Exam question 1 · Myth check: do goldfish have a three-second memory?

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the duration of memory in the goldfish.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, duration

This is exam question 1 of lesson 152 «Myth check: do goldfish have a three-second memory?» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 duration	det
11	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 memory	case
13	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 duration	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 goldfish	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 goldfish	det
16	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 memory	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the duration of memory in the goldfish		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus duration=Experiencer

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Memory is retained for a period not exceeding three seconds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retained	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 retained	aux:pass
3	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 period	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 period	det
6	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retained	obl
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 exceeding	advmod
8	exceeding	exceed	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 period	acl
9	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 seconds	nummod
10	seconds	second	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 retained	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present · passive		Memory			second	for a period	tree rules
2	not exceed	gerund	a period not said here						vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

Option 2

Memory is retained solely in respect of the colour gold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retained	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 retained	aux:pass
3	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 retained	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 respect	case
6	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retained	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 gold	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 gold	det
9	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 gold	compound
10	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 respect	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present · passive		Memory		respect of the colour gold		solely property	tree rules
2	respect			the colour gold					nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The goldfish possesses no capacity for memory whatsoever, owing to the small size of its brain

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 goldfish	det
2	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 capacity	det
5	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 memory	case
7	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 capacity	nmod
8	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 possesses	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 owing	punct
10	owing	owe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 possesses	advcl
11	to	to	ADP	_	14 size	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 size	det
13	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 size	amod
14	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 owing	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 brain	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 brain	nmod:poss
17	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 size	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the goldfish	no capacity				for memory; whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot capacity=Theme
2	owe	gerund	the goldfish not said here					to the small size of goldfish's brain goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to size=Goal

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Experimental evidence indicates that memories may be retained for weeks or months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Experimental	experimental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 evidence	amod
2	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 indicates	nsubj
3	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 retained	mark
5	memories	memory	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 retained	nsubj:pass
6	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 retained	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 retained	aux:pass
8	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 indicates	ccomp
9	for	for	ADP	_	10 weeks	case
10	weeks	week	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 retained	obl
11	or	or	CCONJ	_	12 months	cc
12	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 weeks	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	Experimental evidence						vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
2	retain	may · passive		memories			week		tree rules

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/152-goldfish-memory/e1/