---
title: What would happen to peregrines in a city if all the pigeons disappe… — The city as a habitat · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to peregrines in a city if all the pigeons disappeared? Test 4 of lesson 14 «The city as a habitat» 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 wrong.
---

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# Test 4 · The city as a habitat

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to peregrines in a city if all the pigeons disappeared?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** pigeons · **What happens:** happen, disappear · **To what, where:** city

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This is test 4 of lesson 14 «The city as a habitat» 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/14-the-city-as-a-habitat/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:14-the-city-as-a-habitat:t4:1
# text = What would happen to peregrines in a city if all the pigeons disappeared?
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	_	5	case	_	_
5	peregrines	peregrine	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	12	det:predet	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  | a city |  | to peregrines | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in city=Location |
| 2 | **disappear** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | all pigeons |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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 -->
They would stay and catch fish from the river instead

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:14-the-city-as-a-habitat:t4:o1:1
# text = They would stay and catch fish from the river instead
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	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
6	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | would | They |  |  |  |  | instead *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **catch** | infinitive | They *not said here* | fish |  | the river |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent fish=Theme from river=Source |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would lose a main food and might leave

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:14-the-city-as-a-habitat:t4:o2:1
# text = They would lose a main food and might leave
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	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	main	main	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | would | They | a main food |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Eventuality |
| 2 | **leave** | might | They *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

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

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:14-the-city-as-a-habitat:t4:o3:1
# text = Nothing, they eat only fish
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	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	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would start eating bins

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:14-the-city-as-a-habitat:t4:o4:1
# text = They would start eating bins
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	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
5	bins	bin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | would | They |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund | They *not said here* | bins |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bin=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.

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