Exam question 2 · Bets, dares and silly reasons

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

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, memory

This is exam question 2 of lesson 169 «Bets, dares and silly reasons» of the world 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 memory	det
11	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 goldfish	case
13	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 memory	nmod
14	.	.	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 memory of goldfish		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus memory=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

Goldfish retain memories for three seconds only

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 retain	nsubj
2	retain	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	memories	memory	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 retain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 seconds	case
5	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 seconds	nummod
6	seconds	second	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 retain	obl
7	only	only	ADV	_	2 retain	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	Goldfish	memories			second		tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Goldfish have been trained to remember for weeks and months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 trained	nsubj:pass
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 trained	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 trained	aux:pass
4	trained	train	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 remember	mark
6	remember	remember	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 trained	xcomp
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 weeks	case
8	weeks	week	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 remember	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 months	cc
10	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 weeks	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	train	present · perfect · passive		Goldfish					vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute
2	remember	to-infinitive	Goldfish not said here				week		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Goldfish remember solely the colour of their food, and nothing else at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 remember	nsubj
2	remember	remember	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	solely	solely	ADV	_	2 remember	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 colour	det
5	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 remember	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 food	case
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 food	nmod:poss
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 colour	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 nothing	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 nothing	cc
11	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 remember	parataxis
12	else	else	ADV	_	11 nothing	advmod
13	at	at	ADP	_	14 all	case
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 nothing	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remember	present	Goldfish	the colour of Goldfish's food				solely property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent colour=Theme

Option 4

Goldfish possess no memory whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 memory	det
4	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 possess	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Goldfish	no memory				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot memory=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/world/169-bets-dares-and-silly-reasons/e2/