--- title: Colds and flu — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Colds and flu», a lesson of the medicine course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A cold is an infection of the nose and throat by one of more than 200 viruses; the runny nose is your body washing the viruses out. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/) [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/) / Colds and flu # Colds and flu Lesson 7 of the medicine course of Mova's primary school: 17 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/7-colds-and-flu/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/0/) — A cold is an infection of the nose and throat by one of more than 200 viruses; the runny nose is your body washing the viruses out. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/1/) — You catch a cold from other people's viruses, not from wet hair or cold weather; colds are commoner in winter mostly because people crowd together indoors. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/2/) — Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses, so they do nothing for a cold, even when the snot turns green. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/3/) — Flu is caused by influenza viruses and is much worse than a cold: it comes on suddenly, with high fever and aching all over, as if you'd been hit by a bus. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/4/) — There is no cure for a cold; rest, drinks and time, about a week to ten days, are what get you better. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/5/) — A cold is an infection of the nose and throat by one of more than 200 different viruses, and it gets better on its own in about a week to ten days. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/6/) — Antibiotics do not work on colds, because colds are caused by viruses, not bacteria. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/7/) — Wet hair and cold weather do not create cold viruses; colds are commoner in winter mostly because people are indoors close together. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/8/) — Green or yellow snot is coloured by white blood cells fighting the infection and happens in ordinary viral colds too. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/9/) — Flu comes on suddenly with high fever, aching muscles, headache, shivers and great tiredness. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/10/) — The UK children's flu vaccine is a nasal spray with weakened viruses that cannot cause flu; it changes every year because flu viruses change. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/11/) — Flu spreads by droplets from coughs and sneezes and on hands and surfaces, and older people and babies can get very ill from it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/12/) — Whether you have a cold or a fever, the body needs fluids and energy; starving a fever is not a good idea. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/13/) — Honey can soothe a sore throat and calm a cough a little, but it is never given to babies under 12 months. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/14/) — A cough can last weeks after a cold, but a cough lasting more than three weeks should be checked by a GP, a family doctor. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/15/) — A child with a mild cold and no fever can usually go to school. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/7-colds-and-flu/16/) — Taking vitamin C every day does not stop most people catching colds; it might shorten a cold slightly in some studies. - ← previous: [Burns, sunburn and stings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/6-burns-sunburn-and-stings/) - next →: [Fever](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/8-fever/) - ↑ back to [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/)