---
title: What would happen to young oak woods if jays stopped burying acorns? — The garden in autumn: colours, conkers… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to young oak woods if jays stopped burying acorns? Test 5 · ★★ of lesson 335 «The garden in autumn: colours, conkers, webs and buried nuts» 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 
---

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# Test 5 · ★★ · The garden in autumn: colours, conkers, webs and buried nuts

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to young oak woods if jays stopped burying acorns?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** jays · **What happens:** happen, stop, bury · **To what, where:** acorns

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★★ of lesson 335 «The garden in autumn: colours, conkers, webs and buried nuts» 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/335-the-garden-in-autumn-colours-conkers-webs-and-buried-nuts/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:335-the-garden-in-autumn-colours-conkers-webs-and-buried-nuts:t5:1
# text = What would happen to young oak woods if jays stopped burying acorns?
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	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	jays	jay	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
11	burying	bury	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	xcomp	_	_
12	acorns	acorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  | to young oak woods | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stop** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | jays |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **bury** | gerund | jays *not said here* | acorns |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent acorn=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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing; jays never touch acorns

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:335-the-garden-in-autumn-colours-conkers-webs-and-buried-nuts:t5:o1:1
# text = Nothing; jays never touch acorns
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	1	punct	_	_
3	jays	jay	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	touch	touch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	acorns	acorn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **touch** | present | Nothing jays | acorns |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme acorn=Co-Theme |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
More oaks would grow than ever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:335-the-garden-in-autumn-colours-conkers-webs-and-buried-nuts:t5:o2:1
# text = More oaks would grow than ever
1	More	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	amod	_	_
2	oaks	oak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Oaks would start growing conkers

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:335-the-garden-in-autumn-colours-conkers-webs-and-buried-nuts:t5:o3:1
# text = Oaks would start growing conkers
1	Oaks	oak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
5	conkers	conker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | would | Oaks |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **grow** | gerund | Oaks *not said here* | conkers |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location conker=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fewer new oaks would grow away from the old trees

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:335-the-garden-in-autumn-colours-conkers-webs-and-buried-nuts:t5:o4:1
# text = Fewer new oaks would grow away from the old trees
1	Fewer	few	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
2	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	oaks	oak	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	away	away	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow away** | would | Fewer new oaks |  |  |  |  | from the old trees; away *property* | vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.product V PP.patient»: agent=Product from tree=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.

<!-- /div -->

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