---
title: A dry year leaves only big, hard seeds on an island. What would happ… — Natural selection we can watch: moths,… · tree and pragmatics
description: A dry year leaves only big, hard seeds on an island. What would happen to the next generation of finches? Test 10 · ★★ of lesson 279 «Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics 
---

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# Test 10 · ★★ · Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A dry year leaves only big, hard seeds on an island. What would happen to the next generation of finches?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** dry year · **What happens:** leave, happen · **To what, where:** big hard seeds, island

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This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 279 «Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants» 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/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/#t10).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A dry year leaves only big, hard seeds on an island.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants:t10:1
# text = A dry year leaves only big, hard seeds on an island.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	leaves	leave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	seeds	seed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | present | a dry year | big hard seeds |  | a island |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent on island=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What would happen to the next generation of finches?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants:t10:2
# text = What would happen to the next generation of finches?
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	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	generation	generation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	finches	finch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  | to the next generation of finches |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would grow teeth to crack the seeds

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants:t10:o1:1
# text = They would grow teeth to crack the seeds
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	crack	crack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	seeds	seed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | They | teeth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **crack** | to-infinitive | They *not said here* | the seeds |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location seed=Theme |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would tend to have smaller beaks

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants:t10:o2:1
# text = They would tend to have smaller beaks
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tend	tend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	amod	_	_
7	beaks	beak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tend** | would | They |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | to-infinitive | They *not said here* | smaller beaks |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beak=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would all stop eating seeds at once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants:t10:o3:1
# text = They would all stop eating seeds at once
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	amod	_	_
6	seeds	seed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | would | They | eating seeds |  |  |  | all *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality seed=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would tend to have bigger beaks

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants:t10:o4:1
# text = They would tend to have bigger beaks
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tend	tend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	amod	_	_
7	beaks	beak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tend** | would | They |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | to-infinitive | They *not said here* | bigger beaks |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beak=Patient |

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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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