--- title: Life begins: being born and growing up — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Life begins: being born and growing up», a lesson of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Every person who ever lived started as something smaller than a full stop, grew for about nine months inside their mother's --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/) [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/) / [Religion ethics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/) / Life begins: being born and growing up # Life begins: being born and growing up Lesson 51 of the religion ethics 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/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/0/) — Every person who ever lived started as something smaller than a full stop, grew for about nine months inside their mother's womb, and was then born helpless, unable even to hold up their own head. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/1/) — Picture Sunday lunch at Ellie's house: her aunt's new baby wraps his whole hand round Ellie's finger; nine years ago Ellie was that small too, and so was every grown-up at the table. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/2/) — Babies are born able to suck, cry and grip, but walking, talking and reading are learned slowly, by trying, falling and trying again; a giraffe walks within an hour, while a human baby needs about a year, because our big brains have so much to learn. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/3/) — Christians at Ellie's church believe every baby is known and loved by God and is a gift, not a thing anyone owns; other faiths welcome babies with their own blessings, non-religious families may hold a naming day, and everyone agrees a new life is a wonder. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/4/) — A new brother or sister does not use up a family's love: love is not a cake cut into smaller slices, it grows to cover everyone, even when the baby takes up a lot of time. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/5/) — A baby grows inside the mother's body, in the womb, for about nine months before it is born. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/6/) — A baby starts when a tiny cell from the mother and a tiny cell from the father join together; before that, the baby did not exist as a person. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/7/) — Some children are adopted: they join a family that did not give birth to them, and they are just as much part of it. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/8/) — Newborn babies can suck, cry and grip, but walking and talking are learned slowly; many babies take their first steps at around 11 to 13 months. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/9/) — Different animals grow at different speeds: a giraffe calf stands and walks within about an hour, but a human baby needs about a year. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/10/) — Kittens are born with their eyes shut; their eyes open after about one or two weeks. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/11/) — A seed is not dead: it holds a tiny resting plant and a store of food, and water and warmth wake it up. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/12/) — A frog changes shape as it grows: frogspawn, tadpole, froglet, frog; it is the same animal all the way through. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/13/) — Babies born early often need a special warm hospital cot to help them breathe and feed; most grow up strong, though sometimes it is harder. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/14/) — A birthday marks the day a person was born; some groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, choose not to celebrate birthdays, and that choice is respected. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/15/) — Christians call every child a gift from God and baptise babies or thank God for them; Jesus told of the tiny mustard seed that grows into a big plant. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/51-life-begins-being-born-and-growing-up/16/) — Parents' love does not run out when a new baby comes, even though a newborn needs a great deal of time and care. - ← previous: [Mock ethics olympiad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/50-mock-ethics-olympiad/) - next →: [Getting old: how long people and animals live](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/52-getting-old-how-long-people-and-animals-live/) - ↑ back to [Religion ethics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/)