---
title: An ant colony has thousands of ants but only one of them lays eggs.… — Insects and spiders · tree and pragmatics
description: An ant colony has thousands of ants but only one of them lays eggs. Which one? Test 9 of lesson 72 «Insects and spiders» of the world 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 9 · Insects and spiders

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An ant colony has thousands of ants but only one of them lays eggs. Which one?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** ant colony, one · **What happens:** have, lay · **To what, where:** thousands, eggs

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 of lesson 72 «Insects and spiders» of the world 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/world/72-insects-and-spiders/#t9).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* An ant colony has thousands of ants but only one of them lays eggs.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:72-insects-and-spiders:t9:1
# text = An ant colony has thousands of ants but only one of them lays eggs.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	colony	colony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
13	lays	lay	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | a ant colony | thousands of ants |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thousand=Patient |
| 2 | **lay** | present | one of ants | eggs |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* Which one?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:72-insects-and-spiders:t9:2
# text = Which one?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The youngest worker

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:72-insects-and-spiders:t9:o1:1
# text = The youngest worker
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	worker	worker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The queen

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:72-insects-and-spiders:t9:o2:1
# text = The queen
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Every ant in turn

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:72-insects-and-spiders:t9:o3:1
# text = Every ant in turn
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	ant	ant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The biggest soldier

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:72-insects-and-spiders:t9:o4:1
# text = The biggest soldier
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	biggest	big	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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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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