---
title: What would happen if wombat droppings were round instead of cubes? — Australia's forests and Tasmania: devi… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if wombat droppings were round instead of cubes? Test 6 of lesson 167 «Australia's forests and Tasmania: devils, cassowaries, lyrebirds and cube-shaped droppings» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each opt
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/t6/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/) / [Australia's forests and Tasmania: devi…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/) / t6

# Test 6 · Australia's forests and Tasmania: devils, cassowaries, lyr…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if wombat droppings were round instead of cubes?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** wombat droppings · **What happens:** happen, be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 of lesson 167 «Australia's forests and Tasmania: devils, cassowaries, lyrebirds and cube-shaped droppings» 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/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds:t6:1
# text = What would happen if wombat droppings were round instead of cubes?
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	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	wombat	wombat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	droppings	dropping	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	round	round	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
9	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	11	case	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	cubes	cube	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | wombat droppings |  |  |  |  | instead cubes; round *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
They could roll off the rocks and logs where the wombat marks its area

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds:t6:o1:1
# text = They could roll off the rocks and logs where the wombat marks its area
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	roll	roll	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	off	off	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	logs	log	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
9	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	12	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wombat	wombat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	marks	mark	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	area	area	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **roll off** | could | They |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **mark** | present | the rocks and logs | wombat's area |  |  |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent area=Destination |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would grow into trees

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds:t6:o2:1
# text = They would grow into trees
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	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | They |  |  |  |  | into trees *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into tree=Result |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would turn into stones

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds:t6:o3:1
# text = They would turn into stones
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	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, because wombats never leave droppings anywhere at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds:t6:o4:1
# text = Nothing, because wombats never leave droppings anywhere at all
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	wombats	wombat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	leave	leave	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
7	droppings	dropping	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	6	advmod	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **leave** | present | wombats | droppings |  |  |  | anywhere *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dropping=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Australia's forests and Tasmania: devi…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/t5/)
- next →: [Australia's forests and Tasmania: devi…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/t7/)
- ↑ back to [Australia's forests and Tasmania: devils, cassowaries, lyrebirds and cube-shaped droppings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/)