---
title: «why does the sand burn my feet when the air's not even that hot» Wh… — Deserts · tree and pragmatics
description: «why does the sand burn my feet when the air's not even that hot» Which is the best answer? Test 9 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 9 · Deserts

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
«why does the sand burn my feet when the air's not even that hot» Which is the best answer?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** sand, air · **What happens:** burn, not be, be · **To what, where:** feet, best answer · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 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/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t9:1
# text = «why does the sand burn my feet when the air's not even that hot» Which is the best answer?
1	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	csubj	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
14	even	even	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nsubj	_	_
16	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
18	Which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
19	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burn** *in a quote* | present · do-support | the sand | my feet |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent foot=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | the air |  |  |  |  | hot *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 -->
The air is actually hotter than the sand

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t9:o1:1
# text = The air is actually hotter than the sand
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	hotter	hot	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the air |  |  |  |  | than the sand; actually, hot *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sand makes its own fire

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t9:o2:1
# text = The sand makes its own fire
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | the sand | sand's own fire |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset fire=Product |
| 2 | **fire** |  | sand |  |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: poss=agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The ground soaks up sunlight and gets much hotter than the air above

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t9:o3:1
# text = The ground soaks up sunlight and gets much hotter than the air above
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	soaks	soak	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	gets	get	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	much	much	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	hotter	hot	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	xcomp	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	above	above	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **soak up** | present | the ground | sunlight |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent sunlight=Source |
| 2 | **get** | present | the ground *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hot *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Feet are colder than the air

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:18-deserts:t9:o4:1
# text = Feet are colder than the air
1	Feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	colder	cold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

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

<!-- div src -->

**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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