--- title: Thinking like a lifeguard — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Thinking like a lifeguard», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Waves push water up onto the beach all the time, and that water has to flow back out to sea somewhere; it gathers and rushes back through a nar --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/) [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/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Thinking like a lifeguard # Thinking like a lifeguard Lesson 50 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 22 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/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/0/) — Waves push water up onto the beach all the time, and that water has to flow back out to sea somewhere; it gathers and rushes back through a narrow gap, often a dip between sandbanks, and that fast outward stream is a rip, so the waves come in while the rip goes out. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/1/) — A rip is usually narrow, often only a few house-widths wide, so swimming sideways for a short way gets you out of it, while swimming straight against it can be like running the wrong way on a moving walkway. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/2/) — Lightning usually strikes the tallest thing around, so a lone tree in a field is the worst shelter: the strike can jump from the trunk to a person or spread through the ground; a building or a hard-topped car is safe, because the car's metal body carries the current around the outside, not because of the rubber tyres. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/3/) — Sound travels about one kilometre in three seconds, while the light of a flash arrives almost at once, so counting the seconds from flash to thunder and dividing by three tells you about how many kilometres away the storm is. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/4/) — In London the nearest cars come from the right, so a boy from New York who looks left first, out of habit, sees an empty lane and steps into the one where the danger really is. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/5/) — A lifeguard at a pool in Florida saw a child go still under the water while others were playing; she pulled him out within seconds, and he was fine because nobody waited. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/6/) — A father in Ireland jumped into a river to save his son's dog; the cold water and current were too strong for him, and both had to be rescued by firefighters. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/7/) — Water pushed onto the beach by waves must flow back out to sea. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/8/) — A rip forms where that water rushes back out through a narrow gap, such as a deeper dip between sandbanks, or beside rocks or a pier. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/9/) — Fewer waves break over a rip, because the water there is deeper and flowing out, so a rip looks calmer. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/10/) — Most rips are narrow, so a short swim parallel to the shore takes you out of them. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/11/) — Lightning usually strikes the tallest object in the area. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/12/) — Standing under a lone tree in a thunderstorm is dangerous. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/13/) — A car with a metal roof protects you from lightning because the metal body carries the current around you. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/14/) — Rubber tyres are not what makes a car safe in lightning. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/15/) — Light arrives almost at once, but sound takes about three seconds to travel one kilometre. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/16/) — If you hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning, so you go indoors. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/17/) — In left-driving countries the nearest lane of traffic comes from your right. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/18/) — Habits from home can be dangerous in a country where traffic drives on the other side. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/19/) — Fluorescent colours glow brightly in daylight, but reflective material is what shines back in headlights at night. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/20/) — Many people who drown are trying to save someone else; a panicking person in the water can grab a rescuer and pull them under. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/50-thinking-about-outdoor-safety/21/) — Seconds matter in a water emergency, so watching closely and acting fast saves lives. - ← previous: [Lost outdoors](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/49-lost-outdoors/) - next →: [Manners and kindness](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/51-manners-and-kindness/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)