---
title: What would happen to the Moon's distance over a billion years? — The Moon · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen to the Moon's distance over a billion years? Test 9 of lesson 6 «The Moon» 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 9 · The Moon

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen to the Moon's distance over a billion years?

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

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 9 of lesson 6 «The Moon» 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/6-the-moon/#t9).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:6-the-moon:t9:1
# text = What would happen to the Moon's distance over a billion years?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Moon	Moon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	billion	billion	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  | year | to the Moon's distance | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would crash into the Earth

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:6-the-moon:t9:o1:1
# text = It would crash into the Earth
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	crash	crash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Earth	Earth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crash** | would | It |  |  |  |  | into the Earth *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient into earth=Result |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would fly off into space at once

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:6-the-moon:t9:o2:1
# text = It would fly off into space at once
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	off	off	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly off** | would | It |  |  | space |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at once=Location |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would be noticeably further away, drifting about 3.8 cm each year

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:6-the-moon:t9:o3:1
# text = It would be noticeably further away, drifting about 3.8 cm each year
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
4	noticeably	noticeably	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	further	further	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	away	away	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	drifting	drift	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	about	about	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	3.8	3.8	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	cm	cm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | It |  |  |  |  | away, further, noticeably *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drift** | gerund |  | 3.8 cm |  |  | year |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cm=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would stay exactly as it is

```conllu
# sent_id = question:space:6-the-moon:t9:o4:1
# text = It would stay exactly as it is
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | would | It |  |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | present | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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- ← previous: [The Moon, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/6-the-moon/t8/)
- next →: [The Moon, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/space/6-the-moon/t10/)
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