---
title: Why do water pipes sometimes burst in a very cold winter? — Melting, freezing and boiling · tree and pragmatics
description: Why do water pipes sometimes burst in a very cold winter? Test 4 of lesson 12 «Melting, freezing and boiling» of the world 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 4 · Melting, freezing and boiling

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why do water pipes sometimes burst in a very cold winter?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** water pipes · **What happens:** do, burst

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 4 of lesson 12 «Melting, freezing and boiling» of the world 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/world/12-melting-freezing-boiling/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:12-melting-freezing-boiling:t4:1
# text = Why do water pipes sometimes burst in a very cold winter?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
3	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	6	advmod	_	_
6	burst	burst	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present | water pipes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **burst** | present | water pipes |  |  |  | winter | sometimes *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «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 -->
The cold pipes shrink and crush the water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:12-melting-freezing-boiling:t4:o1:1
# text = The cold pipes shrink and crush the water
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	shrink	shrink	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	crush	crush	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shrink** | present | the cold pipes |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **crush** | present | the cold pipes *not said here* | the water |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The water inside freezes and expands

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:12-melting-freezing-boiling:t4:o2:1
# text = The water inside freezes and expands
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	2	nmod	_	_
4	freezes	freeze	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	expands	expand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **freeze** | present | the water |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **expand** | present | the water *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Frost outside pushes the pipes inward

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:12-melting-freezing-boiling:t4:o3:1
# text = Frost outside pushes the pipes inward
1	Frost	frost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
3	pushes	push	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	inward	inward	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **push** | present | Frost | the pipes |  |  |  | inward *property* | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pipe=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Cold water is much heavier than warm water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:12-melting-freezing-boiling:t4:o4:1
# text = Cold water is much heavier than warm water
1	Cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	much	much	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	heavier	heavy	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Cold water |  |  |  |  | than warm water; heavy *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.

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- ← previous: [Melting, freezing and boiling, test 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/12-melting-freezing-boiling/t3/)
- next →: [Melting, freezing and boiling, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/12-melting-freezing-boiling/t5/)
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