---
title: Why might a chilli plant «want» birds but not mammals to eat its fru… — Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why might a chilli plant «want» birds but not mammals to eat its fruit? Test 11 of lesson 255 «Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe» 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 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/t11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/) / [Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/) / t11

# Test 11 · Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying s…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why might a chilli plant «want» birds but not mammals to eat its fruit?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** chilli plant · **What happens:** want, eat · **To what, where:** birds, fruit

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 255 «Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe» 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/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t11:1
# text = Why might a chilli plant «want» birds but not mammals to eat its fruit?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	chilli	chilli	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	mammals	mammal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** *in a quote* | might | a chilli plant | birds but mammals |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot bird=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | a chilli plant *not said here* | plant's fruit |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fruit=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 -->
Birds give the plant water in return

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t11:o1:1
# text = Birds give the plant water in return
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | present | Birds | the plant water |  | return |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mammals cannot reach the fruit anyway

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t11:o2:1
# text = Mammals cannot reach the fruit anyway
1	Mammals	mammal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	anyway	anyway	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **reach** | can | Mammals | the fruit |  |  |  | anyway *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent fruit=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Birds are smaller, so they eat less

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t11:o3:1
# text = Birds are smaller, so they eat less
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Birds |  |  |  |  | small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | present | Birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | less *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Birds feel no burn and spread the seeds whole

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t11:o4:1
# text = Birds feel no burn and spread the seeds whole
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	feel	feel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	burn	burn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	spread	spread	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	seeds	seed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | present | Birds | no burn |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent burn=Theme |
| 2 | **spread** | infinitive | Birds *not said here* | the seeds |  |  |  | whole *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location seed=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/t10/)
- next →: [Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/e1/)
- ↑ back to [Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/)