---
title: If ice were denser than water, what might happen to pond life in a l… — Clever reasoning about water and matter · tree and pragmatics
description: If ice were denser than water, what might happen to pond life in a long hard winter? Test 3 · ★★★ of lesson 20 «Clever reasoning about water and matter» 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 3 · ★★★ · Clever reasoning about water and matter

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If ice were denser than water, what might happen to pond life in a long hard winter?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** ice · **What happens:** be, happen

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This is test 3 · ★★★ of lesson 20 «Clever reasoning about water and matter» 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/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/#t3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t3:1
# text = If ice were denser than water, what might happen to pond life in a long hard winter?
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	denser	dense	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj	_	_
9	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
12	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	advcl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | ice |  |  |  |  | than water; dense *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **happen** | might |  |  |  |  | winter |  | 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 -->
Nothing would change for them

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t3:o1:1
# text = Nothing would change for them
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | would | Nothing |  |  |  |  | for them *= they* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ponds could freeze solid and many animals would die

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t3:o2:1
# text = Ponds could freeze solid and many animals would die
1	Ponds	pond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	freeze	freeze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **freeze** | could | Ponds |  |  |  |  | solid *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **die** | would | many animals |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Fish could swim up and live on top of the ice instead

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t3:o3:1
# text = Fish could swim up and live on top of the ice instead
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim up** | could | Fish |  |  |  |  | instead *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **live** | present | Fish *not said here* |  |  | top of the ice |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on top=Location |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ponds would never freeze over

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t3:o4:1
# text = Ponds would never freeze over
1	Ponds	pond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	freeze	freeze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	over	over	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **freeze over** | would | Ponds |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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: [Clever reasoning about water and matter, test 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/t2/)
- next →: [Clever reasoning about water and matter, test 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/t4/)
- ↑ back to [Clever reasoning about water and matter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/)