---
title: What would happen if a green turtle's seagrass meadow had no turtles… — Turtles and tortoises · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a green turtle's seagrass meadow had no turtles grazing it? Test 11 of lesson 31 «Turtles and tortoises» 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 11 · Turtles and tortoises

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a green turtle's seagrass meadow had no turtles grazing it?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** seagrass meadow, turtles · **What happens:** happen, have, graze · **To what, where:** turtles, turtle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 31 «Turtles and tortoises» 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/31-turtles-and-tortoises/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:31-turtles-and-tortoises:t11:1
# text = What would happen if a green turtle's seagrass meadow had no turtles grazing it?
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	_	11	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	seagrass	seagrass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	turtles	turtle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	grazing	graze	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	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 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a green turtle's seagrass meadow | no turtles |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent turtle=Patient |
| 3 | **graze** | gerund | no turtles *not said here* | turtle |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
The sea would become fresh water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:31-turtles-and-tortoises:t11:o1:1
# text = The sea would become fresh water
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	fresh	fresh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | would | the sea | fresh water |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing at all would change

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:31-turtles-and-tortoises:t11:o2:1
# text = Nothing at all would change
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	1	nmod	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | would | Nothing |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The seagrass would slowly turn into coral and rock

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:31-turtles-and-tortoises:t11:o3:1
# text = The seagrass would slowly turn into coral and rock
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	seagrass	seagrass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	coral	coral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | the seagrass |  |  | coral and rock |  | slowly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into coral=Trajectory |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The seagrass would grow less healthy, like an unmown lawn

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:31-turtles-and-tortoises:t11:o4:1
# text = The seagrass would grow less healthy, like an unmown lawn
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	seagrass	seagrass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
6	healthy	healthy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	unmown	unmown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	lawn	lawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | the seagrass |  |  |  |  | healthy *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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Turtles and tortoises, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/31-turtles-and-tortoises/t10/)
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