Test 5 · ★★ · Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth

In Finding Nemo a fish goes down a drain and reaches the sea. What happens to a real flushed goldfish?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fish · What happens: go down, reach, happen, flush · To what, where: drain, sea

This is test 5 · ★★ of lesson 204 «Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth» of the biology course of Mova's primary school. 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

Sentence 1: In Finding Nemo a fish goes down a drain and reaches the sea.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	2 Finding	case
2	Finding	Finding	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 goes	obl
3	Nemo	Nemo	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Finding	flat
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 fish	det
5	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 goes	nsubj
6	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	down	down	ADP	_	6 goes	compound:prt
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 drain	det
9	drain	drain	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 goes	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 reaches	cc
11	reaches	reach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 goes	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sea	det
13	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 reaches	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 goes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go down	present	a fish	a drain				in Finding	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in finding=Attribute
2	reach	present	a fish not said here	the sea					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent sea=Theme

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.

Sentence 2: What happens to a real flushed goldfish?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	2 happens	nsubj
2	happens	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	7 goldfish	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 goldfish	det
5	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 goldfish	amod
6	flushed	flush	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 goldfish	amod
7	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 happens	obl
8	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 happens	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	present						to a real flushed goldfish	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	flush	participle							vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

It swims all the way home to the ocean through the pipes, just like in the film

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 swims	nsubj
2	swims	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 way	det:predet
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 way	det
5	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swims	obj
6	home	home	ADV	_	2 swims	advmod
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 ocean	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 ocean	det
9	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swims	obl
10	through	through	ADP	_	12 pipes	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 pipes	det
12	pipes	pipe	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 swims	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 film	punct
14	just	just	ADV	_	18 film	advmod
15	like	like	ADP	_	18 film	case
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 film	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 film	det
18	film	film	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swims	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	present	It	all way		the pipes		to the ocean; home property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location way=Theme

Option 2

It lives in the pipes happily

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lives	nsubj
2	lives	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 pipes	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 pipes	det
5	pipes	pipe	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lives	obl
6	happily	happily	ADV	_	2 lives	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	present	It			the pipes		happily property	vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in pipe=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It is not set free, and released fish can harm wild rivers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 free	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 free	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 free	advmod
4	set	set	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 free	amod
5	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 harm	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 harm	cc
8	released	release	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 fish	amod
9	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 harm	nsubj
10	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 harm	aux
11	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 free	advcl
12	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 rivers	amod
13	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 harm	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not is	present	It		free property	tree rules
2	release	participle				vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer
3	harm	can	released fish	wild rivers		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus river=Experiencer

Option 4

It turns into a sea fish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 turns	nsubj
2	turns	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	6 fish	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 fish	det
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fish	compound
6	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 turns	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	present	It					into a sea fish result	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into fish=Result

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/204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth/t5/