---
title: What would happen if a pet goldfish was released into a big lake? — Goldfish and pond fish: the three-seco… · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a pet goldfish was released into a big lake? Test 6 · ★★ of lesson 204 «Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

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# Test 6 · ★★ · Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a pet goldfish was released into a big lake?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 3 · right ✓ · **What happens:** happen, release · **To what, where:** pet goldfish, big lake

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 6 · ★★ 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth/#t6).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth:t6:1
# text = What would happen if a pet goldfish was released into a big lake?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	pet	pet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	released	release	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **release** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | a pet goldfish |  | a big lake |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Source |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would stay tiny and gold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth:t6:o1:1
# text = It would stay tiny and gold
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | would | It |  |  |  |  | tiny *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would always die at once, because lake water is far too cold

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth:t6:o2:1
# text = It would always die at once, because lake water is far too cold
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
13	too	too	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | would | It |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **is** | present | lake water |  |  |  |  | cold, far *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It could grow huge, turn dull and harm wild fish

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth:t6:o3:1
# text = It could grow huge, turn dull and harm wild fish
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
7	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	harm	harm	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
10	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | could | It |  |  |  |  | huge *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **turn** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | dull *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **harm** | infinitive |  | wild fish |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus fish=Experiencer |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would swim back to the shop

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth:t6:o4:1
# text = It would swim back to the shop
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	shop	shop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim back** | would | It |  |  | the shop |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to shop=Destination |

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**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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ↑ back to [Goldfish and pond fish: the three-second memory myth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/204-goldfish-and-pond-fish-the-three-second-memory-myth/)