---
title: What would happen if a barn owl's flight were as noisy as a pigeon's? — Birds of prey and owls · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a barn owl's flight were as noisy as a pigeon's? Test 5 · ★ of lesson 34 «Birds of prey and owls» 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/t5/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/) / [Birds of prey and owls](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/) / t5

# Test 5 · ★ · Birds of prey and owls

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a barn owl's flight were as noisy as a pigeon's?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** flight · **What happens:** happen, be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 34 «Birds of prey and owls» 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/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t5:1
# text = What would happen if a barn owl's flight were as noisy as a pigeon's?
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	_	12	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	barn	barn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	noisy	noisy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	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 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a barn owl's flight |  |  |  |  | as a pigeon; noisy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
Mice would hear it coming, and it would hear them less well

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t5:o1:1
# text = Mice would hear it coming, and it would hear them less well
1	Mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	advmod	_	_
13	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | would | Mice | it |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | would | it | Mice *= mouse* |  |  |  | well *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would fly faster

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t5:o2:1
# text = It would fly faster
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | would | It |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, mice are deaf

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t5:o3:1
# text = Nothing, mice are deaf
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	deaf	deaf	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Nothing mice |  |  |  |  | deaf *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would catch more mice

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t5:o4:1
# text = It would catch more mice
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | would | It | more mice |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme |

<!-- 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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Birds of prey and owls, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/t4/)
- next →: [Birds of prey and owls, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/t6/)
- ↑ back to [Birds of prey and owls](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/)