---
title: If a bird's bones were solid and heavy like ours, what would happen? — Birds: feathers, nests and flight · tree and pragmatics
description: If a bird's bones were solid and heavy like ours, what would happen? Test 5 · ★ of lesson 73 «Birds: feathers, nests and flight» 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 right.
---

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# Test 5 · ★ · Birds: feathers, nests and flight

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If a bird's bones were solid and heavy like ours, what would happen?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** bones · **What happens:** be, happen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 73 «Birds: feathers, nests and flight» 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/73-birds-feathers-nests-flight/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t5:1
# text = If a bird's bones were solid and heavy like ours, what would happen?
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
10	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	ours	our	PRON	PRP	Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a bird's bones |  |  |  |  | like ours; solid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | a bird's bones *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «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 -->
It would stay warmer in winter

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t5:o1:1
# text = It would stay warmer in winter
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	warmer	warm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | would | It |  |  |  | winter | warm *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would need no wings at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t5:o2:1
# text = It would need no wings at all
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	need	need	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** | would | It | no wings |  | all |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot wing=Theme |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Flying would be much harder

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t5:o3:1
# text = Flying would be much harder
1	Flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	1	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would fly faster and higher

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t5:o4:1
# text = It would fly faster and higher
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | would | It |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «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: [Birds: feathers, nests and flight, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/73-birds-feathers-nests-flight/t4/)
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