---
title: Why could no animals like us live on Earth 3 billion years ago? — Deep time and the story of life · tree and pragmatics
description: Why could no animals like us live on Earth 3 billion years ago? Test 4 · ★★★ 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 wrong.
---

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# Test 4 · ★★★ · Deep time and the story of life

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why could no animals like us live on Earth 3 billion years ago?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** animals · **What happens:** live · **To what, where:** Earth

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This is test 4 · ★★★ 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/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t4:1
# text = Why could no animals like us live on Earth 3 billion years ago?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	_
7	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
10	3	3	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	11	compound	_	_
11	billion	billion	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | could | no animals like us |  |  | Earth |  | ago *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on earth=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
It was too dark, because there was no Sun yet

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t4:o1:1
# text = It was too dark, because there was no Sun yet
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  | yet | dark *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | past | no Sun |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sea was made of lava

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t4:o2:1
# text = The sea was made of lava
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	lava	lava	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past · passive |  | the sea |  |  |  | of lava | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was no water on Earth at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t4:o3:1
# text = There was no water on Earth at all
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no water |  |  | Earth; there |  | at all | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on earth=Location |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was almost no oxygen in the air yet

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life:t4:o4:1
# text = There was almost no oxygen in the air yet
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no oxygen in the air |  |  | there | yet |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life/t3/)
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