--- title: Guinea pigs: wheeks, popcorning and vitamin C — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Guinea pigs: wheeks, popcorning and vitamin C», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A guinea pig is neither a pig nor from Guinea: it is a rodent from the mountains of South America, a plump cousin of mice an --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/) [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/) / Guinea pigs: wheeks, popcorning and vi… # Guinea pigs: wheeks, popcorning and vitamin C Lesson 201 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 13 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/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/0/) — A guinea pig is neither a pig nor from Guinea: it is a rodent from the mountains of South America, a plump cousin of mice and rats with no tail you can see. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/1/) — Open the fridge in a house with guinea pigs and you will hear a loud whistle, «wheek wheek!», because they have learned that the fridge door means peppers and lettuce. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/3/) — Guinea pigs are prey animals, so they love a little house to hide in, friends of their own kind, hay all day and fresh vegetables full of vitamin C, which their bodies cannot make. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/4/) — A guinea pig is a rodent from South America, not a pig and not from Guinea; it has four toes on each front foot, three on each back foot and no visible tail. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/5/) — Guinea pigs learn sounds linked to food, such as a fridge door or a rustling bag, and call for it with a loud whistle called wheeking. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/6/) — Popcorning is when a guinea pig jumps straight up and twists in the air; young ones do it when happy and excited, and older ones do it less. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/7/) — Like people, guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C, so they need it every day from foods such as peppers and leafy greens, or they get scurvy with sore joints and bleeding gums. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/8/) — Hay is a guinea pig's main food: it gives fibre and wears down teeth that never stop growing; guinea pigs also eat some of their own soft droppings, which is normal. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/9/) — Guinea pigs live in groups and get lonely alone, so they should be kept at least in pairs, and in Switzerland this is even the law. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/10/) — Guinea pigs talk with wheeks, purrs, rumbles and chutters; a deep rumble while strutting shows one is trying to be in charge, while a soft purr during stroking usually means it is content. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/11/) — A guinea pig is shy because it is a prey animal; it hides when frightened, so it is best to sit on the floor and let it come to you. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/13/) — Guinea pigs come from mild mountain areas and do not like cold, damp or great heat, so many owners bring them indoors in winter. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/201-guinea-pigs-wheeks-popcorning-and-vitamin-c/15/) — People in the Andes tamed guinea pigs thousands of years ago and kept them as farm animals; they reached Europe on ships about five hundred years ago. - ← previous: [Rabbits: hay not carrots, binkies and teeth that never stop growing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/200-rabbits-hay-not-carrots-binkies-and-teeth-that-never-stop-growing/) - next →: [Hamsters, gerbils and pet rats and mice](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/202-hamsters-gerbils-and-pet-rats-and-mice/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)