---
title: What would happen if a squirrel could not gnaw anything hard for mon… — Foxes and squirrels · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a squirrel could not gnaw anything hard for months? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 215 «Foxes and squirrels» 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 · ★ · Foxes and squirrels

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a squirrel could not gnaw anything hard for months?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** squirrel · **What happens:** happen, not gnaw · **To what, where:** anything

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 215 «Foxes and squirrels» 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/215-foxes-and-squirrels/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:215-foxes-and-squirrels:t8:1
# text = What would happen if a squirrel could not gnaw anything hard for months?
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	_	9	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	squirrel	squirrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	gnaw	gnaw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
10	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obj	_	_
11	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	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 | **not** **gnaw** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | a squirrel | anything |  |  | month |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
Nothing at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:215-foxes-and-squirrels:t8:o1:1
# text = Nothing at all
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	1	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its tail would get longer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:215-foxes-and-squirrels:t8:o2:1
# text = Its tail would get longer
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	longer	long	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | would | Its tail |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its teeth would fall out

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:215-foxes-and-squirrels:t8:o3:1
# text = Its teeth would fall out
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	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	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its front teeth would grow too long

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:215-foxes-and-squirrels:t8:o4:1
# text = Its front teeth would grow too long
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	front	front	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | Its front teeth |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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: [Foxes and squirrels, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/215-foxes-and-squirrels/t7/)
- next →: [Foxes and squirrels, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/215-foxes-and-squirrels/t9/)
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