---
title: What would happen to a white arctic fox if the snow melted early in… — How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to a white arctic fox if the snow melted early in spring? Test 4 of lesson 51 «How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry» 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/51-how-animals-hide/t4/)

<!-- 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/) / [How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/51-how-animals-hide/) / t4

# Test 4 · How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to a white arctic fox if the snow melted early in spring?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** snow · **What happens:** happen, melt

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 of lesson 51 «How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry» 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/51-how-animals-hide/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t4:1
# text = What would happen to a white arctic fox if the snow melted early in spring?
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	_	8	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	arctic	arctic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	melted	melt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
13	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  | to a white arctic fox | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **melt** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | the snow |  |  |  | spring | early *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would dig into the ice to hide

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t4:o1:1
# text = It would dig into the ice to hide
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	dig	dig	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig** | would | It |  |  |  |  | into the ice | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent into ice=Patient |
| 2 | **hide** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would stand out on brown ground until its summer coat grew

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t4:o2:1
# text = It would stand out on brown ground until its summer coat grew
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	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	out	out	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand out** | would | It |  |  | brown ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 2 | **grow** | past | ground's summer coat |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would be safer than ever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t4:o3:1
# text = It would be safer than ever
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	safer	safe	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	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 | **is** | would | It |  |  |  |  | safe *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would turn brown overnight, as soon as it saw the ground

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t4:o4:1
# text = It would turn brown overnight, as soon as it saw the ground
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	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	overnight	overnight	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	as	as	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | It |  |  |  |  | brown, overnight, soon *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | it | the ground |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ground=Stimulus |

<!-- 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: [How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/51-how-animals-hide/t3/)
- next →: [How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/51-how-animals-hide/t5/)
- ↑ back to [How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/51-how-animals-hide/)