--- title: Reading a story: characters, plot and setting — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Reading a story: characters, plot and setting», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Every story has characters (who), a setting (where and when) and a plot (what happens). --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Reading a story: characters, plot and… # Reading a story: characters, plot and setting Lesson 22 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 25 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/0/) — Every story has characters (who), a setting (where and when) and a plot (what happens). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/1/) — Read this: «Nell found the stray kitten behind the bins. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/2/) — It was thin and wet and hissed when she reached out. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/3/) — She went inside and came back with a saucer of milk and an old towel.» Nobody says Nell is kind and patient, but her actions show it: she helps even after the kitten hisses. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/4/) — Most stories climb a story mountain: an opening, a build-up, a problem, a resolution where the problem is sorted, and an ending. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/5/) — In Hansel and Gretel, an old fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, Hansel drops breadcrumbs to find the way home, but the birds eat them. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/6/) — The plan failed because he didn't think of the birds: one event causes the next. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/7/) — Stories carry big ideas. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/8/) — Tim wants to win the race, but stops to help a friend who falls; he comes last and smiles. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/9/) — The message: kindness matters more than winning. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/10/) — In Aesop's old fable, a fox can't reach some grapes and walks off saying, «They're sour anyway.» It teaches that people sometimes pretend they never wanted what they couldn't get. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/11/) — Small marks can carry big meaning. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/12/) — «Ravi pretended he wasn't scared of the dark. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/13/) — But every night he left the hall light on "by accident".» The quotation marks tell you it wasn't an accident at all. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/15/) — Both are judging characters, and that's what good readers do. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/16/) — Characters are the people or animals in a story; we learn what they are like from what they do, say and think. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/17/) — The setting is where and when a story happens. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/19/) — In many good stories a character changes by the end, showing what they learned from the problem. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/20/) — A story mountain shows the usual shape: opening, build-up, problem, resolution and ending. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/21/) — In a plot, one event often causes the next; this is cause and effect. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/23/) — A fable is a short story, often with animals, that teaches a lesson called a moral. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/24/) — Aesop's fables are very old stories, told for over two thousand years. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/25/) — Quotation marks around a word can show that it isn't meant literally, like «by accident» when it was on purpose. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/26/) — A summary tells the main events in a few words, not every detail. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/22-reading-a-story-characters-plot-and-setting/27/) — Your opinion of a story is fine as long as you give a reason. - ← previous: [Author's choices: why this word, why this way](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/21-authors-choices-why-this-word-why-this-way/) - next →: [Reading non-fiction: recount, instructions, report](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/23-reading-non-fiction-recount-instructions-report/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)