---
title: Leeuwenhoek wrote about «little animals» in his tooth scrapings. Why… — Microbes: bacteria and viruses, good a… · tree and pragmatics
description: Leeuwenhoek wrote about «little animals» in his tooth scrapings. Why did people not see them before? Test 12 · ★★ of lesson 63 «Microbes: bacteria and viruses, good and bad» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mo
---

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# Test 12 · ★★ · Microbes: bacteria and viruses, good and bad

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Leeuwenhoek wrote about «little animals» in his tooth scrapings. Why did people not see them before?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Leeuwenhoek, people · **What happens:** write, not see · **To what, where:** tooth scrapings, scrapings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 12 · ★★ of lesson 63 «Microbes: bacteria and viruses, good and bad» 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/63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses/#t12).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Leeuwenhoek wrote about «little animals» in his tooth scrapings.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses:t12:1
# text = Leeuwenhoek wrote about «little animals» in his tooth scrapings.
1	Leeuwenhoek	Leeuwenhoek	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wrote	write	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	tooth	tooth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	scrapings	scraping	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past | Leeuwenhoek |  |  | Leeuwenhoek's tooth scrapings |  | about little animals | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about animal=Topic |

<!-- .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:* Why did people not see them before?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses:t12:2
# text = Why did people not see them before?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	before	before	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** | past · do-support | people | scrapings *= scraping* |  |  |  | before *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Microbes did not exist before 1683

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses:t12:o1:1
# text = Microbes did not exist before 1683
1	Microbes	microbe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	exist	exist	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	1683	1683	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **exist** | past · do-support | Microbes |  |  | 1683 |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before 1683=Location |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
People were not allowed to look at teeth before then

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses:t12:o2:1
# text = People were not allowed to look at teeth before then
1	People	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
9	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **allow** | past · passive |  | People |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **look** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | People *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at teeth | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tooth=Theme |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Microbes only lived in Dutch mouths

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses:t12:o3:1
# text = Microbes only lived in Dutch mouths
1	Microbes	microbe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	Dutch	dutch	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | Microbes |  |  | Dutch mouths |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in mouth=Location |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nobody had lenses powerful enough to see microbes

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:63-microbes-bacteria-and-viruses:t12:o4:1
# text = Nobody had lenses powerful enough to see microbes
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	lenses	lens	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
5	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
8	microbes	microbe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Nobody | lenses |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lens=Patient |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | Nobody *not said here* | microbes |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer microbe=Stimulus |

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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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