---
title: What would happen to the peppered moths if a town became very smoky… — How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to the peppered moths if a town became very smoky again? Test 7 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 right.
---

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# Test 7 · How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to the peppered moths if a town became very smoky again?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** town · **What happens:** happen, pepper, become

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This is test 7 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/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t7:1
# text = What would happen to the peppered moths if a town became very smoky again?
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	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	peppered	pepper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	amod	_	_
7	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	very	very	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	smoky	smoky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
14	again	again	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  | to the peppered moths | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **pepper** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **become** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a town |  |  |  | again | smoky *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: 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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, moths do not care at all what colour the tree trunks are

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t7:o1:1
# text = Nothing, moths do not care at all what colour the tree trunks are
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
9	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	10	det	_	_
10	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	trunks	trunk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present · do-support | Nothing moths |  |  | all colour and the tree trunks |  | care *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All moths would leave the town forever

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t7:o2:1
# text = All moths would leave the town forever
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	forever	forever	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | would | all moths | the town |  |  |  | forever *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent town=Theme |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dark moths would hide better and become more common again

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t7:o3:1
# text = Dark moths would hide better and become more common again
1	Dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
9	common	common	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
10	again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hide** | would | Dark moths |  |  |  | again | well *property* | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **become** | present | Dark moths *not said here* |  |  |  |  | common *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Pale moths would grow soot on their wings

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:51-how-animals-hide:t7:o4:1
# text = Pale moths would grow soot on their wings
1	Pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	moths	moth	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	soot	soot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | Pale moths | soot |  | moths's wings |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location soot=Theme |

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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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