---
title: What would happen if you wiped your finger across a busy ant trail? — How animals talk · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if you wiped your finger across a busy ant trail? Test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 50 «How animals talk» 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 4 · ★★★ · How animals talk

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if you wiped your finger across a busy ant trail?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you · **What happens:** happen, wipe · **To what, where:** finger, busy ant trail

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 50 «How animals talk» 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/50-how-animals-talk/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:50-how-animals-talk:t4:1
# text = What would happen if you wiped your finger across a busy ant trail?
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	_	6	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	wiped	wipe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
7	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	across	across	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	trail	trail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	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 | **wipe** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you | your finger |  | a busy ant trail |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent finger=Theme across trail=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 -->
The ants would follow your finger home

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:50-how-animals-talk:t4:o1:1
# text = The ants would follow your finger home
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	home	home	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | would | the ants | your finger |  |  |  | home *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finger=Theme |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, ants follow by sight

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:50-how-animals-talk:t4:o2:1
# text = Nothing, ants follow by sight
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	follow	follow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | present | Nothing ants |  |  |  |  | by sight | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by sight=Location |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The ants would all turn round, go back to the nest and never come out again

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:50-how-animals-talk:t4:o3:1
# text = The ants would all turn round, go back to the nest and never come out again
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	round	round	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
16	out	out	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	again	again	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn round** | would | the ants |  |  |  |  | all, round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go back** | infinitive | the ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the nest *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to nest=Result |
| 3 | **not** **come out** | infinitive | the ants *not said here* |  |  |  | again | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The ants would get confused there until they found the scent again

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:50-how-animals-talk:t4:o4:1
# text = The ants would get confused there until they found the scent again
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	get	get	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	confused	confuse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
7	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	scent	scent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	again	again	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **confuse** | would · passive |  | the ants |  | there |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **find** | past | ants *= ant* | the scent |  |  | again |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scent=Topic |

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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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