Exam question 2 · Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth

Identify the principal reason for which a small spherical bowl is unsuitable for the keeping of a goldfish.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, small spherical bowl · What happens: identify, be, keep · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 204 «Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 unsuitable	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 bowl	det
8	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bowl	amod
9	spherical	spherical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bowl	amod
10	bowl	bowl	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 unsuitable	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 unsuitable	cop
12	unsuitable	unsuitable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
13	for	for	SCONJ	_	15 keeping	mark
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 keeping	det
15	keeping	keep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 unsuitable	advcl
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 goldfish	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 goldfish	det
18	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 keeping	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	is	present	a small spherical bowl		for the principal reason; unsuitable property	tree rules
3	keep	gerund	a small spherical bowl not said here		of a goldfish	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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 · ✓ the right answer

The fish may attain considerable size and age and produces substantial waste

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attain	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 attain	aux
4	attain	attain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	considerable	considerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 size	amod
6	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attain	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 age	cc
8	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 size	conj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 produces	cc
10	produces	produce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 attain	conj
11	substantial	substantial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 waste	amod
12	waste	waste	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 produces	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attain	may	the fish	considerable size and age					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent size=Theme
2	produce	present	the fish not said here	substantial waste					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent waste=Result

Option 2

The fish is unable to perceive curved surfaces and therefore swims continuously into the glass

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 unable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 unable	cop
4	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 perceive	mark
6	perceive	perceive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 unable	xcomp
7	curved	curve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 surfaces	amod
8	surfaces	surface	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 perceive	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 swims	cc
10	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	11 swims	advmod
11	swims	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 unable	conj
12	continuously	continuously	ADV	_	11 swims	advmod
13	into	into	ADP	_	15 glass	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 glass	det
15	glass	glass	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 swims	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	the fish			unable property	tree rules
2	perceive	to-infinitive	the fish not said here	curved surfaces			vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer surface=Stimulus
3	curve	participle					vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material
4	swim	present	the fish not said here		the glass	continuously, therefore property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into glass=Destination

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The fish requires corners in which to sleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 requires	nsubj
3	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	corners	corner	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 requires	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 sleep	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 sleep	mark
8	sleep	sleep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 corners	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	the fish	corners					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme corner=Precondition
2	sleep	to-infinitive	the fish not said here	corners not said here		corners			vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in which=Location

Option 4

Spherical vessels are invariably too warm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Spherical	spherical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 vessels	amod
2	vessels	vessel	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 warm	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 warm	cop
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	6 warm	advmod
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 warm	advmod
6	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Spherical vessels					invariably, warm property	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.

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