Not dinosaurs at all: pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and Mary Anning

Tests: 8 of 11 right · Exam: 3 of 4 right · Kind: plain · Understood: 10 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 270 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 ✓

«a pterodactyl is a flying dinosaur, everyone knows that» What is right?

1. No, pterosaurs were flying reptiles, not dinosaurs — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. Yes, it was the very biggest flying dinosaur of all — score 1
3. No, it was really a big bat, a furry mammal — no support
4. Yes, it was a kind of bird with feathers and teeth — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 270, line 2: «So the flying pterosaurs and the swimming plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs were not dinosaurs, even though they lived at the same time.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «flying pterosaurs» (+3); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+3); the same thing acted on «dinosaurs» (+2). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · right ✓

In The Flintstones, Fred rides a dinosaur to work. What is true?

1. No person ever saw a living non-bird dinosaur — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
2. Cavemen did tame dinosaurs and used them for work — score 5
3. Dinosaurs lived until only about 1,000 years ago — score 6
4. Some people in far-off places still ride them — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 8, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 270, line 5: «In The Flintstones cavemen keep dinosaurs as pets, but no person ever saw a living non-bird dinosaur: they were gone 66 million years before the first humans.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «see» (+3); the same doer «person» (+3); the same thing acted on «living non-bird dinosaur» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · right ✓

«there's a plesiosaur in Loch Ness, my uncle saw the photo» What is better?

1. The famous photo was a fake, and the cold lake has too little food — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
2. Yes, the photo proves it, because a camera cannot lie about a thing — no support
3. Yes, plesiosaurs still live in all the deepest lakes of the world — score -1
4. No, it was a crocodile that swam all the way up from Africa — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 8, against -1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 270, line 10: «The famous 1934 Loch Ness monster photo was a fake made with a toy, and a big reptile could not live in a cold lake with so little food.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «famous 1934 loch ness monster photo» (+3); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+3); the same thing acted on «fake» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · right ✓

Count them: a toy set has 2 Quetzalcoatlus and 3 plesiosaurs. How many wings and flippers are there in all?

1. 4 wings and 12 flippers — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
2. 2 wings and 6 flippers — score 9
3. 4 wings and 6 flippers — score 9
4. 6 wings and 12 flippers — score 9

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 9, tied with another option at 9 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 270, line 9: «Plesiosaurs were sea reptiles with four flippers that died out 66 million years ago; a fossil mother with a baby inside shows they gave birth in the sea.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+5); the same thing acted on «four flippers» (+3); the same doer «four flippers» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · wrong ✗

In a film a giant mosasaur leaps out of a pool and swallows a shark. What is true about mosasaurs?

1. They were small, about the size of a cat, and ate only little shrimps — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. They were huge sea lizards up to about 15 metres, related to snakes — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. They were dinosaurs that swam, the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived — no support
4. They were sharks themselves, with skeletons made of soft cartilage — 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 ✓

What would happen if a plesiosaur had to crawl up a beach to lay eggs, like a turtle?

1. It would be clumsy on land, but it did not need to: it gave birth in the sea — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. It would lay eggs as big as a house — score -1
3. It would fly back to the sea — score 1
4. It would turn into a dinosaur — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 1 with score 5, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 239, line 17: «The queen lays the eggs but gives no orders; she lays up to about 2,000 eggs a day in summer, and any female larva fed only royal jelly can become a queen.», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «give» (+6). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · right ✓

«Dimetrodon's my fave dinosaur, the one with the sail» What is true?

1. It is not a dinosaur; it is closer to us than to dinosaurs — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. It is the biggest dinosaur of all, bigger than any sauropod — score 5
3. It is a fish with a sail that lived in the deep sea — no support
4. It is a flying dinosaur that used its sail as a wing — score 5

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, tied with another option at 5 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 212, line 2: «Birds are the one group of dinosaurs that survived, and the chicken shares many bones and features with its huge extinct relatives such as T. rex.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «dinosaurs» (+3); the same thing acted on «dinosaurs» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · right ✓

Why was Mary Anning given little credit in her own time?

1. Scientists of her time gave little credit to a working woman without a university — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
2. She hid all her fossils away and never let anyone see them — no support
3. She was too young to dig, so her brother did all of the work — no support
4. She found nothing important, only a few small shells that anyone could pick up — no support

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 63, line 10: «Soap breaks up the greasy layer that germs cling to and running water rinses them away; washing for about 20 seconds gives it time to work; cold viruses spread…», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «work» (+6). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · wrong ✗

«mammoths and T. rex, who would win» What is wrong with the question?

1. Mammoths were dinosaurs too, so it was a fair fight — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. They never met; mammoths lived 66 million years later — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Nothing, they lived side by side and often fought over food — no support
4. T. rex was a mammal, so they were close cousins — 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 · right ✓

A scientist checks the hip socket of a new fossil and finds a hole in it. What does it suggest?

1. The legs stood straight under the body, like a dinosaur's — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The animal could fly, because a hole makes the hip lighter — no support
3. The animal lived in water and swam with its back legs — no support
4. The animal had no legs and slid along like a snake — 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 11 · wrong ✗

Why could a giant Quetzalcoatlus catch prey on land?

1. It swam underground through soft mud — no support
2. It hid in caves and leapt out at prey — no support
3. It strode on all fours like a huge stork — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. It dug long tunnels to trap its prey — ← Mova's choice · score 6

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 268, line 3: «Its famous curved toe claw was held up off the ground and used like a hook to pin prey down, the way a hawk grips a rabbit, rather than as a knife.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «pin down» (+3); the same thing acted on «prey» (+3). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the classification of the pterosaurs as presently accepted.

1. Dinosaurs adapted to flight, and the direct ancestors of all birds — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Flying reptiles closely related to, but distinct from, the dinosaurs — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Early mammals resembling bats, with wings of skin and fur — no support
4. Primitive birds possessing feathers, teeth and clawed wings — no support

Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · right ✓

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the reproduction of plesiosaurs.

1. They are understood to have laid eggs upon beaches, in the manner of turtles — no support
2. Nothing whatever is known of their reproduction, as no young are preserved — no support
3. Fossil evidence demonstrates that they gave birth to live young at sea — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
4. They are understood to have laid eggs in nests constructed in trees — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 270, line 9: «Plesiosaurs were sea reptiles with four flippers that died out 66 million years ago; a fossil mother with a baby inside shows they gave birth in the sea.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same place «sea» (+4); the same action «give» (+3); the same thing acted on «birth» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · right ✓

Ascertain the anatomical criterion by which dinosaurs are distinguished from other ancient reptiles.

1. Limbs held erect beneath the body, attested by an open hip socket — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The possession of scales covering the whole of the body — no support
3. A habitat confined to water, with limbs modified into flippers — no support
4. Great size exceeding that of any other reptile, living or extinct — 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 · right ✓

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the contribution of Mary Anning?

1. She discovered the first complete ichthyosaur in childhood and became an accomplished collector of fossils — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
2. She disproved the existence of extinct animals by showing that all fossils belonged to living kinds — score 1
3. She was the first to describe Tyrannosaurus rex, from bones she found herself upon the coast of Dorset in England — score 7
4. She was the first person to fly an aircraft over the cliffs of Dorset — score 2

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 9, against 7 for the next best. Its support: lesson 270, line 13: «Mary Anning of Lyme Regis found the first complete ichthyosaur when she was about 12; she became an expert fossil hunter but got little credit in her time, bec…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «find» (+4); the same thing acted on «first complete ichthyosaur» (+4); it fills the role the question asks for (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

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