---
title: How could cleaner rivers bring back otters? — Sea lions, seals and otters · tree and pragmatics
description: How could cleaner rivers bring back otters? Test 12 · ★★★ of lesson 100 «Sea lions, seals and otters» of the biology 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 12 · ★★★ · Sea lions, seals and otters

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How could cleaner rivers bring back otters?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** cleaner rivers · **What happens:** bring back · **To what, where:** otters

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★★★ of lesson 100 «Sea lions, seals and otters» of the biology 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/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/#t12).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t12:1
# text = How could cleaner rivers bring back otters?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	cleaner	clean	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	amod	_	_
4	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	bring	bring	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	back	back	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring back** | could | cleaner rivers |  | otters |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument otter=Destination |

<!-- .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 -->
More fish survive, and otters are no longer poisoned

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t12:o1:1
# text = More fish survive, and otters are no longer poisoned
1	More	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	amod	_	_
2	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	survive	survive	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
6	otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
8	no	no	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	_
10	poisoned	poison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **survive** | present | More fish |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **poison** | present · passive |  | otters |  |  |  | long *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Otters only like the taste of clean, fresh water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t12:o2:1
# text = Otters only like the taste of clean, fresh water
1	Otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	taste	taste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **taste** |  |  | clean fresh water |  |  |  |  | nom taste «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Clean water is warmer for otters

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t12:o3:1
# text = Clean water is warmer for otters
1	Clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	warmer	warm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Clean water |  |  |  |  | for otters; warm *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Clean rivers flow faster for swimming

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t12:o4:1
# text = Clean rivers flow faster for swimming
1	Clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flow	flow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	swimming	swimming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flow** | present | Clean rivers |  |  |  |  | for swimming; fast *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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**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.

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- ← previous: [Sea lions, seals and otters, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/t11/)
- next →: [Sea lions, seals and otters, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/e1/)
- ↑ back to [Sea lions, seals and otters](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/)