---
title: What would happen if a farmer counted the rings on a bristlecone stu… — Record-breakers: the loudest and the l… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a farmer counted the rings on a bristlecone stump? Test 8 · ★★ of lesson 187 «Record-breakers: the loudest and the longest-lived» 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 8 · ★★ · Record-breakers: the loudest and the longest-lived

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a farmer counted the rings on a bristlecone stump?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** farmer · **What happens:** happen, count · **To what, where:** rings, bristlecone stump

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This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 187 «Record-breakers: the loudest and the longest-lived» 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/187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived:t8:1
# text = What would happen if a farmer counted the rings on a bristlecone stump?
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	_	7	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	counted	count	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	rings	ring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	bristlecone	bristlecone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	stump	stump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	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 | **count** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | a farmer | the rings |  | a bristlecone stump |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=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 -->
He could tell roughly how many years it grew

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived:t8:o1:1
# text = He could tell roughly how many years it grew
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	roughly	roughly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
6	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | He |  |  |  | year | roughly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **grow** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, trees have no rings

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived:t8:o2:1
# text = Nothing, trees have no rings
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	rings	ring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | trees | Nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He would learn how tall it was when it was cut

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived:t8:o3:1
# text = He would learn how tall it was when it was cut
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
5	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | would | He |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | tall *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cut** | past · passive |  | it |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He would learn its colour

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived:t8:o4:1
# text = He would learn its colour
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | would | He | its colour |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Topic |

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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: [Record-breakers: the loudest and the l…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived/t7/)
- next →: [Record-breakers: the loudest and the l…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived/t9/)
- ↑ back to [Record-breakers: the loudest and the longest-lived](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/187-record-breakers-the-loudest-and-the-longest-lived/)