---
title: What would happen to a polar bear if the sea ice melted early each y… — Bears · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to a polar bear if the sea ice melted early each year? Test 6 of lesson 23 «Bears» 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 6 · Bears

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to a polar bear if the sea ice melted early each year?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **What happens:** happen, melt · **To what, where:** sea ice

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 of lesson 23 «Bears» 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/23-bears/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:23-bears:t6:1
# text = What would happen to a polar bear if the sea ice melted early each year?
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	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	polar	polar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
12	melted	melt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
14	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  | the sea ice |  |  |  | to a polar bear | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **melt** | participle |  | the sea ice *not said here* |  |  | year | early *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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 -->
It would simply switch to eating bamboo instead

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:23-bears:t6:o1:1
# text = It would simply switch to eating bamboo instead
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	simply	simply	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	switch	switch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	eating	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	bamboo	bamboo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **switch** | would | It |  |  |  |  | instead, simply *property* | vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  | bamboo |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bamboo=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would catch more seals than ever before

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:23-bears:t6:o2:1
# text = It would catch more seals than ever 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	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	seals	seal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	obl	_	_
8	before	before	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | would | It | more seals |  |  |  | before *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seal=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, polar bears hunt only on land

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:23-bears:t6:o3:1
# text = Nothing, polar bears hunt only on land
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	polar	polar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	bears	bear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	hunt	hunt	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hunt** | present | Nothing | land |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would have less time to hunt seals

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:23-bears:t6:o4:1
# text = It would have less time to hunt seals
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	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	hunt	hunt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	seals	seal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | would | It |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hunt** | to-infinitive |  | seals |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seal=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: [Bears, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/23-bears/t5/)
- next →: [Bears, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/23-bears/t7/)
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