---
title: A chicken swallows small stones. Why? — Birds: feathers, nests and flight · tree and pragmatics
description: A chicken swallows small stones. Why? Test 8 · ★ 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 8 · ★ · Birds: feathers, nests and flight

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A chicken swallows small stones. Why?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** chicken · **What happens:** swallow · **To what, where:** small stones

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ 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/#t8).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A chicken swallows small stones.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t8:1
# text = A chicken swallows small stones.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chicken	chicken	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	swallows	swallow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swallow** | present | a chicken | small stones |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient |

<!-- .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:* Why?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t8:2
# text = Why?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The stones help its gizzard grind food

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t8:o1:1
# text = The stones help its gizzard grind food
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	help	help	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	gizzard	gizzard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	grind	grind	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** | present | the stones | its gizzard |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gizzard=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **grind** | present | the stones *not said here* | food |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The stones keep its feathers clean

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t8:o2:1
# text = The stones keep its feathers clean
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	keep	keep	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | present | the stones | its feathers |  |  |  | clean *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The stones clean its beak

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t8:o3:1
# text = The stones clean its beak
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	clean	clean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clean** | present | the stones | its beak |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent beak=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The stones make it heavier in wind

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:73-birds-feathers-nests-flight:t8:o4:1
# text = The stones make it heavier in wind
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | the stones | it |  | wind |  | heavy *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |

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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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- ← previous: [Birds: feathers, nests and flight, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/73-birds-feathers-nests-flight/t7/)
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