--- title: Picking teams and being picked last — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Picking teams and being picked last», a lesson of the medicine course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Picture the gym wall in Leeds: captains Jayden and Kai pick one by one until only Oliver is left, and Kai rolls his eyes, «Ugh, fine, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/) [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/) / [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/) / Picking teams and being picked last # Picking teams and being picked last Lesson 66 of the medicine course of Mova's primary school: 14 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/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/0/) — Picture the gym wall in Leeds: captains Jayden and Kai pick one by one until only Oliver is left, and Kai rolls his eyes, «Ugh, fine, we'll have Ollie, innit»; Oliver's face goes hot and his stomach seems to drop. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/1/) — That hot face is a blush: stress chemicals like adrenaline widen the small blood vessels in the cheeks, and a lump in the throat comes from throat muscles tightening when you try not to cry. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/2/) — Brain scans suggest that being left out uses some of the same brain areas as body pain, so «it hurts» is true, and the feeling passes in a few minutes, faster if you tell someone. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/3/) — Kid captains mostly pick their mates first, so the order shows friendships and moods, not how good you are; Arjun, new from Mumbai, was picked last in Birmingham and then bowled out three batters. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/5/) — Being picked last often makes the face go hot and the stomach feel like it drops, because stress hormones like adrenaline act on blood vessels and the gut. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/6/) — A lump in the throat when you hold back tears is the throat muscles tightening; it is an automatic stress reaction that fades. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/7/) — Brain-scan studies suggest that being left out uses some of the same brain areas as physical pain. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/8/) — Kid captains usually pick friends first, so the picking order says little about skill. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/9/) — Sometimes people are picked late simply because nobody knows them yet. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/10/) — Counting off («one, two, one, two») or a teacher's list makes teams quickly with no public ranking. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/12/) — Calling out who you don't want («not him, he's mid») is a public put-down and makes your own team weaker and sadder. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/13/) — Leading is a skill, and children only learn it when the captain's job is shared around. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/14/) — Anyone on the pitch can score, defend or save the game, whatever number they were picked. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/66-picking-teams-and-being-picked-last/15/) — Saying «I don't care» doesn't stop the hurt; telling a friend or teacher how it felt helps it settle. - ← previous: [VAR rows, referees, fans and rivalries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/65-var-rows-referees-fans-and-rivalries/) - next →: [Losing well and winning well](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/67-losing-well-and-winning-well/) - ↑ back to [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/)