---
title: What would happen if a farm sheep was never shorn for years? — Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climber… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a farm sheep was never shorn for years? Test 8 of lesson 211 «Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth» 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 · Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a farm sheep was never shorn for years?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **What happens:** happen, not shorn · **To what, where:** farm sheep

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This is test 8 of lesson 211 «Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth» 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/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth:t8:1
# text = What would happen if a farm sheep was never shorn for years?
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	_	10	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
9	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	shorn	shorn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	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 | **not** **shorn** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | a farm sheep |  |  | year |  | 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its wool would fall out by itself

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth:t8:o1:1
# text = Its wool would fall out by itself
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wool	wool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall out** | would | Its wool |  |  |  |  | by wool | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by itself=Location |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its wool would stop at a short length

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth:t8:o2:1
# text = Its wool would stop at a short length
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wool	wool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | would | Its wool |  |  | a short length |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at length=Location |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its wool would keep growing into a huge heavy fleece

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth:t8:o3:1
# text = Its wool would keep growing into a huge heavy fleece
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wool	wool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	fleece	fleece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | would | Its wool |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | gerund | Its wool *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into a huge heavy fleece *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into fleece=Result |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would turn into a goat

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth:t8:o4:1
# text = It would turn into a goat
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	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | It |  |  |  |  | into a goat *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into goat=Result |

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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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- ← previous: [Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climber…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/t7/)
- next →: [Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climber…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/t9/)
- ↑ back to [Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/)