Test 8 · ★★ · Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth

«there's a big grey bird standing dead still by our pond, bless» What is it doing?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: big grey bird, you, bird · What happens: be, stand, bless, do

This is test 8 · ★★ 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	_	3 's	punct
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 's	expl
3	's	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 bless	advcl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bird	det
5	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bird	amod
6	grey	grey	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bird	amod
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 's	nsubj
8	standing	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 bird	acl
9	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 standing	xcomp
10	still	still	ADV	_	8 standing	advmod
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 pond	case
12	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 pond	nmod:poss
13	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 standing	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 bless	punct
15	bless	bless	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 bless	punct
17	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	20 doing	obj
18	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 doing	aux
19	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 doing	nsubj
20	doing	do	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 bless	ccomp
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	15 bless	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	other	roles by
1	be in a quote	present	a big grey bird	there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	stand in a quote	gerund	a big grey bird not said here		still	by our pond; dead property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by pond=Location
3	bless in a quote	imperative	you not said here				tree rules
4	do	present · progressive	bird				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality

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 · ✓ the right answer

Hunting the fish, so they need hiding places or a net

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hunting	hunt	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 need	csubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 fish	det
3	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Hunting	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 need	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	7 need	advmod
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 need	nsubj
7	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	hiding	hide	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 need	xcomp
9	places	place	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hiding	obj
10	or	or	CCONJ	_	12 net	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 net	det
12	net	net	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 places	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	hunt	gerund		the fish	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme
2	need	present	they		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	hide not said to happen	gerund	they not said here	places or a net	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Patient

Option 2

Sunbathing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sunbathing	sunbathing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Guarding the pond for you against cats and foxes at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Guarding	guard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pond	det
3	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Guarding	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 you	case
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	1 Guarding	obl
6	against	against	ADP	_	7 cats	case
7	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Guarding	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 foxes	cc
9	foxes	fox	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 cats	conj
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 night	case
11	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Guarding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guard	gerund		the pond			night	for you; against cats and foxes	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent pond=Beneficiary against cat=Theme

Option 4

Waiting for a bus

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	for	for	ADP	_	4 bus	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bus	det
4	bus	bus	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Waiting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wait	gerund						for a bus	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/t8/