--- title: Rivers shaping the land — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Rivers shaping the land», a lesson of the geography course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A river is a long conveyor belt for water and rock. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/) [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/) / Rivers shaping the land # Rivers shaping the land Lesson 53 of the geography course of Mova's primary school: 19 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/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/0/) — A river is a long conveyor belt for water and rock. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/1/) — It begins at its source, often a spring or a boggy patch in the hills, and ends at its mouth, where it meets the sea, a lake or another river. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/2/) — High up, the river is fast and steep and cuts down into the land, making a deep V-shaped valley. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/3/) — Where it pours over a band of hard rock lying on soft rock, the soft rock wears back faster and a waterfall forms. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/4/) — Lower down the river slows and swings in big loops called meanders, like a snake. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/5/) — If it cuts across the neck of a loop, the old loop is left behind as an oxbow lake. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/6/) — Floods spread mud on flat land beside the river, making a fertile flood plain, and at the mouth the river may drop its mud to build a delta. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/7/) — Over millions of years the Colorado River cut the Grand Canyon about 1.8 km deep. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/8/) — A river flows from its source in the hills to its mouth at the sea, a lake or another river. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/9/) — Near the source, a river cuts down into the land, making steep V-shaped valleys. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/10/) — Waterfalls form where a river flows over hard rock lying on top of softer rock, and as the soft rock wears away the waterfall slowly moves back upstream. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/11/) — In its lower course, a river winds in big loops called meanders. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/12/) — An oxbow lake forms when a river cuts through the narrow neck of a meander and leaves the loop behind. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/13/) — Flood plains are flat lands beside rivers built up from mud left by floods, and they are very fertile. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/14/) — A delta forms where a river drops its sediment at the mouth faster than the sea can carry it away. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/15/) — An estuary is a river mouth where fresh water meets the tide, and many great ports grew on them. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/16/) — The Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon, about 1.8 km deep, over roughly the last 5-6 million years, although some scientists argue parts are older. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/17/) — River floods are among the deadliest natural disasters, especially on big rivers like the Yellow River in China. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/18/) — The world's rivers carry billions of tonnes of sediment to the sea every year. - ← previous: [Weathering and erosion](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/52-weathering-and-erosion/) - next →: [Glaciers and ice ages](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/54-glaciers-and-ice-ages/) - ↑ back to [Geography](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/)