diff --git a/tests/spans/test_merge.py b/tests/spans/test_merge.py
index a47e4e53a..2360a0839 100644
--- a/tests/spans/test_merge.py
+++ b/tests/spans/test_merge.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ def test_merge_heads(EN):
 
 def test_issue_54(EN):
     text = u'Talks given by women had a slightly higher number of questions asked (3.2$\pm$0.2) than talks given by men (2.6$\pm$0.1).'
-    tokens = EN(text, merge_mwes=True)
+    tokens = EN(text)
 
 @pytest.mark.models
 def test_np_merges(EN):