--- title: Boasting cousins and made-up holidays — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Boasting cousins and made-up holidays», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Cousin Jake from Texas came to stay and said he'd ridden a real bull at a rodeo «for like ten minutes». --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/) [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/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Boasting cousins and made-up holidays # Boasting cousins and made-up holidays Lesson 435 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 26 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/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/0/) — Cousin Jake from Texas came to stay and said he'd ridden a real bull at a rodeo «for like ten minutes». - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/1/) — Grandpa laughed: «Son, the pros last eight seconds.» Everyone laughed, Jake too, and after that Grandpa asked «How many seconds?» every time Jake told a story. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/2/) — Knowing one real fact is often enough to spot a tall tale — and you can enjoy a tall tale without believing it. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/6/) — Most boasts are mostly true with one bit stretched; you don't have to call it out every time. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/7/) — Stories also grow in the telling. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/9/) — His friend's dad, a pilot, said kindly: «Kids can visit the cockpit sometimes, mate, but nobody flies it.» Isaac said «Okay, I sat in the seat when it was parked» — still cool, and he was glad he'd said it. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/10/) — Cousin Molly in Newcastle bragged about a pony, a laptop AND a trampoline; her mam rolled her eyes: «You got a jigsaw and socks, pet.» Molly sulked, then played the jigsaw with everyone, and it was canny — Geordie for nice. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/11/) — Too many tall tales cost you when you finally have a true one. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/12/) — Mila in Auckland really did swim with dolphins, but nobody believed her: «You said you met a mermaid last year.» She had to show a photo from her mum's phone. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/13/) — Sophie told a made-up ghost story at a sleepover as if it were true, and at three in the morning one girl was so scared she rang her mum to go home. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/14/) — Scary stories are fun when everyone knows they are stories. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/16/) — Callum's cousin said he was «bare close» (very close, London slang) with a famous YouTuber who texts him daily; the texts «disappear». - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/17/) — He had once got a reply to a comment. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/18/) — Aiden's cousin said he had a girlfriend on holiday; his aunt said, «He's nine, Aiden. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/19/) — He means he waved at her.» Aiden kept it to himself, not wanting to embarrass him. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/20/) — Professional bull riders need to stay on for eight seconds; nobody rides a bucking bull for ten minutes. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/21/) — The sea around the Maldives is warm all year, about as warm as a bath. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/22/) — Visitors to the Eiffel Tower can climb stairs only to the second floor; the top is reached by lift, and the climb takes far more than five minutes. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/23/) — Children may sometimes visit a plane's cockpit, but only trained pilots fly the plane. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/24/) — Knowing a few real facts helps you spot exaggerations. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/25/) — Many boasts are mostly true with one bit stretched; stories often grow each time they are retold. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/26/) — Each made-up story spends some of your trust, so later even your true stories may not be believed. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/27/) — Making up a scary story as if it were true can frighten people badly; saying «this is made up» first keeps it fun. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/28/) — Not going away on holiday is normal, and true small stories make good conversations. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/29/) — Present contests make people lie, and nobody really wins them. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/435-boasting-cousins-and-made-up-holidays/30/) — You can quietly not believe a boast without embarrassing the person. - ← previous: [The friend with a PS6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/434-the-friend-with-a-ps6/) - next →: [Covering for a friend](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/436-covering-for-a-friend/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)