---
title: How can salt melt the ice on a road at -5 °C? — Clever reasoning about water and matter · tree and pragmatics
description: How can salt melt the ice on a road at -5 °C? Test 4 · ★★★ 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 right.
---

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# Test 4 · ★★★ · Clever reasoning about water and matter

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How can salt melt the ice on a road at -5 °C?

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**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** salt · **What happens:** melt · **To what, where:** ice, road

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This is test 4 · ★★★ 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/#t4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t4:1
# text = How can salt melt the ice on a road at -5 °C?
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	melt	melt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
13	°	°	SYM	SYM	_	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	C	c	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **melt** | can | salt | the ice |  | a road |  | 5 ° C *obl* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient ice=Result |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Salty water freezes below -5 °C, so it stays liquid

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t4:o1:1
# text = Salty water freezes below -5 °C, so it stays liquid
1	Salty	salty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	freezes	freeze	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	below	below	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	5	5	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	3	obl	_	_
7	°	°	SYM	SYM	_	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	C	c	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	stays	stay	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	liquid	liquid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **freeze** | present | Salty water |  |  | 5  ° C |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **stay** | present | water |  |  |  |  | liquid *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Salt is a fuel that slowly burns

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t4:o2:1
# text = Salt is a fuel that slowly burns
1	Salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	fuel	fuel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	burns	burn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Salt | a fuel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **burn** | present | a fuel |  |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Salt heats the ice up to 0 °C

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t4:o3:1
# text = Salt heats the ice up to 0 °C
1	Salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heats	heat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	0	0	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	2	obl	_	_
8	°	°	SYM	SYM	_	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	C	c	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **heat up** | present | Salt | the ice |  |  |  | to 0  ° C *result* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent ice=Patient to 0=Result |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Car tyres warm the salt up

```conllu
# sent_id = question:world:20-reasoning-water-and-matter:t4:o4:1
# text = Car tyres warm the salt up
1	Car	car	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	tyres	tyre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	warm	warm	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **warm up** | present | Car tyres | the salt |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent salt=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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/t3/)
- next →: [Clever reasoning about water and matter, test 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/t5/)
- ↑ back to [Clever reasoning about water and matter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/20-reasoning-water-and-matter/)