1
# text = The fur trade made the beaver a symbol of Canada
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	beaver	beaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	symbol	symbol	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Canada	Canada	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | the fur trade | a symbol of Canada | the beaver |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset beaver=Beneficiary symbol=Product |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Beavers built the dam beside the very first Canadian parliament

```conllu
# sent_id = question:history:39-canada-a-short-story:t3:o4:1
# text = Beavers built the dam beside the very first Canadian parliament
1	Beavers	beaver	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	dam	dam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	10	amod	_	_
9	Canadian	Canadian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	parliament	parliament	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | past | Beavers | the dam |  | the first Canadian parliament |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dam=Product |

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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: [Canada: a short story, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/39-canada-a-short-story/t2/)
- next →: [Canada: a short story, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/39-canada-a-short-story/t4/)
- ↑ back to [Canada: a short story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/history/39-canada-a-short-story/)