---
title: Why do rowers pull their oars back through the water? — Pushes and pulls all around us · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do rowers pull their oars back through the water? Test 8 · ★★ of lesson 5 «Pushes and pulls all around us» 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 8 · ★★ · Pushes and pulls all around us

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why do rowers pull their oars back through the water?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** rowers · **What happens:** pull back · **To what, where:** oars, water

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 5 «Pushes and pulls all around us» 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/5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us:t8:1
# text = Why do rowers pull their oars back through the water?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	rowers	rower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	oars	oar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull back** | present · do-support | rowers | rowers's oars |  | the water |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oar=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 -->
To splash the other rowers

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us:t8:o1:1
# text = To splash the other rowers
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	splash	splash	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	rowers	rower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **splash** | to-infinitive |  | the other rowers |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location rower=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To pull the water towards the boat

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us:t8:o2:1
# text = To pull the water towards the boat
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	pull	pull	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | to-infinitive |  | the water |  | the boat |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent water=Theme towards boat=Destination |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To slow the boat down

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us:t8:o3:1
# text = To slow the boat down
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	slow	slow	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slow down** | to-infinitive |  | the boat |  |  |  | down *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent boat=Patient |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To push the water back so it pushes the boat on

```conllu
# sent_id = question:physics:5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us:t8:o4:1
# text = To push the water back so it pushes the boat on
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	pushes	push	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **push back** | to-infinitive | water *not said here* | the water |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme |
| 2 | **push on** | present | water | the boat |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boat=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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