--- title: Birds ate the stick insects that looked least like twigs, so over ma… — Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches,… · tree and pragmatics description: Birds ate the stick insects that looked least like twigs, so over many generations the survivors looked more and more like twigs; camouflage is a classic result of natural selection. Who acts: Birds, stick insects, survivors, camouflage. A sentence of the lesson «Natural selection we can watch: moth --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/16/) [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/) / [Natural selection we can watch: moths,…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/) / 16 # Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants, sentence 16 Birds ate the stick insects that looked least like twigs, so over many generations the survivors looked more and more like twigs; camouflage is a classic result of natural selection. **Who acts:** Birds, stick insects, survivors, camouflage · **What happens:** eat, look, be · **To what, where:** stick insects, classic result This is a sentence of the lesson «Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants» of the biology course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Birds, stick insects, survivors, camouflage), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants.lesson:16 # text = Birds ate the stick insects that looked least like twigs, so over many generations the survivors looked more and more like twigs; camouflage is a classic result of natural selection. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = biology # lesson = 279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R7-rel-agree ×1 1 Birds bird NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 nsubj _ _ 2 ate eat VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 4 stick stick NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 compound _ _ 5 insects insect NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 obj _ _ 6 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 7 nsubj _ _ 7 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 acl:relcl _ _ 8 least least ADV RBS Degree=Sup 7 advmod _ _ 9 like like ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 10 twigs twig NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 obl _ _ 11 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 12 so so ADV RB _ 18 advmod _ _ 13 over over ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 many many ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 amod _ _ 15 generations generation NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 obl _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 survivors survivor NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nsubj _ _ 18 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=2:conj 19 more more ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 18 advmod _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 more more ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 19 conj _ _ 22 like like ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 23 twigs twig NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 obl _ _ 24 ; ; PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 25 camouflage camouflage NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 26 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 29 cop _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 28 classic classic ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 amod _ _ 29 result result NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 parataxis _ _ 30 of of ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 31 natural natural ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ _ 32 selection selection NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nmod _ _ 33 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: statement - act: assert - voice: narrator - polarity: none - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **eat** | past | Birds | the stick insects | | | | | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent insect=Patient | | 2 | **look** | past | the stick insects | | | | | like twigs; least *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 3 | **look** | past | the survivors | | | | over many generations | like twigs | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent over generation=Theme | | 4 | **is a** | present | camouflage | a classic result | | | | of natural selection | tree rules | 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. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:biology:279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants.lesson:16`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R7-rel-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Natural selection we can watch: moths,…, 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/15/) - next →: [Natural selection we can watch: moths,…, 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/17/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/)