---
title: Why do whales take a long time to recover their numbers? — Conservation: how people help animals… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do whales take a long time to recover their numbers? Test 11 · ★ of lesson 78 «Conservation: how people help animals come back» 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 11 · ★ · Conservation: how people help animals come back

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why do whales take a long time to recover their numbers?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** whales · **What happens:** take, recover · **To what, where:** numbers

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This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 78 «Conservation: how people help animals come back» 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/78-conservation-animals-come-back/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:78-conservation-animals-come-back:t11:1
# text = Why do whales take a long time to recover their numbers?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	recover	recover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | present · do-support | whales |  |  |  | time |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **recover** | to-infinitive | whales *not said here* | whales's numbers |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
Whales are mostly male, with few females

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:78-conservation-animals-come-back:t11:o1:1
# text = Whales are mostly male, with few females
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	mostly	mostly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	male	male	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	females	female	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Whales |  |  |  |  | with few females; male, mostly *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whales need to learn new songs first

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:78-conservation-animals-come-back:t11:o2:1
# text = Whales need to learn new songs first
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	need	need	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	songs	song	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | present | Whales |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **learn** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Whales *not said here* | new songs |  |  |  | first *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent song=Topic |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whales only breed once in their life

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:78-conservation-animals-come-back:t11:o3:1
# text = Whales only breed once in their life
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	only	only	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	breed	breed	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **breed** | present | Whales |  |  | Whales's life |  | once *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They live long and have few calves

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:78-conservation-animals-come-back:t11:o4:1
# text = They live long and have few calves
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	calves	calf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | present | They |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | present | They *not said here* | few calves |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent calf=Patient |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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