---
title: How can the same foxglove be both a poison and a medicine? — Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging… · tree and pragmatics
description: How can the same foxglove be both a poison and a medicine? Test 6 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 wrong.
---

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# Test 6 · Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying s…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How can the same foxglove be both a poison and a medicine?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** same foxglove · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** poison

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This is test 6 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/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t6:1
# text = How can the same foxglove be both a poison and a medicine?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	foxglove	foxglove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
7	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc:preconj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | can | the same foxglove | a poison and a medicine |  |  |  |  | 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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Only doctors are safe from its poison

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t6:o1:1
# text = Only doctors are safe from its poison
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	doctors	doctor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | doctors |  |  | its poison |  | safe *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The amount decides: a careful dose helps, too much harms

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t6:o2:1
# text = The amount decides: a careful dose helps, too much harms
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	amount	amount	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	decides	decide	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	dose	dose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	helps	help	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	too	too	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	nsubj	_	_
12	harms	harm	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decide** | present | the amount |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **help** | present | a careful dose |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **harm** | present | much |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The flowers are medicine and the stalks poison

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t6:o3:1
# text = The flowers are medicine and the stalks poison
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	stalks	stalk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	compound	_	_
8	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the flowers | medicine and the stalks poison |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It is poison in summer and medicine in winter

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe:t6:o4:1
# text = It is poison in summer and medicine in winter
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | It | poison and medicine |  |  | summer; winter |  | 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.

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- ← previous: [Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging…, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/t5/)
- next →: [Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/t7/)
- ↑ 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/)