---
title: A barn owl catches a vole under snow it cannot see. How? — Birds of prey and owls · tree and pragmatics
description: A barn owl catches a vole under snow it cannot see. How? Test 6 · ★ 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 wrong.
---

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# Test 6 · ★ · Birds of prey and owls

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A barn owl catches a vole under snow it cannot see. How?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** barn owl, owl · **What happens:** catch, not see · **To what, where:** vole, snow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 · ★ 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/#t6).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A barn owl catches a vole under snow it cannot see.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t6:1
# text = A barn owl catches a vole under snow it cannot see.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	barn	barn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	catches	catch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	vole	vole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	under	under	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | present | a barn owl | a vole |  | snow |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vole=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **see** | can | owl | snow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer snow=Stimulus |

<!-- .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:* How?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t6:2
# text = How?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By seeing the heat of its body through the snow, like a camera

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t6:o1:1
# text = By seeing the heat of its body through the snow, like a camera
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	heat	heat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	camera	camera	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund |  | the heat of heat's body |  | the snow |  | like a camera | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer heat=Stimulus |
| 2 | **heat** |  | heat's body |  |  |  |  |  | nom heat «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By smell through the snow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t6:o2:1
# text = By smell through the snow
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	smell	smell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	through	through	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By guessing and digging everywhere

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t6:o3:1
# text = By guessing and digging everywhere
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	guessing	guess	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	digging	dig	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
5	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | everywhere *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **dig** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By sound, with ears at different heights telling it exactly where

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:34-birds-of-prey-and-owls:t6:o4:1
# text = By sound, with ears at different heights telling it exactly where
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	heights	height	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	9	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | different heights *not said here* |  | it |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

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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.

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- ← previous: [Birds of prey and owls, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/t5/)
- next →: [Birds of prey and owls, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/t7/)
- ↑ back to [Birds of prey and owls](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/34-birds-of-prey-and-owls/)