The asteroid: the day the dinosaurs died and who survived

Tests: 5 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 10 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 271 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 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«big rock hits Mexico, how does that kill a T. rex in Canada lol» What is the best answer?

1. Dust and soot darkened the sky, so plants died and food chains collapsed — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. It didn't, the T. rex in Canada survived and lived on for ages — ← Mova's choice · score 7
3. The rock bounced right across America and landed on it in Canada — no support
4. The rock was as wide as the whole Earth, so it hit everything — score 7

Why: It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 2 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 265, line 6: «T. rex lived about 68 to 66 million years ago in western North America and was one of the last big dinosaurs.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «live» (+4); the same doer «t. rex» (+3). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★ · right ✓

What would happen to a food chain if the plants at the bottom died?

1. The animals would start making their own food from sunlight — score 3
2. The animals that eat plants would starve, then the meat-eaters — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 13
3. Only the plants would be missing, and all the rest would be fine — no support
4. The meat-eaters would get more food for ever and grow fatter — score 3

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 13, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 271, line 3: «Without sunlight the plants could not make food, so they died, then the plant-eaters starved, then the meat-eaters: the food chain fell down from the bottom li…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «starve» (+6); the same thing acted on «meat eaters» (+4); the same doer «plant eaters» (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★ · right ✓

«a shooting star!! is it gonna hit us and kill us like the dinos» What is right?

1. Yes, every shooting star hits the ground somewhere near — no support
2. Yes, that is just how the dinosaurs saw theirs coming — no support
3. No, it is a star moving house to another part of the sky — no support
4. No, it is a speck of dust burning up high in the air — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 8, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 271, line 16: «Shooting stars are tiny bits of space dust, usually smaller than a grain of sand, burning up high in the air; many tonnes of dust fall on Earth every day.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same place «air» (+4); the same action «burn up» (+3); the same property (+3). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«so we'd not be here without that asteroid, that's mad» Is there truth in it?

1. No, people were already living alongside T. rex and they just carried on — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, humans came straight from dinosaurs, so we'd be here anyway — no support
3. Yes, mammals spread after the big dinosaurs were gone, our ancestors among them — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Yes, the asteroid carried the first people to Earth from space — 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 5 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Count them: after the disaster, a pond has 3 frogs, 2 turtles and 1 crocodile. How many legs are there in all?

1. 6 — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. 24 — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. 12 — no support
4. 18 — 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 · ★★ · wrong ✗

In a cartoon the dinosaurs look up, see the asteroid, and all fall over dead at once. What is closer to the truth?

1. Many died in fires and waves, and many more starved slowly in the dark months after — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. None died at first; they all saw it coming and walked to safer lands far away — ← Mova's choice · score 6
3. All dinosaurs everywhere died in the very same second, wherever they were standing — score 6
4. The asteroid missed the Earth, and only the volcanoes in India mattered in the end — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 74, line 8: «Trace fossils such as footprints, burrows, nests and tooth marks are signs of life, and the distance between steps tells how fast a dinosaur walked.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «walk» (+3); the same doer «dinosaur» (+3). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓

«are we gonna get smashed by an asteroid next year??» What is best?

1. Scientists track big ones, and no known large one will hit for a hundred years — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
2. Asteroids never come anywhere near Earth, so there is nothing to fear — no support
3. Nobody watches the sky at all, so we would never know until it hit — no support
4. Yes, a huge one is already coming next week and nobody can do anything — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 271, line 14: «Scientists track big asteroids, and none of the known large ones will hit Earth in the next hundred years.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «track» (+3); the same doer «scientists» (+3). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★★ · right ✓

Why were small seed-eaters and burrowers more likely to survive?

1. They could hide and live on seeds and dead things while plants were gone — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 3
2. They were much stronger and tougher than the big dinosaurs ever were — score 1
3. They could not catch any illness, so nothing at all could harm them — score 1
4. They could fly away to another planet until the dust had cleared — score 1

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 3, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 75, line 7: «Stegosaurus was a plant-eater about 9 metres long that lived about 150 million years ago, with two rows of bony back plates and four tail spikes; the idea of a…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «live» (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★★ · wrong ✗

A scientist finds the same thin clay layer in Italy and in New Zealand. What does it tell her?

1. The disaster reached the whole world at the same time — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The clay was carried there by dinosaurs on their feet — no support
3. Two small asteroids hit those two places and nowhere else — ← Mova's choice · score 2
4. Clay always forms in Italy and floats over to New Zealand — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 247, line 15: «The hooded pitohui of New Guinea is one of very few poisonous birds, with poison in its feathers and skin from beetles it eats; scientists found out when handl…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same thing acted on «one» (+1). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★ · right ✓

«it was the volcanoes in India, not some asteroid» What is the fairest answer?

1. Yes, it was only the volcanoes; the asteroid story was made up for films — no support
2. No, there were never any volcanoes in India at all, so it must be the asteroid — no support
3. Both are made up; the dinosaurs simply got old and tired and died — no support
4. The volcanoes may have helped, but most scientists think the asteroid was the main killer — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 76, line 8: «At the same time the Deccan Traps volcanoes poured lava across India for hundreds of thousands of years, and many scientists think their gases made things hard…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «think» (+3); the same doer «many scientists» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Why does DART matter, even though it bumped a harmless asteroid?

1. It destroyed all the asteroids that could ever hit us — ← Mova's choice · score 3
2. It took photos of dinosaur bones lying on the asteroid — no support
3. It tested how to push a dangerous asteroid off course — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. It brought back a big lump of gold from the asteroid — no support

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 271, line 6: «An asteroid about 10 kilometres wide hit Chicxulub in Mexico 66 million years ago at about 20 kilometres a second; the crater, about 180 kilometres wide, is no…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «hit» (+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 location of the impact which is understood to have caused the extinction of the non-bird dinosaurs.

1. The Sahara desert — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The interior of Australia — no support
3. The Chicxulub site in Mexico — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The North Pole — 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 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the significance of iridium in the boundary clay.

1. It demonstrates that the dinosaurs perished by a disease which left this metal within their bones and the soil — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It is a substance found exclusively within volcanoes and therefore proves a volcanic cause of extinction — no support
3. It was deposited by the dinosaurs themselves over many millions of years before their final extinction — no support
4. Its abundance indicates an extraterrestrial origin, the element being rare on Earth but common in asteroids — ✓ the right answer · 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 · right ✓

Ascertain the principal mechanism by which the darkening of the sky brought about the collapse of food chains.

1. The cessation of plant growth for want of sunlight, followed by the starvation of herbivores and then carnivores — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The flight of all animals to other continents where the sky had remained clear and plants still grew — no support
3. The direct poisoning of all animals by the darkness itself, which was understood to be toxic to reptiles — no support
4. The freezing solid of all the oceans within a single day, which prevented the animals from drinking — 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 ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the consequence of the extinction for the mammals?

1. They perished in their entirety alongside the dinosaurs, leaving no descendants whatever — score 0
2. They became the ancestors of the birds by developing feathers — ← Mova's choice · score 7
3. They were reduced permanently to a minute size and never again exceeded that of a mouse — no support
4. They diversified and attained a great range of sizes within a few million years — ✓ the right answer · score 0

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 with score 7, against 0 for the next best. Its support: lesson 26, line 1: «Whales are mammals, not fish: they breathe air, are warm-blooded, give birth to live babies and feed them milk, and their ancestors were land mammals that went…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «land mammals» (+4); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «ancestors» (+1). The right option, 4, scored 0. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/271-the-asteroid-the-day-the-dinosaurs-died/