---
title: Lightning usually strikes the tallest thing around, so a lone tree i… — Thinking like a lifeguard · tree and pragmatics
description: 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 o
---

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# Thinking like a lifeguard, sentence 2

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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.

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**Who acts:** Lightning, lone tree, strike, building, metal body · **What happens:** strike, be, jump, spread, top, carry · **To what, where:** tallest thing, worst shelter, trunk, ground, current, outside

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This is a sentence of the lesson «Thinking like a lifeguard» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lightning, lone tree, strike, building), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:everyday:050-thinking-about-outdoor-safety.lesson:2
# text = 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.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = everyday
# lesson = 050-thinking-about-outdoor-safety.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R5-strong ×2
1	Lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	usually	usually	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	strikes	strike	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	tallest	tall	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	around	around	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	lone	lone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	worst	bad	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	strike	strike	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	jump	jump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	spread	spread	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=30:conj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing
33	through	through	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	Agree=R5-strong|Haiku=24:obl
36	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	building	building	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
39	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
41	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	compound	_	_
42	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	41	punct	_	_
43	topped	top	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	amod	_	_
44	car	car	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	_
45	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
46	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	advcl	_	_
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
48	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	car	car	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod:poss	_	_
51	's	's	PART	POS	_	50	case	_	_
52	metal	metal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	compound	_	_
53	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nsubj	_	_
54	carries	carry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	current	current	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obj	_	_
57	around	around	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	outside	outside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	_
60	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	66	punct	_	_
61	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	66	advmod	_	_
62	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	66	case	_	_
63	of	of	ADP	IN	_	62	fixed	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
65	rubber	rubber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	compound	_	_
66	tyres	tyre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
67	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | present | Lightning | the tallest thing |  |  |  | usually *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | present | a lone tree in a field | the worst shelter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **jump** | can | the strike |  |  | the trunk |  | to a person *result*; because the rubber tyres | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient from trunk=Initial\_State to person=Result |
| 4 | **spread** | infinitive | the strike *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through ground=Location |
| 5 | **top** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | present | a building or a topped car |  |  |  |  | safe *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **carry** | present | the car's metal body | the current |  | the outside |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent current=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.

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**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:everyday:050-thinking-about-outdoor-safety.lesson:2`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R5-strong ×2. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

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