---
title: What would happen to elephant numbers if many adults were killed? — The elephant house: herds, feet, food… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to elephant numbers if many adults were killed? Test 6 of lesson 83 «The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth» 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 6 · The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to elephant numbers if many adults were killed?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **What happens:** happen, kill · **To what, where:** many adults

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 of lesson 83 «The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth» 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/83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth:t6:1
# text = What would happen to elephant numbers if many adults were killed?
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	_	6	case	_	_
5	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	adults	adult	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  | to elephant numbers | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | many adults |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would recover very slowly, as each baby takes years

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth:t6:o1:1
# text = They would recover very slowly, as each baby takes years
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	recover	recover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	det	_	_
9	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	takes	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **recover** | would | They |  |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **take** | present | each baby |  |  |  | year |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, elephants have dozens of babies a year

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth:t6:o2:1
# text = Nothing, elephants have dozens of babies a year
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	dozens	dozen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	babies	baby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Nothing elephants | dozens of babies |  |  | year |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dozen=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would recover in a single season, as elephants breed fast

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth:t6:o3:1
# text = They would recover in a single season, as elephants breed fast
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	recover	recover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	breed	breed	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **recover** | would | They |  |  |  | season |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **breed** | present | elephants |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The babies would grow up faster to fill the gap

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth:t6:o4:1
# text = The babies would grow up faster to fill the gap
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	babies	baby	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	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	fill	fill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	gap	gap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow up** | would | the babies |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fill** | to-infinitive | the babies *not said here* | the gap |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent gap=Patient |

<!-- 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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- next →: [The elephant house: herds, feet, food…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth/t7/)
- ↑ back to [The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth/)