---
title: If all the sea otters vanished from a coast, what would happen to th… — Sea lions, seals and otters · tree and pragmatics
description: If all the sea otters vanished from a coast, what would happen to the kelp forest? Test 7 · ★★★ 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 7 · ★★★ · Sea lions, seals and otters

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If all the sea otters vanished from a coast, what would happen to the kelp forest?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** sea otters · **What happens:** vanish, happen · **To what, where:** coast

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 · ★★★ 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/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t7:1
# text = If all the sea otters vanished from a coast, what would happen to the kelp forest?
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	5	det:predet	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	kelp	kelp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **vanish** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | all sea otters |  |  | a coast |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme from coast=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  | to the kelp forest | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
Urchins would multiply and could eat it bare

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t7:o1:1
# text = Urchins would multiply and could eat it bare
1	Urchins	urchin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	multiply	multiply	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **multiply** | would | Urchins |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **eat** | could | Urchins *not said here* | it |  |  |  | bare *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, otters eat only kelp

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t7:o2:1
# text = Nothing, otters eat only kelp
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	kelp	kelp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | present | otters | kelp |  |  |  | Nothing *vocative* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kelp=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The kelp would turn into coral

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t7:o3:1
# text = The kelp would turn into coral
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	kelp	kelp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	coral	coral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | the kelp |  |  | coral |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into coral=Trajectory |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The kelp would grow faster than ever, with no otters to eat it

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters:t7:o4:1
# text = The kelp would grow faster than ever, with no otters to eat it
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	kelp	kelp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	otters	otter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | the kelp |  |  |  |  | with no otters; fast *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | the kelp *not said here* | kelp |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Sea lions, seals and otters, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/t6/)
- next →: [Sea lions, seals and otters, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/t8/)
- ↑ back to [Sea lions, seals and otters](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/100-sea-lions-seals-and-otters/)