---
title: What would happen if a desert city's only spring dried up and there… — The Middle East and Central Asia · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a desert city's only spring dried up and there was no other water? Test 6 · ★ of lesson 12 «The Middle East and Central Asia» of the geography course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 6 · ★ · The Middle East and Central Asia

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a desert city's only spring dried up and there was no other water?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** only spring, other water · **What happens:** happen, dry up, be

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 12 «The Middle East and Central Asia» of the geography course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/12-middle-east-and-central-asia/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:12-middle-east-and-central-asia:t6:1
# text = What would happen if a desert city's only spring dried up and there was no other water?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
15	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **dry up** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | a desert city's only spring |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **be** | past | no other water |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
People could not stay there unless they brought water from far away

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:12-middle-east-and-central-asia:t6:o1:1
# text = People could not stay there unless they brought water from far away
1	People	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
6	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
12	away	away	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **stay** | could | People |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **bring** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | People | water |  |  |  | away *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent water=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, deserts don't need water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:12-middle-east-and-central-asia:t6:o2:1
# text = Nothing, deserts don't need water
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	deserts	desert	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	need	need	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **need** | present · do-support | Nothing deserts | water |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot water=Theme |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The city would become the capital

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:12-middle-east-and-central-asia:t6:o3:1
# text = The city would become the capital
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | would | the city | the capital |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sand would soon turn into rich soil and the people would grow food without water

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:12-middle-east-and-central-asia:t6:o4:1
# text = The sand would soon turn into rich soil and the people would grow food without water
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	without	without	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | the sand |  |  | rich soil |  | soon *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into soil=Trajectory |
| 2 | **grow** | would | the people | food |  |  |  | without water | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location food=Theme |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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