--- title: "Crime is up, I saw it on the news" — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «"Crime is up, I saw it on the news"», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The news is a list of the most unusual and frightening things that happened somewhere in the whole country today; the ordinary, safe day --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/) [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/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / "Crime is up, I saw it on the news" # "Crime is up, I saw it on the news" Lesson 177 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 19 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/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/0/) — The news is a list of the most unusual and frightening things that happened somewhere in the whole country today; the ordinary, safe days of millions of people are not news. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/1/) — Watch 300 crime stories in a year and your brain starts to feel that crime is everywhere, even if none of them happened on your street. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/2/) — What you see a lot feels common; grown-ups call this the availability trap. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/3/) — Plane crashes are on the news because they are rare; car crashes are so common they hardly make it. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/4/) — So Uncle Paul drives five hours to feel safe and picks the riskier trip. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/5/) — To know how common something really is, you need counts, not stories: official figures, the real numbers behind a percentage, and what exactly was counted. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/6/) — "Burglaries up 50%!" sounds terrifying until you hear it went from 2 to 3, and the third one was Dave's shed, and Dave left the door open. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/7/) — The news picks unusual, scary stories because they are surprising, and that makes them feel more common than they are. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/8/) — Official figures show that many kinds of crime have gone down over the years, even while many people feel things are getting worse. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/9/) — Shark attacks are very rare everywhere and almost unheard of around Britain; strong currents, sunburn and jellyfish are much more common risks at the beach. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/10/) — For the same distance, flying on a big airline is much safer than going by car. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/11/) — Most dogs never bite anyone; learning how to be safe around dogs is more useful than fearing all of them. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/12/) — A scary screen-time number may count schoolwork and a TV left on in the background, so always ask what exactly was counted. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/13/) — When numbers are small, percentages jump: 2 burglaries becoming 3 is a rise of 50%, but it is only one more burglary. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/14/) — Far fewer children are killed on Britain's roads today than in the 1970s. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/15/) — Reporters often pick dramatic people to interview; one angry man on TV doesn't show what most people think, but a fair survey can. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/16/) — Before keeping everyone home, check the local picture: if only one child in the class is ill, the illness isn't spreading widely there. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/17/) — People have complained that "young people have no manners" for thousands of years; most teenagers are polite most of the time. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/177-crime-is-up-i-saw-it-on-the-news/18/) — Words people use: "telly" (UK) means TV; "bloke" (UK, Australia) means a man; "proper" (UK) means really; "back in my day" is how older people start talking about their childhood; "highkey" (US, young people) means very much, openly; "yinz" (Pittsburgh) means "you all"; "fr" means "for real". - ← previous: [Adverts and "8 out of 10 cats"](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/176-adverts-and-8-out-of-10-cats/) - next →: [The politician's either-or and the straw man](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/178-the-politicians-either-or-and-the-straw-man/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)