---
title: What would happen to snowy owls in a year with very few lemmings? — The polar zone: arctic foxes, snowy ow… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to snowy owls in a year with very few lemmings? Test 7 of lesson 106 «The polar zone: arctic foxes, snowy owls, lemmings and reindeer» 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 · The polar zone: arctic foxes, snowy owls, lemmings and rei…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to snowy owls in a year with very few lemmings?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **What happens:** happen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 of lesson 106 «The polar zone: arctic foxes, snowy owls, lemmings and reindeer» 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/106-the-polar-zone-arctic-foxes-snowy-owls-lemmings-reindeer/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:106-the-polar-zone-arctic-foxes-snowy-owls-lemmings-reindeer:t7:1
# text = What would happen to snowy owls in a year with very few lemmings?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	snowy	snowy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	owls	owl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	lemmings	lemming	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  | year | to snowy owls; with few lemmings | 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, they only eat Arctic fish

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:106-the-polar-zone-arctic-foxes-snowy-owls-lemmings-reindeer:t7:o1:1
# text = Nothing, they only eat Arctic fish
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Arctic	arctic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would raise fewer chicks

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:106-the-polar-zone-arctic-foxes-snowy-owls-lemmings-reindeer:t7:o2:1
# text = They would raise fewer chicks
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	raise	raise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	fewer	few	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	chicks	chick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **raise** | would | They | fewer chicks |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chick=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would turn brown to hide better

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:106-the-polar-zone-arctic-foxes-snowy-owls-lemmings-reindeer:t7:o3:1
# text = They would turn brown to hide better
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | They |  |  |  |  | brown *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hide** | to-infinitive | They *not said here* |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would raise more chicks than ever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:106-the-polar-zone-arctic-foxes-snowy-owls-lemmings-reindeer:t7:o4:1
# text = They would raise more chicks than ever
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	raise	raise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	chicks	chick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **raise** | would | They | more chicks |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chick=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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