--- title: Being gentle with small animals — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Being gentle with small animals», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: To a small animal like a hamster, a bird or a kitten, a person is a giant. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/) [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/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Being gentle with small animals # Being gentle with small animals Lesson 288 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 20 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/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/0/) — To a small animal like a hamster, a bird or a kitten, a person is a giant. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/1/) — Loud voices and quick grabbing hands look like danger to it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/2/) — Animals feel safe with calm people. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/3/) — Moving slowly and speaking softly tells an animal that you are not a threat. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/4/) — Example: a girl in Auckland wants to hold her friend's guinea pig. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/5/) — She sits on the floor, waits quietly, lets it sniff her hand and lifts it gently with two hands, one under its bottom, while her friend watches. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/6/) — The guinea pig stays calm. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/7/) — A scared animal may scratch, bite, wriggle free and fall. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/8/) — Being gentle keeps both you and the animal safe. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/9/) — Always move slowly and speak softly around small animals. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/10/) — Animals feel safe with calm people. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/13/) — Let an animal sniff your hand before you touch it. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/14/) — Hold a small animal with both hands, supporting its body from underneath. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/16/) — Never squeeze, chase or pick up a small animal by its tail or ears. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/17/) — Ask the owner before you touch someone else's pet. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/18/) — Leave a small animal alone when it hides or is sleeping. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/19/) — A girl in Canada picked up her hamster by squeezing it tight; it panicked, bit her finger and fell to the floor, hurting its leg. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/20/) — A boy in Ireland lifted a guinea pig while standing up; it wriggled free, fell, and broke its back leg, and the vet bill was huge. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/21/) — Small animals can be badly hurt or killed by a fall from the height of a standing child. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/22/) — A frightened small animal bites or scratches to protect itself, and those bites can become infected, so you wash a bite or scratch, cover it and tell an adult. - ← previous: [Caring for pets and staying safe around farm, wild and zoo animals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/287-pets-farm-and-wild-animals-safely/) - next →: [Teeth, bath time, eyes, dressing, sleep and safe food](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/289-teeth-bath-sleep-and-safe-food/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)