---
title: In fact the Earth is closest to the Sun in early January. What does… — The Earth as a planet · tree and pragmatics
description: In fact the Earth is closest to the Sun in early January. What does that tell a person in Britain? Test 2 of lesson 5 «The Earth as a planet» 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 2 · The Earth as a planet

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In fact the Earth is closest to the Sun in early January. What does that tell a person in Britain?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** Earth, that · **What happens:** be, tell · **To what, where:** fact, person, Britain · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 2 of lesson 5 «The Earth as a planet» 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/5-the-earth-as-a-planet/#t2).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* In fact the Earth is closest to the Sun in early January.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:5-the-earth-as-a-planet:t2:1
# text = In fact the Earth is closest to the Sun in early January.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	closest	close	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	early	early	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	January	January	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the Earth |  |  | fact | january | to the Sun; close *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What does that tell a person in Britain?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:5-the-earth-as-a-planet:t2:2
# text = What does that tell a person in Britain?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · do-support | that |  | a person | Britain |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent what=Recipient person=Topic |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Distance cannot be what makes the seasons, since January is winter there

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:5-the-earth-as-a-planet:t2:o1:1
# text = Distance cannot be what makes the seasons, since January is winter there
1	Distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	6	nsubj	_	_
6	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	seasons	season	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	since	since	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	January	January	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
14	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | can | Distance |  |  |  | season | make *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  | there | since January winter |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Britain has summer in January

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:5-the-earth-as-a-planet:t2:o2:1
# text = Britain has summer in January
1	Britain	Britain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	January	January	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Britain |  |  |  | january; summer |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Earth stops tilting in winter

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:5-the-earth-as-a-planet:t2:o3:1
# text = The Earth stops tilting in winter
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stops	stop	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	tilting	tilt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | present | the Earth |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **tilt** | gerund | the Earth *not said here* |  |  |  | winter |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Sun must be cooler in January

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:5-the-earth-as-a-planet:t2:o4:1
# text = The Sun must be cooler in January
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	cooler	cool	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	January	January	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | must | the Sun |  |  |  | january | cool *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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [The Earth as a planet, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/5-the-earth-as-a-planet/t1/)
- next →: [The Earth as a planet, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/5-the-earth-as-a-planet/t3/)
- ↑ back to [The Earth as a planet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/5-the-earth-as-a-planet/)