---
title: Grandpa says his bones break more easily than when he was young. Why? — The human life cycle and growing up · tree and pragmatics
description: Grandpa says his bones break more easily than when he was young. Why? Test 9 of lesson 92 «The human life cycle and growing up» of the world course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/92-human-life-cycle/t9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/) / [The human life cycle and growing up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/92-human-life-cycle/) / t9

# Test 9 · The human life cycle and growing up

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Grandpa says his bones break more easily than when he was young. Why?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Grandpa, bones · **What happens:** say, break, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 of lesson 92 «The human life cycle and growing up» of the world 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/world/92-human-life-cycle/#t9).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Grandpa says his bones break more easily than when he was young.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:92-human-life-cycle:t9:1
# text = Grandpa says his bones break more easily than when he was young.
1	Grandpa	Grandpa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	break	break	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
7	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Grandpa |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **break** | present | Grandpa's bones |  |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Grandpa |  |  |  |  | young *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.

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

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:92-human-life-cycle:t9:2
# text = Why?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Bones can become weaker in old age

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:92-human-life-cycle:t9:o1:1
# text = Bones can become weaker in old age
1	Bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	weaker	weak	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Old bones are made of different stuff

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:92-human-life-cycle:t9:o2:1
# text = Old bones are made of different stuff
1	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	stuff	stuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present · passive |  | Old bones |  |  |  | of different stuff | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Bones get harder and stronger with age

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:92-human-life-cycle:t9:o3:1
# text = Bones get harder and stronger with age
1	Bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	xcomp	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | present | Bones |  |  |  | with age | hard *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His bones have grown too long

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:92-human-life-cycle:t9:o4:1
# text = His bones have grown too long
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | present · perfect | His bones |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The human life cycle and growing up, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/92-human-life-cycle/t8/)
- next →: [The human life cycle and growing up, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/92-human-life-cycle/t10/)
- ↑ back to [The human life cycle and growing up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/92-human-life-cycle/)