--- title: Roads and road signs — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Roads and road signs», a lesson of the technology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A road looks like a flat black strip, but it is really a layer cake. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/) [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/) / [Technology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/) / Roads and road signs # Roads and road signs Lesson 31 of the technology course of Mova's primary school: 18 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/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/0/) — A road looks like a flat black strip, but it is really a layer cake. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/1/) — At the bottom is hard-rolled crushed stone that spreads the weight of lorries, and on top is asphalt, a hot mix of small stones and sticky black bitumen, rolled flat while it is still warm. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/2/) — Water is a road's worst enemy. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/3/) — On a winter night water seeps into a tiny crack, freezes, swells like a bottle of water left in the freezer and pushes the crack wider; tyres then knock the broken bits out, and a pothole is born. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/4/) — Roads also talk to drivers without words. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/5/) — Shapes and colours on signs, white lines with glittering glass beads, cat's eyes that shine back in the headlights and bumps outside a school all tell a driver what to do in a split second. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/6/) — The safety rule for every road is the same: roadworks and motorways are for vehicles and trained crews, never for walking or playing. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/7/) — A road is built in layers: crushed stone rolled hard at the bottom, then hot asphalt, a mix of stones and sticky black bitumen, spread and rolled flat on top; people often call it tarmac. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/8/) — Potholes grow after winter because water gets into cracks, freezes, expands and breaks the road, and traffic then knocks pieces out; councils fill them, and cyclists watch for them. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/9/) — Road lines are painted with special paint that has tiny glass beads in it, so the lines reflect headlights at night. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/10/) — Cat's eyes, the little reflectors set into the middle of the road, were invented by Percy Shaw in England in 1934. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/11/) — A motorway has no crossings and no traffic lights, only gentle bends, several lanes and slip roads to join and leave; the first UK motorway, the Preston Bypass, opened in 1958. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/12/) — Never walk on a motorway; if a car breaks down, everyone gets out on the side away from the traffic and waits behind the barrier. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/13/) — At a roundabout drivers give way to traffic already coming round, so cars keep moving instead of stopping at lights and only stop when something is coming, not because a timer says so; Swindon's Magic Roundabout is made of five small roundabouts around one big one. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/14/) — Street lights switch on at dusk because a light sensor notices the light fading; many are now LEDs, and some dim late at night to save energy. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/16/) — In the UK and much of Europe, circular signs give orders, triangular signs warn and rectangular signs give information, and a reflective coating makes them shine at night. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/17/) — A gritter lorry spreads salt before a frost, because salty water freezes at a lower temperature than plain water, so ice forms less easily. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/31-roads-and-road-signs/18/) — Temporary traffic lights at roadworks take turns letting one direction of traffic through a single lane, using timers or sensors. - ← previous: [Bridges and skyscrapers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/30-bridges-and-skyscrapers/) - next →: [Power stations and the grid](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/32-power-stations-and-the-grid/) - ↑ back to [Technology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/)