--- title: Sore backs, glasses and feeling low — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Sore backs, glasses and feeling low», a lesson of the adult life course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: As grown-ups get older, their bodies need more looking after: backs ache, eyes struggle with small print, ears fade, and teeth need --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/) / Sore backs, glasses and feeling low # Sore backs, glasses and feeling low Lesson 22 of the adult life course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/0/) — As grown-ups get older, their bodies need more looking after: backs ache, eyes struggle with small print, ears fade, and teeth need regular checks. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/1/) — Minds need looking after too. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/2/) — Mental health is how well our thoughts and feelings are working, and sometimes it goes wrong for a while, just like a body can. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/3/) — Picture a café in Dublin: Mum holds the menu at arm's length and laughs, "I can't read this without my glasses," while Dad groans getting up from his chair, "It's my bad back again." - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/4/) — Later that week, Dad says quietly that Mum has been low for weeks and the doctor says it is depression. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/5/) — She is seeing someone to talk to and is off work for a while. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/6/) — None of this is anybody's fault, none of it is catching, and most of it gets better with rest, help and time. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/7/) — A "bad back" usually means pain in the lower back from strained muscles or worn joints; it is very common in adults and can come and go for years. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/8/) — After about forty, the lens of the eye gets stiffer and close-up reading becomes harder, so many grown-ups need reading glasses. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/9/) — A hearing aid is a tiny device that makes sounds louder for someone whose hearing has faded; it whistles if it is not fitted right. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/10/) — To help someone with poor hearing, face them and speak clearly, without shouting. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/11/) — Dentists check teeth every six months to a year to catch small problems, like holes, before they hurt. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/12/) — A filling repairs a hole in a tooth; the dentist numbs the area first, and the numbness lasts a couple of hours, so talking and eating are hard. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/13/) — Mental health is how well our minds and feelings are working; everyone has it, and when someone is struggling it is nobody's fault. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/14/) — Depression is an illness where a person feels sad, empty or tired for weeks, and things they enjoyed stop feeling good; it is more than a bad day. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/15/) — Depression is treated with talking therapy, medicine or both, and it usually lifts; a child did not cause it and cannot fix it alone. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/16/) — Anxiety is worry or fear, often with a fast heartbeat; everyone has some, but for some people it grows big enough to get in the way. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/17/) — A counsellor is a trained person you talk to about problems and feelings; they listen, keep things private and help you find ways to cope. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/18/) — Burnout is exhaustion from too much stress for too long, usually from work; the person feels drained and cannot concentrate. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/19/) — A sick note, officially a fit note in the UK, is a doctor's letter saying a person is too unwell to work. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/22-sore-backs-glasses-and-feeling-low/20/) — "Signed off" means a doctor has said someone cannot work for now, because of a physical or a mental illness; it is part of getting better, not laziness. - ← previous: [Hospitals, operations and serious illness](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/21-hospitals-operations-and-serious-illness/) - next →: [When Grandma and Grandad need more help](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/23-when-grandma-and-grandad-need-more-help/) - ↑ back to [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/)