---
title: A comedy show copies the news with a straight face. What would happe… — Memes, clips and jokes about politicians · tree and pragmatics
description: A comedy show copies the news with a straight face. What would happen if someone thought it was real news? Test 8 of lesson 13 «Memes, clips and jokes about politicians» of the politics course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova'
---

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# Test 8 · Memes, clips and jokes about politicians

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A comedy show copies the news with a straight face. What would happen if someone thought it was real news?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** comedy show, someone, show · **What happens:** copy, happen, think, be · **To what, where:** news, real news · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 of lesson 13 «Memes, clips and jokes about politicians» of the politics 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/politics/13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians/#t8).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A comedy show copies the news with a straight face.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians:t8:1
# text = A comedy show copies the news with a straight face.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	comedy	comedy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	show	show	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	copies	copy	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	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	straight	straight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **copy** | present | a comedy show | the news |  |  |  | with a straight face | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent news=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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What would happen if someone thought it was real news?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians:t8:2
# text = What would happen if someone thought it was real news?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	nsubj	_	_
6	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | someone |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | show | real news |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would learn every fact correctly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians:t8:o1:1
# text = They would learn every fact correctly
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
5	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	correctly	correctly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | would | They | every fact |  |  |  | correctly *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fact=Topic |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The show would become real news

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians:t8:o2:1
# text = The show would become real news
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	show	show	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | would | the show | real news |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, satire is always true

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians:t8:o3:1
# text = Nothing, satire is always true
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	satire	satire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
6	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Nothing satire |  |  |  |  | always, true *property* | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could believe jokes as if they were facts

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians:t8:o4:1
# text = They could believe jokes as if they were facts
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	jokes	joke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	facts	fact	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | could | They | jokes |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer joke=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | jokes *= joke* |  |  |  |  | as facts | 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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Memes, clips and jokes about politicians, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/politics/13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians/t7/)
- next →: [Memes, clips and jokes about politicians, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/politics/13-memes-clips-and-jokes-about-politicians/t9/)
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