--- title: The ape house: gorillas and chimpanzees — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The ape house: gorillas and chimpanzees», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In the ape house a huge silverback sits quietly, chewing leaves and watching his family, because real gorillas are mostly calm, sh --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/) [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/) / The ape house: gorillas and chimpanzees # The ape house: gorillas and chimpanzees Lesson 84 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 15 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/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/0/) — In the ape house a huge silverback sits quietly, chewing leaves and watching his family, because real gorillas are mostly calm, shy plant-eaters, nothing like King Kong roaring on top of a skyscraper. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/1/) — When he beats his chest he uses cupped hands, not fists, and the pop carries through the forest to say «I am big, stay away», often stopping a fight before it starts. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/2/) — Next door the chimpanzees poke sticks into a fake termite mound to fish out honey and sit grooming each other, which is how chimps make friends and make up after a quarrel. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/3/) — Count the tails in the ape house and you will count none: apes have no tails, which is one way to tell them from monkeys. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/4/) — The silverback is the grown-up male leader of a gorilla group; the silver hair on his back appears at about 12 years old. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/5/) — Gorillas beat their chests with cupped hands, making a popping sound that can carry about a kilometre; it shows size and often prevents fights. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/7/) — Wild chimpanzees make tools: they fish for termites with stripped twigs, crack nuts with stones and use leaves as sponges. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/8/) — Chimps groom each other to remove dirt and bugs, but also to make friends and make up after fights. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/9/) — An adult chimpanzee is about a third stronger than a fit person of the same weight and can be dangerous, so chimps must never be pets. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/10/) — People and chimpanzees share about 98 to 99 per cent of their DNA in the parts that can be lined up; we are cousins sharing an ancestor from about 6 to 7 million years ago. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/11/) — All living things share the same basic cell machinery, so we even share some genes with a banana plant, which does not make us part banana. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/12/) — A long, hard stare can be a challenge in gorilla language, so keepers ask visitors not to stare at the gorillas. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/13/) — Real gorillas weigh up to about 200 kilograms and live mostly on the ground, seldom climbing high; a gorilla as big as a building could not exist, because its bones would break under its weight. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/14/) — Gorillas and other great apes build a new nest of leaves and branches every night, or of straw in a zoo. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/15/) — Zoo gorillas eat mostly leafy greens and vegetables; bananas are only treats, because sweet farm fruit has too much sugar for them and can harm their teeth and bellies. - ← previous: [The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth/) - next →: [The ape house: orangutans, gibbons, bonobos and how apes think](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/85-ape-house-orangutans-gibbons-bonobos/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)