--- title: Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Sheep and goats are cousins that people have kept for about ten thousand years, but they live very different --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/) [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/) / Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climber… # Sheep and goats: wool, flocks, climbers and the tin-can myth Lesson 211 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 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/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/0/) — Sheep and goats are cousins that people have kept for about ten thousand years, but they live very different lives. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/1/) — A sheep is a crowd animal: watch a flock at a gate and as soon as one sheep goes through, the rest pour after it, because for a prey animal the safest place is in the middle of the group. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/2/) — A goat is an explorer and a climber: its wild relatives live on cliffs, so a farm goat will happily hop onto a wall, a shed or even a parked car. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/3/) — Farm sheep grow wool that never stops growing, so every spring a shearer gives them a haircut, and a goat that seems to eat a tin can is really only nibbling the paper label to find out what it is. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/4/) — Farm sheep were bred to grow wool that keeps growing, while wild sheep shed their coats, so farm sheep must be shorn, their wool cut off, usually once a year in spring or early summer. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/5/) — A sheep called Chris was found in Australia in 2015 after years lost in the bush, carrying over forty kilograms of wool. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/6/) — Sheep stay together and follow each other because a flock is safer from predators, and they are not stupid: sheep can remember dozens of faces for years. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/7/) — A heavy sheep with a thick fleece can roll onto its back and be unable to get up; this is called being cast, and a cast sheep can die, so farmers help it up. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/8/) — Lambs skip and play, which builds muscles and friendships, and a ewe, a mother sheep, and her lamb find each other in a noisy field by their calls. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/9/) — Sheep nibble with a split top lip and can graze grass shorter than cows can; sheep, goats and cows all chew the cud, bringing food back up to chew it again. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/10/) — Goats prefer leaves, twigs and shrubs to grass, and in Morocco some goats climb argan trees to eat the fruit. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/11/) — Goats do not eat tin cans; they are curious and test things with their lips, so they nibble paper, labels and clothes. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/12/) — Goats have wide rectangular pupils that give a view almost all the way round, and when a goat lowers its head to eat, its eyes roll so the slit stays level with the ground. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/13/) — Mother goats and their kids, baby goats, know each other's voices, and a study reported that young goats' calls change to sound more like the group they live with, a little like an accent. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/14/) — Many goats have beards, both males and females; most sheep do not, and a goat's tail usually points up while a sheep's hangs down. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/211-sheep-and-goats-wool-flocks-climbers-and-the-tin-can-myth/15/) — Donkeys, llamas and sheepdogs are used to guard flocks, and a guard donkey will chase away foxes and stray dogs. - ← previous: [Pigs: mud, snouts and brains](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/210-pigs-mud-snouts-and-brains/) - next →: [Chickens: eggs, pecking order and living dinosaurs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/212-chickens-eggs-pecking-order-and-living-dinosaurs/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)