---
title: At each step only about a tenth of the energy passes on to the next… — Food chains: sun, plants, plant-eaters, meat-eat… · tree and pragmatics
description: At each step only about a tenth of the energy passes on to the next eater, so there are far more plants than plant-eaters and far more plant-eaters than meat-eaters, and chains are usually only 3 to 5 steps long. Who acts: tenth, more plants, chains. A sentence of the lesson «Food chains: sun, plant
---

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# Food chains: sun, plants, plant-eaters, meat-eaters, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At each step only about a tenth of the energy passes on to the next eater, so there are far more plants than plant-eaters and far more plant-eaters than meat-eaters, and chains are usually only 3 to 5 steps long.

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**Who acts:** tenth, more plants, chains · **What happens:** pass, be · **To what, where:** next eater, 3 steps

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Food chains: sun, plants, plant-eaters, meat-eaters» 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 (tenth, more plants, chains), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:biology:046-food-chains.lesson:6
# text = At each step only about a tenth of the energy passes on to the next eater, so there are far more plants than plant-eaters and far more plant-eaters than meat-eaters, and chains are usually only 3 to 5 steps long.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = biology
# lesson = 046-food-chains.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): R5-strong ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tenth	tenth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=3:nmod
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	energy	energy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	passes	pass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	eater	eater	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	20	expl	_	_
20	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=11:conj
21	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
22	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	amod	_	_
23	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
24	than	than	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	_
27	eaters	eater	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
29	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	_
30	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	amod	_	_
31	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	_
33	eaters	eater	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	_
34	than	than	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	_
36	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	_
37	eaters	eater	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
40	chains	chain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nsubj	_	_
41	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
42	usually	usually	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
43	only	only	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
44	3	3	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	47	nummod	_	_
45	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	44	nmod	_	_
47	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
48	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	47	advmod	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | present | a tenth of the energy |  |  | the next eater |  | at each step | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at step=Location |
| 2 | **does** | present | more plants than plant eaters than meat eaters and more plant eaters |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | present | chains | 3 steps |  |  |  | long, usually *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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**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:046-food-chains.lesson:6`.

**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): R5-strong ×1, 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/).

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