---
title: «why'd camels be better than horses in the desert, horses are faster… — Deserts · tree and pragmatics
description: «why'd camels be better than horses in the desert, horses are faster» Which is the best answer? Test 4 of lesson 18 «Deserts» 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 right.
---

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# Test 4 · Deserts

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
«why'd camels be better than horses in the desert, horses are faster» Which is the best answer?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** camels, horses · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** best answer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 of lesson 18 «Deserts» 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/18-deserts/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t4:1
# text = «why'd camels be better than horses in the desert, horses are faster» Which is the best answer?
1	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	camels	camel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	faster	fast	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
17	Which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	amod	_	_
21	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | would | camels |  |  |  |  | than horses in the desert; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | horses |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** *speech: assert* | present |  | the best answer |  |  |  |  | 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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Camels are faster than horses

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t4:o1:1
# text = Camels are faster than horses
1	Camels	camel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Camels |  |  |  |  | than horses; fast *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Horses cannot walk on sand at all, they sink straight in up to their knees

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t4:o2:1
# text = Horses cannot walk on sand at all, they sink straight in up to their knees
1	Horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	sink	sink	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	up	up	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **walk** | can | Horses |  |  | sand |  | at all | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on sand=Trajectory |
| 2 | **sink** | present | Horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  | to Horses's knees | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Camels go much longer without water and cope with heat and sand

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t4:o3:1
# text = Camels go much longer without water and cope with heat and sand
1	Camels	camel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	2	advmod	_	_
5	without	without	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	cope	cope	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	heat	heat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | present | Camels |  |  |  |  | without water; long *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cope** | present | Camels *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with heat and sand | vn cope-83-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with heat=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Camels eat sand

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t4:o4:1
# text = Camels eat sand
1	Camels	camel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | present | Camels | sand |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sand=Patient |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Deserts, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/18-deserts/t3/)
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