---
title: What would happen if the most powerful person in a country could nev… — The King, the courts and the rules abo… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if the most powerful person in a country could never be taken to court? Test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 7 «The King, the courts and the rules above the rules» of the politics course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's 
---

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# Test 5 · ★★★ · The King, the courts and the rules above the rules

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if the most powerful person in a country could never be taken to court?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** happen, not take · **To what, where:** powerful person, court

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 7 «The King, the courts and the rules above the rules» 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/7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules:t5:1
# text = What would happen if the most powerful person in a country could never be taken to court?
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	_	15	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	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 | **not** **take** *a condition, not said to happen* | could · passive |  | the powerful person in a country |  | court |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to court=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 -->
Courts would have more cases than ever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules:t5:o1:1
# text = Courts would have more cases than ever
1	Courts	court	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	cases	case	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would | Courts | more cases |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent case=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Laws would become fairer for ordinary people

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules:t5:o2:1
# text = Laws would become fairer for ordinary people
1	Laws	law	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	fairer	fair	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Everyone else would follow the law much more carefully

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules:t5:o3:1
# text = Everyone else would follow the law much more carefully
1	Everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	4	nsubj	_	_
2	else	else	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	much	much	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
9	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | would | Everyone | the law |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent law=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could break the law without anyone stopping them

```conllu
# sent_id = question:politics:7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules:t5:o4:1
# text = They could break the law without anyone stopping them
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	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	without	without	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obl	_	_
8	stopping	stop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	acl	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | could | They | the law |  |  |  | without anyone | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer law=Patient |
| 2 | **stop** | gerund |  | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality they=Eventuality |

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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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- ↑ back to [The King, the courts and the rules above the rules](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/politics/7-the-king-the-courts-and-the-rules-above-the-rules/)