---
title: How can ice survive on the planet closest to the Sun? — Mercury · tree and pragmatics
description: How can ice survive on the planet closest to the Sun? Test 4 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 right.
---

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# Test 4 · Mercury

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How can ice survive on the planet closest to the Sun?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** ice · **What happens:** survive · **To what, where:** planet

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 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/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t4:1
# text = How can ice survive on the planet closest to the Sun?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	survive	survive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	planet	planet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	closest	close	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	amod	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **survive** | can | ice |  |  | the planet |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on planet=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
It snows on Mercury every single night when it gets cold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t4:o1:1
# text = It snows on Mercury every single night when it gets cold
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	snows	snow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
6	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	gets	get	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
11	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **snow** | present | It |  |  | Mercury | night |  | vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme» |
| 2 | **get** | present | it |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Sun never shines on Mercury

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t4:o2:1
# text = The Sun never shines on Mercury
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	shines	shine	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **shine** | present | the Sun |  |  | Mercury |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on mercury=Location |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It sits in craters whose floors are always in shadow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t4:o3:1
# text = It sits in craters whose floors are always in shadow
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sits	sit	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	craters	crater	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	floors	floor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
7	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	10	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | present | It |  |  | craters |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in crater=Location |
| 2 | **is** | present | shadow's floors |  |  | shadow |  | always *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The ice is kept under a layer of oil

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:3-mercury:t4:o4:1
# text = The ice is kept under a layer of oil
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	ice	ice	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	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	under	under	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	layer	layer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | present · passive |  | the ice |  | a layer of oil |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme under layer=Location |

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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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- ← previous: [Mercury, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/3-mercury/t3/)
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