Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpback whales, condors and the kakapo

Tests: 6 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: plain · Understood: 11 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 282 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 ✓

«eagles on US money, so they've always been loads of them» What is right?

1. Yes, they were never in danger — no support
2. Yes, they only live on coins — no support
3. No, they are extinct now, so they only live on money as a way to remember them — score 3
4. No, they fell to about 400 pairs before DDT was banned and they were protected — ← 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, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 78, line 5: «Bald eagles fell to about 400 to 500 nesting pairs in the lower 48 US states by the 1960s, partly because the pesticide DDT, building up from tiny water bugs i…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «fall» (+2); the same doer «bald eagles» (+2); the same circumstance (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · wrong ✗

Count them: 3 sea otters float on their backs, each with 1 stone on its belly. How many paws and stones are there in all?

1. 12 paws and 1 stone — ← Mova's choice · score 4
2. 16 paws and 3 stones — score 4
3. 8 paws and 3 stones — score 4
4. 12 paws and 3 stones — ✓ the right answer · score 4

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 4, tied with another option at 4 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 10, line 5: «Cartoons often show river otters floating on their backs and smashing shells on a stone on their tummy; that trick belongs to sea otters, which also hold paws…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same thing acted on «paws» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). The right option, 4, scored 4. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · right ✓

«red kites are huge, they'll grab my dog» What is right?

1. Red kites eat mostly dead animals and are no danger to people or dogs — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 2
2. Yes, they swoop down and carry off small dogs and cats every single day — no support
3. Yes, they eat cats too — no support
4. No, red kites are only toys — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 193, line 4: «Dogs have also spent thousands of years living with people, and they became experts at our faces, voices and pointing fingers, better at this one thing than ch…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «thousands» (+3); the same circumstance (+1). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · right ✓

What would happen to a kelp forest if all the sea otters were hunted again?

1. The kelp would grow faster than ever, with nothing to stop it — no support
2. Nothing would change — no support
3. The urchins would all die — score 1
4. Sea urchins would multiply and eat much of the kelp — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 4 with score 5, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 100, line 13: «Sea otters eat sea urchins that eat kelp; when otters were hunted almost to extinction for fur, urchins spread and kelp forests vanished in places.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «sea urchins» (+3); the same action «eat» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · right ✓

«pandas are basically extinct, there's like ten left» What is right?

1. Pandas live only in America — score 4
2. Pandas are extinct in the wild — score -3
3. There are about 1,800 or more in the wild, and they are now listed as vulnerable — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
4. There are only ten left, all kept together in one zoo in the middle of China — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 5, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 135, line 4: «Master Shifu is a red panda, a real animal but not a close cousin of the giant panda; it was called panda first, and the giant panda was named after it.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «giant panda» (+3); the same action «name» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · wrong ✗

In the film Up, a funny bird is chased by a dog. A real kakapo can't fly away either. How was it saved?

1. It was given wings by scientists — no support
2. It was moved to islands with no predators and every bird is watched — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It hides in people's houses — no support
4. It learnt to fly from other parrots that were kept in the same big cage for years — ← Mova's choice · score 7

Why: It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 4 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 181, line 10: «The kakapo is a heavy, flightless parrot of New Zealand that is active at night; New Zealand had no land mammals hunting on the ground, so it could give up fly…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «fly» (+4); the same doer «kakapo» (+3). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · wrong ✗

«a condor ate a dead deer and got sick, how» What is the most likely reason?

1. Condors cannot eat meat — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The deer was too big and got stuck halfway down its throat — no support
3. It ate too fast — no support
4. Lead from a hunter's bullet in the deer poisoned it — ✓ 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

Test 8 · wrong ✗

Count them: a ranger watches 2 mountain gorilla mums, each carrying 1 baby. How many gorillas, and how many arms in all?

1. 4 gorillas and 4 arms — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. 2 gorillas and 4 arms — no support
3. 3 gorillas and 6 arms — no support
4. 4 gorillas and 8 arms — ✓ 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

Test 9 · wrong ✗

«extinct in the wild means gone for ever, game over» What does the Arabian oryx story show?

1. It shows oryx moved to the sea — score 2
2. It shows oryx were never real — ← Mova's choice · score 5
3. It shows exactly that: once gone from the wild, the oryx can never come back — score 2
4. Zoos bred them and released them, and they live in the wild again — ✓ the right answer · score 5

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 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 77, line 1: «Extinct means gone for ever: when the last animal of a kind dies, no zoo, scientist or wish can bring that kind back.», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same doer «last animal» (+2). The right option, 4, scored 5. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · right ✓

«falcons live on cliffs, why's one on the hospital roof» What is right?

1. It is a robot falcon — no support
2. It is lost and needs rescuing by the fire brigade before it falls — no support
3. Tall buildings are like cliffs, and city pigeons are its food — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 0
4. Falcons only live in hospitals — no support

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 with score 0, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 282, line 7: «Peregrine falcons also crashed because of DDT; people bred and released them, even in cities, where tall buildings are like cliffs and pigeons are their food.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same circumstance (+1). Against it: the same doer «tall buildings» (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · right ✓

«they cloned a ferret?? from what» What is right?

1. From a ferret's tooth found in a cave — no support
2. From a toy ferret — score 6
3. From cells frozen in 1988 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 13
4. From a cat's DNA — score 6

Why: It took the question to ask where. It chose option 3 with score 13, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 282, line 12: «The black-footed ferret was thought extinct until a dog found one in Wyoming in 1981; a breeding programme saved it, and in 2020 a ferret was cloned from cells…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «freeze» (+4); the same thing acted on «cells» (+4); it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same place «1988» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the principal cause of the decline of the bald eagle during the twentieth century.

1. The removal of eagles to zoological gardens — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The pesticide DDT, which caused the shells of its eggs to become thin — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. An epidemic of influenza among nestlings — no support
4. A succession of exceptionally cold winters — 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 ✗

State the measure principally responsible for the recovery of humpback whale populations.

1. The construction of artificial lakes — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The feeding of whales by fishing vessels — no support
3. The prohibition of commercial whaling in 1986 — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The removal of all sharks from the oceans — 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 ✓

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the Arabian oryx.

1. It became wholly extinct in 1972 and has not been seen since — score 6
2. It is confined exclusively to European zoos — no support
3. It has never been threatened with extinction — score 2
4. It was the first animal to pass from the status of extinct in the wild to that of vulnerable — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 9, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 282, line 10: «The Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild by 1972; zoos bred a herd and released them in Oman and other lands, and it was the first animal to go from extinct in…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «first animal» (+3); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+3); the same doer «oryx» (+2); its «because» matches the remembered cause (+1). · 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 protection of the kakapo?

1. The species is maintained solely in private homes — no support
2. The species was taught to fly by its keepers — ← Mova's choice · score 5
3. The species was released into cities across Europe — no support
4. The entire population was relocated to islands free of predators, each bird being named and monitored — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 277, line 18: «DNA studies suggest there may be four species of giraffe, not one, which matters for protecting each kind; scientists still debate how many there are.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same doer «four species» (+2). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/