---
title: What might a very thin tree ring tell you about that year? — Trees · tree and pragmatics
description: What might a very thin tree ring tell you about that year? Test 1 · ★★★ of lesson 60 «Trees» 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 1 · ★★★ · Trees

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What might a very thin tree ring tell you about that year?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** thin tree ring · **What happens:** tell · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 1 · ★★★ of lesson 60 «Trees» 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/60-trees/#t1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:60-trees:t1:1
# text = What might a very thin tree ring tell you about that year?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | might | a thin tree ring |  | you |  | year |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

<!-- .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 -->
It was the tree's birthday

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:60-trees:t1:o1:1
# text = It was the tree's birthday
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	birthday	birthday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | It | the tree's birthday |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The tree grew the fastest it ever has

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:60-trees:t1:o2:1
# text = The tree grew the fastest it ever has
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	csubj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fastest	fast	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	8	advmod	_	_
8	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | the tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | present | tree |  |  |  | ever |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Someone painted a thin line on the tree that year

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:60-trees:t1:o3:1
# text = Someone painted a thin line on the tree that year
1	Someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	2	nsubj	_	_
2	painted	paint	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	line	line	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	det	_	_
10	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **paint** | past | Someone | a thin line |  | the tree  that year |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: agent=Agent line=Theme on tree=Destination |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a hard year, perhaps dry or cold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:60-trees:t1:o4:1
# text = It was a hard year, perhaps dry or cold
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | It | a hard year |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- 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 -->

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- ← previous: [Seeds and fruit and how they travel, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/59-seeds-and-fruit-and-how-they-travel/e4/)
- next →: [Trees, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/60-trees/t2/)
- ↑ back to [Trees](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/60-trees/)