---
title: Why do birds sing loudest at dawn? — Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do birds sing loudest at dawn? Test 11 of lesson 33 «Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight» 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 11 · Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why do birds sing loudest at dawn?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** birds · **What happens:** sing · **To what, where:** loudest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 of lesson 33 «Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight» 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/33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t11:1
# text = Why do birds sing loudest at dawn?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	loudest	loud	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | present · do-support | birds | loudest |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location loud=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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The air is still and quiet, so songs carry far

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t11:o1:1
# text = The air is still and quiet, so songs carry far
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	carry	carry	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the air |  |  |  | still | quiet *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **carry** | present | songs |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sun makes their throats warm

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t11:o2:1
# text = The sun makes their throats warm
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	throats	throat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | the sun | their throats |  |  |  | warm *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset throat=Product |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Birds can only see at dawn

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t11:o3:1
# text = Birds can only see at dawn
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | can | Birds |  |  |  | dawn |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They are complaining loudly that they are hungry after the long night

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t11:o4:1
# text = They are complaining loudly that they are hungry after the long night
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	complaining	complain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	loudly	loudly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
9	after	after	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **complain** *speech: other* | present · progressive | They |  |  |  |  | loudly *property* | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | they |  |  |  | night | hungry *property* | tree rules |

<!-- 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 -->

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- ← previous: [Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight/t10/)
- next →: [Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight/e1/)
- ↑ back to [Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight/)