Test 7 · ★★ · Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth

«the pond's frozen on top, the fish are dead for sure» What is more likely?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: pond, dead · What happens: freeze, be · To what, where: pond, top

This is test 7 · ★★ 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	12 dead	punct
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pond	det
3	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 dead	nsubj
4	's	's	PART	_	3 pond	case
5	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 pond	acl
6	on	on	ADP	_	7 top	case
7	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 frozen	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 dead	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 fish	det
10	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 dead	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 dead	cop
12	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 likely	nsubj
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 sure	case
14	sure	sure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 dead	obl
15	»	»	PUNCT	_	12 dead	punct
16	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 likely	nsubj
17	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 likely	cop
18	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	19 likely	advmod
19	likely	likely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	19 likely	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	freeze in a quote	participle		the pond not said here	top		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	is in a quote	present	the pond			for sure; dead property	tree rules
3	is	present	dead			likely property	tree rules

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

They flew away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 flew	nsubj
2	flew	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	away	away	ADV	_	2 flew	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly away	past	They					away property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

They are on top of the ice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 top	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 top	cop
3	on	on	ADP	_	4 top	case
4	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 ice	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ice	det
7	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 top	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They			top		of the ice	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They are resting slowly near the warmer bottom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 resting	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 resting	aux
3	resting	rest	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	3 resting	advmod
5	near	near	ADP	_	8 bottom	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 bottom	det
7	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 bottom	amod
8	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 resting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rest	present · progressive	They			the warmer bottom		slowly property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near bottom=Location

Option 4

They are frozen solid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 frozen	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 frozen	aux:pass
3	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solid	solid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 frozen	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze	present · passive		They				solid property	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=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.

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