---
title: Why does hail dent cars but snow does not? — Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely · tree and pragmatics
description: Why does hail dent cars but snow does not? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 3 «Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely» of the physics 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 8 · ★ · Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why does hail dent cars but snow does not?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** hail, snow · **What happens:** dent, not do · **To what, where:** cars

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 3 «Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely» of the physics 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/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:3-parachutes-and-falling-safely:t8:1
# text = Why does hail dent cars but snow does not?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hail	hail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	dent	dent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	cars	car	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	does	do	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dent** | present · do-support | hail | cars |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent car=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **do** | present | snow |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Snow is warmer than hail

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:3-parachutes-and-falling-safely:t8:o1:1
# text = Snow is warmer than hail
1	Snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	warmer	warm	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	hail	hail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hail is pulled much harder by gravity than snow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:3-parachutes-and-falling-safely:t8:o2:1
# text = Hail is pulled much harder by gravity than snow
1	Hail	hail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	harder	hard	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	gravity	gravity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:agent	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | present · passive | gravity | Hail |  |  |  | than snow; hard *property* | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Snow is always wet and soft

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:3-parachutes-and-falling-safely:t8:o3:1
# text = Snow is always wet and soft
1	Snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Snow |  |  |  |  | always, wet *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | Snow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Hailstones are solid ice and fall much faster

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:3-parachutes-and-falling-safely:t8:o4:1
# text = Hailstones are solid ice and fall much faster
1	Hailstones	hailstone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	fall	fall	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
7	much	much	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Hailstones | solid ice |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall** | present | Hailstones *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn occur-48.3 «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.

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