---
title: What would happen to a lawn if all its earthworms vanished? — Soil · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to a lawn if all its earthworms vanished? Test 4 of lesson 56 «Soil» of the geography 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 4 · Soil

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to a lawn if all its earthworms vanished?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** earthworms · **What happens:** happen, vanish

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 of lesson 56 «Soil» of the geography 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/geography/56-soil/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:56-soil:t4:1
# text = What would happen to a lawn if all its earthworms vanished?
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	lawn	lawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	earthworms	earthworm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	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 a lawn | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **vanish** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | lawn's earthworms |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
Nothing would change at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:56-soil:t4:o1:1
# text = Nothing would change at all
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | would | Nothing |  |  | all |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Soil would turn into rock at once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:56-soil:t4:o2:1
# text = Soil would turn into rock at once
1	Soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | Soil |  |  | rock |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme into rock=Source at once=Trajectory |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Grass would grow twice as fast with nobody eating its roots underground

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:56-soil:t4:o3:1
# text = Grass would grow twice as fast with nobody eating its roots underground
1	Grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
7	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	nsubj	_	_
9	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	underground	underground	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | Grass |  |  |  |  | twice *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund | nobody | Grass's roots |  |  |  | underground *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent root=Patient |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Soil would get packed and airless, and dead leaves would rot slower

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:56-soil:t4:o4:1
# text = Soil would get packed and airless, and dead leaves would rot slower
1	Soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	packed	packed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	airless	airless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	rot	rot	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
13	slower	slow	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | would | Soil |  |  |  |  | packed *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **rot** | would | dead leaves |  |  |  |  | slow *property* | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=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.

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