---
title: How can a day on Mercury last longer than its year? — Mercury · tree and pragmatics
description: How can a day on Mercury last longer than its year? Test 3 of lesson 3 «Mercury» of the space 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 3 · Mercury

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How can a day on Mercury last longer than its year?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 3 of lesson 3 «Mercury» of the space 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/space/3-mercury/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t3:1
# text = How can a day on Mercury last longer than its year?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	last	last	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	1	advmod	_	_
9	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

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

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It does not spin at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t3:o1:1
# text = It does not spin at all
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **spin** | present · do-support | It |  |  | all |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme at all=Trajectory |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its year is counted backwards

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t3:o2:1
# text = Its year is counted backwards
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	counted	count	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | present · passive |  | Its year |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It spins so slowly that one sunrise to the next takes two of its years

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t3:o3:1
# text = It spins so slowly that one sunrise to the next takes two of its years
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spins	spin	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	sunrise	sunrise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	nmod	_	_
11	takes	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spin** | present | It |  |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | present | one sunrise to the next | two of its years |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent two=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its days are measured in Earth weeks

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t3:o4:1
# text = Its days are measured in Earth weeks
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	measured	measure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	weeks	week	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **measure** | present · passive |  | Its days |  |  | week |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: subject=Value |

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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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Mercury, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/3-mercury/t2/)
- next →: [Mercury, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/3-mercury/t4/)
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