---
title: What would happen if a big river kept building up silt in its bed? — The great rivers · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a big river kept building up silt in its bed? Test 5 of lesson 16 «The great rivers» 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 5 · The great rivers

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a big river kept building up silt in its bed?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** big river · **What happens:** happen, keep, build up · **To what, where:** silt, bed

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 of lesson 16 «The great rivers» 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/16-the-great-rivers/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:16-the-great-rivers:t5:1
# text = What would happen if a big river kept building up silt in its bed?
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	_	8	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
9	building	build	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	silt	silt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	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 | **keep** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a big river |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **build up** | gerund | a big river *not said here* | silt |  | river's bed |  |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer silt=Patient |

<!-- .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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The river would get deeper and calmer

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:16-the-great-rivers:t5:o1:1
# text = The river would get deeper and calmer
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	deeper	deep	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	xcomp	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	calmer	calm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | would | the river |  |  |  |  | deep *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The river would turn into a lake at once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:16-the-great-rivers:t5:o2:1
# text = The river would turn into a lake at once
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | the river |  |  | a lake |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme into lake=Source at once=Trajectory |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The river would rise higher and flood or change course more easily

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:16-the-great-rivers:t5:o3:1
# text = The river would rise higher and flood or change course more easily
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	rise	rise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	higher	high	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	flood	flood	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
10	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	_
12	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | would | the river |  |  |  |  | high *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **flood** | infinitive | the river *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **change** | infinitive | the river *not said here* | course |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent course=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing at all would change, because the silt would always wash out to sea

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:16-the-great-rivers:t5:o4:1
# text = Nothing at all would change, because the silt would always wash out to sea
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	5	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	1	nmod	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	silt	silt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	12	advmod	_	_
12	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | would | Nothing |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wash out** | would | the silt |  |  |  |  | to sea; always *property* | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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