--- title: Soil and what lives in it — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soil and what lives in it», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Soil is the thin, loose top layer of the land where plants grow. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/) [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/) / Soil and what lives in it # Soil and what lives in it Lesson 63 of the world 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/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/0/) — Soil is the thin, loose top layer of the land where plants grow. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/1/) — It is a mix of tiny bits of broken rock, humus (dark rotted remains of plants and animals), water, air, and a huge number of living things. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/2/) — Soil forms very slowly: weathering breaks rock into sand, silt and clay, and dead leaves, roots and animals rot into humus; making just a few centimetres of good soil can take hundreds of years. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/3/) — Soil is alive: one handful of good soil holds more tiny living things than there are people on Earth. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/4/) — Earthworms, beetles, woodlice, fungi and bacteria break down dead matter and give its nutrients back to the soil for plants; these are the decomposers. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/5/) — Earthworms are the gardeners of the soil: they eat dead leaves and soil, leave behind rich droppings called casts, and dig tunnels that let air and water reach the roots. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/6/) — Soils differ: sandy soil has big grains with big gaps, so water drains through it fast; clay soil has tiny grains packed close, so it holds water and can become sticky and waterlogged; loam, a mix of sand, silt, clay and humus, is the best for most crops. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/7/) — Soil is made of broken rock, humus, water, air and living things. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/8/) — Humus is the dark material made from rotted plants and animals, and it is rich in nutrients. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/9/) — It can take hundreds of years to form a few centimetres of soil. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/10/) — Decomposers such as fungi, bacteria and earthworms break down dead matter and return nutrients to the soil. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/11/) — Earthworm tunnels let air and water into the soil. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/13/) — Loam is a mix of sand, silt, clay and humus and is good for most plants. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/14/) — Topsoil is the dark upper layer with the most humus and life; below it lie subsoil and then solid rock. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/15/) — Plant roots hold soil in place, so bare soil is easily washed or blown away; this loss is called soil erosion. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/16/) — A compost heap turns kitchen and garden waste into humus with the help of decomposers. - ← previous: [Volcanoes and earthquakes up close](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/62-volcanoes-and-earthquakes/) - next →: [Rivers, lakes and the sea up close](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/64-rivers-lakes-and-the-sea/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)