Madagascar: chameleons, leaf-tailed geckos, tenrecs, baobabs and a moth Darwin predicted
Tests: 7 of 11 right · Exam: 0 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 10 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 164 of the biology course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: the lesson in the corpora.
Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: the lesson's questions in the corpora.
Test 1 · ★ · right ✓
In a cartoon a chameleon on a chessboard turns into black and white squares. What is real?
- 1. Real chameleons change colour mostly for mood and warmth, not to copy patterns — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 12
- 2. They really copy any pattern — score 3
- 3. Chameleons cannot change colour at all; that only happens in cartoons — score 6
- 4. They only change colour in their sleep — score 6
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 12, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 30, line 5: «And cartoon chameleons turn into tartan or vanish against any background; real chameleons change colour mostly to show their mood and control their temperature…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «change» (+5); the same doer «real chameleons» (+3); the same property (+3); the same thing acted on «colour» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · ★ · right ✓
«lol this hedgehog thing from madagascar, it's basically a hedgehog yeah» What is right?
- 1. Yes, it is an ordinary hedgehog — no support
- 2. No, tenrecs only look like hedgehogs; they are related to elephants — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
- 3. No, it is a kind of cactus — no support
- 4. Yes, it is a hedgehog that swam there from Africa a long time ago — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 164, line 11: «Tenrecs look like hedgehogs or shrews but are actually related to elephants and aardvarks, African animals that dig for ants.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «look» (+2); the same circumstance (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · ★ · wrong ✗
«3 chameleons on the branch, how many eyes that can swivel»
- 1. 12 — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 6 — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. 3 — no support
- 4. 9 — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 4 · ★ · right ✓
«a cockroach that hisses?? it's rubbing its legs innit» What is right?
- 1. Yes, like a cricket — no support
- 2. No, it pushes air out of breathing holes on its sides — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
- 3. Yes, with its back legs — no support
- 4. No, it hisses by rubbing its wings together, like a grasshopper — score 4
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 8, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 97, line 12: «Madagascar hissing cockroaches hiss by pushing air out of breathing holes on their sides called spiracles; insects breathe through these holes, not their mouth…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «push» (+2); the same doer «madagascar hissing cockroaches» (+2); the same thing acted on «air» (+2); the same place «breathing holes» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 5 · ★ · wrong ✗
What would happen if the long-tongued moth died out?
- 1. The orchid would simply grow a much shorter tube the very next day, so other insects could reach the nectar — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The star orchid could lose the only animal that can reach its nectar and carry its pollen — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Other insects would fill the tube with nectar — no support
- 4. Nothing, orchids need no animals — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 6 · ★ · right ✓
«my brother stepped on a dead leaf and it ran away screaming, lying or what» What could it have been?
- 1. A leaf-tailed gecko that looks like a dead leaf — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
- 2. A periwinkle flower — no support
- 3. A baobab seed — no support
- 4. A tomato frog — no support
Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 9, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 164, line 8: «The satanic leaf-tailed gecko has a body and tail that look like a dry curled leaf with nibbled edges; it has no eyelids and licks its eyes clean.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same circumstance (+5); the same action «look» (+3); a different doer (counts against) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 7 · ★ · right ✓
A snake bites a red frog, then drops it and wipes its mouth on the ground. What happened?
- 1. The frog bit the snake back on the nose with its sharp teeth — no support
- 2. The tomato frog oozed sticky slime — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 3. The snake was simply not hungry that day — no support
- 4. The frog was only a plastic toy frog — score 3
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 164, line 13: «The tomato frog is bright red to warn animals, and when a snake grabs it, it swells up and oozes sticky glue-like slime.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «ooze» (+5); the same thing acted on «sticky like slime» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 8 · ★ · wrong ✗
Why might losing a rare plant in Madagascar be bad for people far away?
- 1. It makes the air in Europe — ← Mova's choice · score 0
- 2. It might hold a medicine no one has found yet — ✓ the right answer · score -1
- 3. All bread is made from it — no support
- 4. People need its wood for building houses and boats — no support
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 0, against -1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 60, line 1: «A tree is a plant that keeps building on itself year after year: every summer it adds a new layer of wood just under the bark, so a tree trunk is like a diary…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. The right option, 2, scored -1. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 9 · ★ · right ✓
«2 tenrecs n a hissing cockroach, how many legs»
- 1. 14 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. 10 — no support
- 3. 12 — no support
- 4. 8 — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗
«darwin just guessed, lucky guess» What is right?
- 1. He had already seen the moth — ← Mova's choice · score 1
- 2. He made it up for a joke, and the moth was never found — score 1
- 3. He bred the moth himself — score 1
- 4. He reasoned from the orchid's long tube that such a moth must exist — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 1, tied with another option at 1 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 164, line 16: «Darwin predicted a moth with a tongue about thirty centimetres long from the shape of the star orchid; the moth was found in 1903, after his death, and named w…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «moth» (+3). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★ · right ✓
«baobabs grow upside down, my teacher said lol» What is right?
- 1. Yes, roots grow on top — no support
- 2. Yes, they really grow from the sky down to the ground — no support
- 3. They only look upside down because the branches look like roots — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
- 4. No, baobabs have no branches at all — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 8, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 164, line 1: «Madagascar is a laboratory of the strange: about half of all the world's chameleon kinds, a gecko that is a dead leaf with eyes, a beetle with a neck like a cr…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «planted upside» (+3); the same property (+3); the same action «look down» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗
Identify the principal purposes for which the chameleon effects changes in its colouration.
- 1. The attraction of insect prey by means of flashing — no support
- 2. The exact reproduction of any pattern upon which the animal happens to rest, even a printed page — ← Mova's choice · score 3
- 3. Concealment from human observers exclusively — no support
- 4. The display of mood, communication with others and regulation of body temperature — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 154, line 18: «Chameleons change colour mainly to show mood, warm up or cool down and send signals, not mostly to match what they sit on, and they could never copy a tartan p…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+3); the same thing acted on «tartan pattern» (+1). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-1). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗
Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the evolutionary relationships of the tenrec.
- 1. It is a true hedgehog of the family of hedgehogs — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. It is a species of rodent — no support
- 3. It is related to the elephants and the aardvarks — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. It is a species of marsupial — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the means by which the Madagascar hissing cockroach produces its sound?
- 1. The hind legs are rubbed vigorously against the edges of the wings, as in the cricket — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Air is expelled through breathing openings situated on its flanks — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. The wings are vibrated at great speed — no support
- 4. The jaws are struck rapidly together — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗
Ascertain the basis upon which Charles Darwin predicted the existence of a moth with an exceptionally long tongue.
- 1. A specimen dispatched to him by a sailor — no support
- 2. The depth of the nectar tube of a Madagascar orchid of about thirty centimetres — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. The discovery of such a moth in his own garden — ← Mova's choice · score 5
- 4. The description of such a moth in an ancient text from the island, written by its first explorers — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 164, line 16: «Darwin predicted a moth with a tongue about thirty centimetres long from the shape of the star orchid; the moth was found in 1903, after his death, and named w…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «moth» (+3); the same action «find» (+2). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
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