---
title: In a game, birds have solid heavy bones to make them tough. Why woul… — Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight · tree and pragmatics
description: In a game, birds have solid heavy bones to make them tough. Why would real flying birds be worse off? Test 9 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 choic
---

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# Test 9 · Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a game, birds have solid heavy bones to make them tough. Why would real flying birds be worse off?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** birds, real flying birds · **What happens:** have, make, fly, be · **To what, where:** solid heavy bones, game, bones

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 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/#t9).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* In a game, birds have solid heavy bones to make them tough.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t9:1
# text = In a game, birds have solid heavy bones to make them tough.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	tough	tough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | birds | solid heavy bones |  | a game |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient |
| 2 | **make** | to-infinitive | birds *not said here* | bones *= bone* |  |  |  | tough *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Product |

<!-- .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:* Why would real flying birds be worse off?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t9:2
# text = Why would real flying birds be worse off?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	amod	_	_
5	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
8	off	off	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | infinitive | real flying birds |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would not be able to see

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t9:o1:1
# text = They would not be able to see
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | would | They |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | They *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Birds would grow too tall

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t9:o2:1
# text = Birds would grow too tall
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | Birds |  |  |  |  | tall *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Solid bones would break much more easily in the air

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t9:o3:1
# text = Solid bones would break much more easily in the air
1	Solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
7	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | would | Solid bones |  |  | the air |  | easily *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Location |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Heavy bones would make flying cost far more energy

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight:t9:o4:1
# text = Heavy bones would make flying cost far more energy
1	Heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	cost	cost	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	xcomp	_	_
7	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
8	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	_
9	energy	energy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | would | Heavy bones | more energy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cost** | gerund · passive | more energy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value» |

<!-- 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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- ↑ 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/)