---
title: Why did whales and elephants appear only after the dinosaurs? — Deep time and the story of life · tree and pragmatics
description: Why did whales and elephants appear only after the dinosaurs? Test 11 · ★★★ of lesson 58 «Deep time and the story of life» 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 right.
---

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# Test 11 · ★★★ · Deep time and the story of life

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why did whales and elephants appear only after the dinosaurs?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** whales · **What happens:** appear

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 · ★★★ of lesson 58 «Deep time and the story of life» 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/58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t11:1
# text = Why did whales and elephants appear only after the dinosaurs?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
6	appear	appear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	after	after	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | present | whales and elephants |  |  |  | after the dinosaurs |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «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 -->
Whales hatched from dinosaurs' eggs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t11:o1:1
# text = Whales hatched from dinosaurs' eggs
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
2	hatched	hatch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	acl	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hatch** | participle |  | Whales *not said here* |  |  |  | from dinosaurs's eggs | vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.product V PP.patient»: agent=Product from egg=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Elephants lived in space before that

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t11:o2:1
# text = Elephants lived in space before that
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	before	before	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mammals spread into empty roles once the dinosaurs were gone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t11:o3:1
# text = Mammals spread into empty roles once the dinosaurs were gone
1	Mammals	mammal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	roles	role	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | past | Mammals |  |  | empty roles |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into role=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | the dinosaurs |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Mammals did not exist at all before then, not even small ones

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t11:o4:1
# text = Mammals did not exist at all before then, not even small ones
1	Mammals	mammal	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	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	obl	_	_
7	before	before	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
11	even	even	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	parataxis	_	_
```

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

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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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- ← previous: [Deep time and the story of life, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life/t10/)
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