---
title: Why do cover stories for harmless things make no sense? — Pretend, cover stories and lies that b… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do cover stories for harmless things make no sense? Test 11 · ★★ of lesson 85 «Pretend, cover stories and lies that become habits» of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

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# Test 11 · ★★ · Pretend, cover stories and lies that become habits

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why do cover stories for harmless things make no sense?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** harmless things · **What happens:** cover, make · **To what, where:** stories, sense

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 85 «Pretend, cover stories and lies that become habits» of the religion ethics 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/religion-ethics/85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits:t11:1
# text = Why do cover stories for harmless things make no sense?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	cover	cover	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	harmless	harmless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | present · do-support |  | stories |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme story=Destination |
| 2 | **make** | present | harmless things | no sense |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sense=Product |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If the truth is harmless, telling it costs nothing, and the lie risks trust

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits:t11:o1:1
# text = If the truth is harmless, telling it costs nothing, and the lie risks trust
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	harmless	harmless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	csubj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	costs	cost	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lie	lie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	risks	risk	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	trust	trust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | the truth |  |  |  |  | harmless *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  | truth |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |
| 3 | **cost** | present | telling | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme nothing=Value |
| 4 | **risk** | present | the lie | trust |  |  |  |  | vn risk-94-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trust=Pivot |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because cover stories always work perfectly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits:t11:o2:1
# text = Because cover stories always work perfectly
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	5	advmod	_	_
5	work	work	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | present | cover stories |  |  |  |  | always, perfectly *property* | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because Mum always prefers a story

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits:t11:o3:1
# text = Because Mum always prefers a story
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	Mum	mum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	prefers	prefer	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prefer** | present | Mum | a story |  |  |  | always *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because skate parks are always banned

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits:t11:o4:1
# text = Because skate parks are always banned
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	skate	skate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	parks	park	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
6	banned	ban	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ban** | present · passive |  | skate parks |  |  |  | always *property* | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**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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- next →: [Pretend, cover stories and lies that b…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits/e1/)
- ↑ back to [Pretend, cover stories and lies that become habits](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/85-pretend-cover-stories-and-lies-that-become-habits/)