--- title: Guinea pigs, hamsters and fish — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Guinea pigs, hamsters and fish», a lesson of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Small pets have very different needs, so before you look after one you learn what its own kind needs, not what a person or another animal --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/) / Guinea pigs, hamsters and fish # Guinea pigs, hamsters and fish Lesson 63 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/0/) — Small pets have very different needs, so before you look after one you learn what its own kind needs, not what a person or another animal needs. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/1/) — Guinea pigs are herd animals that need a friend and fresh vegetables every day for vitamin C; adult Syrian hamsters are the opposite and must live alone, because they fight. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/2/) — Small animals are fragile: a hamster can be killed by a fall from a short height, so you hold it in two cupped hands sitting close to the floor. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/3/) — Fish live in their water, so whatever goes in it stays there: uneaten food rots and poisons the water, and that is why you feed only what they eat in a couple of minutes. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/5/) — She does not tip it into a bowl or the pond; her family brings it home only because they already have a proper tank ready. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/6/) — A boy in Texas woke his hamster in the daytime by poking it; the startled hamster bit his finger hard. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/7/) — A girl in Scotland overfed her goldfish and never cleaned the tank; the water went cloudy and smelly and the fish became ill and died. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/8/) — Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C, so they need fresh vegetables such as pepper or leafy greens every day. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/9/) — Guinea pigs are herd animals, so at least two should live together. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/10/) — Adult Syrian hamsters fight, sometimes badly, so each one lives alone. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/11/) — A hamster wheel must be big enough for its back to stay straight, or it can hurt its spine. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/12/) — You hold a hamster in two cupped hands and sit close to the floor, because a short fall can kill it. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/13/) — In a hamster ball a hamster cannot escape, can get too hot and may crash into things, so it is used only briefly with an adult, never near stairs, or not at all. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/14/) — Hamsters carry food in their cheek pouches to store it in their nest. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/15/) — When cleaning a hamster cage you spot clean often (clear out just the dirty bits) and leave some old bedding so it still smells like home. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/16/) — Fish should get only as much food as they eat in a couple of minutes, because leftovers rot and poison the water. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/17/) — Tapping on aquarium glass makes a loud, frightening noise for fish. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/18/) — A fish floating at the top or gasping may be ill or in dirty water short of oxygen. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/19/) — Pet fish must never be released into ponds or rivers, because they can spread disease and harm native wildlife (the wild animals that belong there). - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/20/) — Goldfish can remember things for months and learn feeding times; the three-second memory is a myth. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/21/) — Hamsters sleep in the day, wake up in the evening, and often bite if they are woken suddenly. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/63-guinea-pigs-hamsters-and-fish/22/) — Too much fish food makes the water dirty, and dirty water can kill fish. - ← previous: [Dogs and rabbits in your care](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/62-dogs-and-rabbits-in-your-care/) - next →: [Birds, reptiles and choosing a pet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/64-birds-reptiles-and-choosing-a-pet/) - ↑ back to [Everyday](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/)