---
title: What would happen to a delta if the sea's waves and currents became… — Rivers shaping the land · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to a delta if the sea's waves and currents became much stronger? Test 5 · ★ of lesson 53 «Rivers shaping the land» 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 5 · ★ · Rivers shaping the land

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to a delta if the sea's waves and currents became much stronger?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** waves, sea · **What happens:** happen, become, wave

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 53 «Rivers shaping the land» 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/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/#t5).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:53-rivers-shaping-the-land:t5:1
# text = What would happen to a delta if the sea's waves and currents became much stronger?
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	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	delta	delta	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	currents	current	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
14	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
15	much	much	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  | to a delta | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **become** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the sea's waves and currents |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **wave** |  | the sea |  |  |  |  |  | nom wave «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 delta would become a mountain

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:53-rivers-shaping-the-land:t5:o1:1
# text = The delta would become a mountain
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	delta	delta	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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sea might carry the sediment away and the delta could shrink

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:53-rivers-shaping-the-land:t5:o2:1
# text = The sea might carry the sediment away and the delta could shrink
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sediment	sediment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	delta	delta	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	shrink	shrink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry away** | might | the sea | the sediment |  |  |  | away *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sediment=Theme |
| 2 | **shrink** | could | the delta |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The delta would grow much faster, as the waves push more mud onto it

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:53-rivers-shaping-the-land:t5:o3:1
# text = The delta would grow much faster, as the waves push more mud onto it
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	delta	delta	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	faster	fast	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	push	push	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	amod	_	_
13	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	onto	onto	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | would | the delta |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **push** | present | the waves | more mud |  | delta |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent mud=Theme onto it=Destination |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The river would flow backwards

```conllu
# sent_id = question:geography:53-rivers-shaping-the-land:t5:o4:1
# text = The river would flow backwards
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	flow	flow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flow** | would | the river |  |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- /div -->

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