---
title: How could ancient people move giant stones without machines? — Levers: lifting heavy things with a li… · tree and pragmatics
description: How could ancient people move giant stones without machines? Test 6 of lesson 33 «Levers: lifting heavy things with a little push» 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 right.
---

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# Test 6 · Levers: lifting heavy things with a little push

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How could ancient people move giant stones without machines?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 2 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** ancient people · **What happens:** move · **To what, where:** giant stones

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 of lesson 33 «Levers: lifting heavy things with a little push» 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/33-levers-lifting-heavy-things-with-a-little-push/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:33-levers-lifting-heavy-things-with-a-little-push:t6:1
# text = How could ancient people move giant stones without machines?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	move	move	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	without	without	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	machines	machine	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **move** | present | ancient people | giant stones |  |  |  | without machines | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent stone=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
They melted and re-poured them

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:33-levers-lifting-heavy-things-with-a-little-push:t6:o1:1
# text = They melted and re-poured them
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	melted	melt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	re-poured	re-pour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **melt** | past | They |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **re-pour** | past | They *not said here* | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
With levers and ramps

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:33-levers-lifting-heavy-things-with-a-little-push:t6:o2:1
# text = With levers and ramps
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	levers	lever	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	ramps	ramp	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They carried them on their heads

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:33-levers-lifting-heavy-things-with-a-little-push:t6:o3:1
# text = They carried them on their heads
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | past | They | them *= they* |  | their heads |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were much stronger than us

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:33-levers-lifting-heavy-things-with-a-little-push:t6:o4:1
# text = They were much stronger than us
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | They |  |  |  |  | than us; strong *property* | tree rules |

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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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