--- title: Sleepovers and spooky stories — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Sleepovers and spooky stories», a lesson of the myths course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Torch under the chin, someone whispers: "Say Bloody Mary three times in the mirror in the dark and she appears!" Everyone shrieks and nobody w --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/) [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/) / [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/) / Sleepovers and spooky stories # Sleepovers and spooky stories Lesson 26 of the myths course of Mova's primary school: 16 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/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/0/) — Torch under the chin, someone whispers: "Say Bloody Mary three times in the mirror in the dark and she appears!" Everyone shrieks and nobody wants to go to the bathroom alone. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/1/) — Spooky stories are fun because your brain is a brilliant pattern-finder: in the dark it turns a coat into a figure, a creak into footsteps, and a tired face in a mirror into a stranger. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/2/) — Stare at your own face in dim light for a minute and it can seem to warp and change; that is your brain filling gaps, not a ghost, and scientists have studied it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/3/) — Many sleepover tales, like the hook-handed man or the calls "from inside the house", are old urban legends told for decades and even made into films. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/4/) — Enjoy them as stories, and if someone gets truly scared, stop and remind them it's a game; some tales, like the lake monster, even hide a real lesson: deep water is dangerous. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/5/) — Staring at your face in a mirror in dim light can make it seem to warp or change into a stranger's; scientists have studied this effect, and it happens in your brain. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/6/) — The story of the man with a hook for a hand is an urban legend that has been told since at least the 1950s. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/7/) — Scratching and creaking at night usually come from mice, branches, wind, cooling pipes or a house settling (its wood and walls shifting a tiny bit) as it cools; turning on a light and looking, or telling an adult, usually solves the mystery. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/8/) — There is no good evidence that putting a sleeping person's hand in warm water makes them wet themselves, and pranks on sleeping friends are unkind. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/9/) — Lake-monster stories are often told to keep children away from water, and deep water really is dangerous: it can be cold, deep and full of weeds, so never swim without an adult. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/10/) — There is no evidence that ghosts exist or that "a ghost's breath" can haunt you. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/11/) — A glass or pointer on a spirit board moves because of tiny movements people make without knowing it, called the ideomotor effect. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/12/) — Black cats bringing bad luck is a superstition (a belief about luck or magic with no evidence); in some places, such as parts of Britain and Japan, they are even thought to bring good luck. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/13/) — The "calls coming from inside the house" story is an old urban legend that was turned into films. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/14/) — In the dark, our brains are more likely to imagine danger, which is why ordinary shapes and sounds feel scary at night. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/26-sleepovers-and-spooky-stories/15/) — Spooky stories are fine as fun, but stop when someone is truly frightened. - ← previous: [Viral facts and chain messages](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/25-viral-facts-and-chain-messages/) - next →: [Everyday sayings and grown-ups' rules](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/27-everyday-sayings-and-grown-ups-rules/) - ↑ back to [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/)