--- title: Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts», a lesson of the geography course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A canal is a waterway dug by people, a shortcut where nature left none. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/) [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/) / [Geography](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/) / Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts # Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts Lesson 20 of the geography course of Mova's primary school: 20 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/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/0/) — A canal is a waterway dug by people, a shortcut where nature left none. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/1/) — Where the land is flat, ships just sail through; where the land rises, locks lift them up like steps: a lock is a chamber with gates that fills or empties with water so a ship floats up or down. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/2/) — The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, joins the Mediterranean to the Red Sea with no locks, because both seas are at nearly the same level; it cut a voyage from London to Mumbai by about 40 percent compared with sailing around Africa. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/3/) — The Panama Canal, opened in 1914, needs locks, because ships climb about 26 metres to Gatun Lake and back down; every ship uses about 200 million litres of fresh water, so a drought in 2023 forced the canal to let fewer ships through. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/4/) — In Europa Universalis 5 trade between Europe and Asia must sail around the Cape of Good Hope, and that is true for the game's whole period, because Suez opened long after the game's period ends. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/6/) — Think of a garden hose bent round a flower bed: cut a straight path across instead and the water arrives much sooner. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/7/) — A canal does that for ships, and when one stuck ship, the Ever Given, blocked Suez in 2021, hundreds of ships waited for six days. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/8/) — A canal is a waterway dug by people, and locks, which are chambers with gates, let ships climb or descend between different water levels. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/9/) — The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, is about 193 km long and joins the Mediterranean to the Red Sea without any locks. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/10/) — Using the Suez Canal shortens a voyage from London to Mumbai, in India, which Britain then ruled, by about 40 percent compared with sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/11/) — The Suez Canal was dug largely by Egyptian workers, tens of thousands of them forced labourers, and many died from disease and hard conditions. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/12/) — Egypt took over the Suez Canal in 1956, leading to the Suez Crisis, and since a big share of world trade passes through it, it mattered when in March 2021 the giant ship Ever Given got stuck across it for six days, holding up hundreds of ships. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/13/) — The Panama Canal opened in 1914 and is about 82 km long, using locks to lift ships about 26 metres up to Gatun Lake and back down again. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/14/) — A French attempt to dig a canal in Panama at sea level, without locks, in the 1880s failed after about 22,000 workers died, mostly from malaria and yellow fever, and the Americans later succeeded by fighting the mosquitoes that spread those illnesses and by using locks. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/15/) — Each ship passing through the Panama Canal uses about 200 million litres of fresh water, and a drought in 2023 forced the canal to limit the number of ships. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/16/) — China's Grand Canal, with parts over 2,000 years old, is the longest canal in the world at about 1,800 km, joining Beijing to Hangzhou. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/17/) — The Canal du Midi in southern France, built between 1666 and 1681, links the Mediterranean to the River Garonne, which flows to the Atlantic, so boats could avoid sailing all the way round Spain and Portugal. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/18/) — Britain's Bridgewater Canal, opened in 1761, carried coal to Manchester (a horse on the bank could pull a boat holding far more coal than a cart on a road) and began a canal age that spread thousands of kilometres of canals across England. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/19/) — The Kiel Canal in Germany, opened in 1895, links the North Sea to the Baltic Sea and carries more ships each year than any other ship canal. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/20/) — The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, linked the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, helping New York become the leading port of the United States. - 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