--- title: Who stole the remote? Jumping to conclusions at home — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Who stole the remote? Jumping to conclusions at home», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Dad can't find the TV remote. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/) [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/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Who stole the remote? Jumping to concl… # Who stole the remote? Jumping to conclusions at home Lesson 162 of the world 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/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/0/) — Dad can't find the TV remote. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/1/) — "Right, who's taken it? - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/2/) — Ruby, you were watching cartoons." Ruby was at school all day, and the remote is in Dad's own dressing-gown pocket. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/3/) — He picked a suspect before he looked for a single clue. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/4/) — That is jumping to conclusions: deciding the answer first and checking afterwards, or never. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/5/) — At home it happens all the time: a crash in the kitchen, mud on the carpet, an empty biscuit tin, a charger that "someone broke". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/6/) — Good detectives do it the other way round. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/7/) — They check the easy things first (your own pockets, your own head, the plug switch), then ask simple questions: who was there, who could even reach it, what do the clues look like? - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/8/) — The usual suspect is a guess, not proof. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/9/) — Sam "always" eats the biscuits, but this time Dad ate eight of the ten. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/10/) — The muddy prints in the hall are paw-shaped, with toes, so it is the dog, not Noah in his socks. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/11/) — The family takes the mickey out of the jump, not the person: "Check your pocket, Sherlock." Saying sorry when the clue points the other way is how a fair grown-up ends it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/12/) — Jumping to conclusions means deciding what happened before looking at the evidence. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/13/) — Most "stolen" things at home are just lost or put down somewhere and forgotten. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/14/) — Check yourself first: your own pockets, bag and head are the quickest places to look. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/15/) — What someone did last time is a clue to check, not proof of what happened this time. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/16/) — "He always does it" is a guess; counting what really happened is evidence. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/17/) — When something doesn't work, test the simple causes first: is the socket switched on, is the cable in? - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/18/) — The boring answer is usually right. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/19/) — Look at all the clues, including ones that point away from your suspect, like paw prints with toes. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/20/) — Ask "could they even have done it?": a two-year-old cannot zip up a schoolbag, and someone at school cannot take a remote at home. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/21/) — Being near something when it breaks does not mean you broke it, and an accident is not the same as doing it on purpose. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/22/) — Tyres often get punctured by thorns and nails, so look at the tyre before looking for a villain. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/23/) — Accusing someone of stealing is serious and hurts them if it is wrong, so you need evidence before saying it out loud. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/24/) — Words people use: "nicked" means stole (UK), "Sherlock" is a teasing name for someone playing detective badly, "sus" means suspicious, "no cap" means honestly, "it's giving charcoal" means it looks like charcoal (young slang), "sass" means cheek, "ye wee rascal" is a fond Scottish telling-off, and "resting his eyes" is a joke for having a nap. - ← previous: [Lucky socks and Grandma's superstitions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/161-lucky-socks-and-grandmas-superstitions/) - next →: ["Because I said so" and other dead-end reasons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/163-because-i-said-so-dead-end-reasons/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)