--- title: Babe: real pigs, sheep and sheepdogs — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Babe: real pigs, sheep and sheepdogs», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In Babe, a polite little pig learns to herd sheep and wins a sheepdog trial, while a duck crows at dawn to be useful and the farm cat --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Babe: real pigs, sheep and sheepdogs # Babe: real pigs, sheep and sheepdogs Lesson 144 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/0/) — In Babe, a polite little pig learns to herd sheep and wins a sheepdog trial, while a duck crows at dawn to be useful and the farm cat sneers. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/1/) — Real herding is a dog's job: sheepdogs come from wolves, which hunt by circling and driving prey, so a Border collie crouches, creeps and stares, and the frightened sheep bunch up and move away from it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/2/) — Babe's cleverness is real, though: pigs solve puzzles as well as many dogs, remember well and can even use a mirror to find hidden food. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/3/) — Picture a hillside: a shepherd whistles, the dog swings left round the flock, and three hundred sheep move as one. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/5/) — Pigs are not used for herding, but they are clever and can be trained with rewards to fetch, sit and come when called. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/6/) — Pigs learn tricks and solve puzzles as well as many dogs, and they can use a mirror to find food hidden behind them. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/8/) — A Border collie called Chaser learned the names of over 1,000 toys. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/9/) — Shepherds use whistles and calls for left, right, stop and come in, because a whistle carries farther than a voice over hills and wind; «come by» means clockwise round the flock and «away to me» anticlockwise. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/10/) — Scared sheep bunch tightly together, because the middle of a crowd is safer, and that is what lets one dog move hundreds of sheep. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/11/) — Calm, slow handling keeps sheep less stressed; stressed sheep scatter and can hurt themselves. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/12/) — Ducks cannot crow; roosters crow, especially before dawn, using an inner body clock, and the top rooster usually crows first. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/13/) — Real farm cats are useful mousers that keep mice and rats away from barns full of grain. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/14/) — Sheepdog trials are real competitions where dog and shepherd move sheep through gates and into a pen. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/16/) — Sheep see about 300 degrees around them, with a small blind gap right behind them, and see less well right in front of their noses, so a dog coming straight from behind may surprise them. - ← previous: [Bambi: real deer, rabbits, skunks and owls](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/143-bambi-real-deer-rabbits-skunks-and-owls/) - next →: [Shrek's Donkey: real donkeys and mules](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/145-shrek-s-donkey-real-donkeys-and-mules/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)