---
title: What would happen if an elephant had a short nose like a horse but k… — Elephants: the trunk and everything it… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if an elephant had a short nose like a horse but kept its short neck and heavy head? Test 3 of lesson 21 «Elephants: the trunk and everything it does» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's 
---

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# Test 3 · Elephants: the trunk and everything it does

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if an elephant had a short nose like a horse but kept its short neck and heavy head?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** elephant · **What happens:** happen, have, keep · **To what, where:** short nose, short neck

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 of lesson 21 «Elephants: the trunk and everything it does» 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/21-elephants-the-trunk/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:21-elephants-the-trunk:t3:1
# text = What would happen if an elephant had a short nose like a horse but kept its short neck and heavy head?
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	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 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a elephant | a short nose |  |  |  | like a horse | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nose=Patient |
| 3 | **keep** | past | a elephant *not said here* | elephant's short neck and heavy head |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neck=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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would eat more easily than before

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:21-elephants-the-trunk:t3:o1:1
# text = It would eat more easily than before
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	before	before	ADV	RB	_	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | would | It |  |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would grow a longer tail to help

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:21-elephants-the-trunk:t3:o2:1
# text = It would grow a longer tail to help
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	longer	long	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | It | a longer tail |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tail=Theme |
| 2 | **help** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would struggle to reach food and water on the ground

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:21-elephants-the-trunk:t3:o3:1
# text = It would struggle to reach food and water on the ground
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	struggle	struggle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **struggle** | would | It |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reach** | to-infinitive |  | food and water |  | the ground |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent food=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, the trunk is only for smelling

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:21-elephants-the-trunk:t3:o4:1
# text = Nothing, the trunk is only for smelling
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	smelling	smell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
```

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

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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: [Elephants: the trunk and everything it…, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/21-elephants-the-trunk/t2/)
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