Animals in the news: true stories, fakes and how to read them

Tests: 4 of 12 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 12 of 16 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 296 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 ✓

«shark swimming down the high street after the flood!!! 1M shares» What is the smart thing to do?

1. Share it quickly before it is deleted — score -1
2. Check where the picture first came from before believing it — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
3. Believe it, because a million people can't all be wrong about it — score 2
4. Go down to the street to see the shark — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 296, line 7: «After almost every big flood a fake picture of a shark swimming in a street spreads online; it is usually the same old edited photo, and checking where it firs…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «same old edited photo» (+3); the same doer «picture» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«a cow's more dangerous than a shark? yeah right, sharks are in every headline» What is true?

1. Sharks bite only in films, never in real seas — ← Mova's choice · score 3
2. Cows and dogs hurt more people each year; shark bites are rare, so they make news — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Sharks hurt far more people than cows, the news is right — no support
4. Cows never hurt anyone, they're gentle — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 134, line 11: «Sharks very rarely bite people; people are not their normal food, and each year people kill many millions of sharks while sharks kill only a handful of people.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «bite» (+3). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Count them: a news photo shows 3 orcas next to a boat. How many tails and how many dorsal fins on their backs?

1. 6 tails and 3 dorsal fins — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. 3 tails and 6 dorsal fins — no support
3. 3 tails and 12 dorsal fins — no support
4. 3 tails and 3 dorsal fins — ✓ 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 4 · ★★ · right ✓

In Kung Fu Panda, Po's dad is a goose. A real panda mother is about 900 times heavier than her newborn. Why is that surprising?

1. Panda mothers are as small as their babies — score 2
2. Baby pandas grow inside eggs — score 4
3. Pandas are the biggest animals on Earth, bigger than any whale — score 3
4. Most mammal babies are far bigger compared with their mothers — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 8, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 296, line 12: «A newborn giant panda is tiny, pink and blind and weighs about 100 grams, while its mother is about 900 times heavier, far more than for most mammals, whose ba…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «compare» (+4); the same doer «babies» (+2); the same circumstance (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«there's a dead gull on the beach, imma poke it with a stick and bring it home» What is right?

1. Fine, dead birds carry no germs at all once they are cold — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, leave it and tell an adult; bird flu can spread from sick or dead birds — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Fine, if you carry it in your hands — no support
4. Fine, if you wash it in the sea first — 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 ✓

A news story says «crow solves puzzle». What makes it most believable?

1. The headline used capital letters — no support
2. It was posted by someone with many followers — no support
3. Scientists filmed the test so others can check it — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
4. The crow looked very clever in the photo — score 8

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 9, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 296, line 8: «New Caledonian crows bend wire into hooks and solve puzzles in several steps, and scientists film the tests so others can see it is real; crows can also recogn…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «film» (+3); the same thing acted on «tests» (+3); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «scientists» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★ · wrong ✗

What does the Chornobyl story suggest about people and nature?

1. Radiation makes animals grow to giant size — ← Mova's choice · score 3
2. When people leave, many wild animals return even with radiation still there — ✓ the right answer · score 3
3. Nature never comes back after people leave, even in a thousand years — score -6
4. Animals cannot live anywhere near people ever — score 2

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 3, tied with another option at 3 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 151, line 17: «The Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote almost 2,000 years ago that ostriches hide their heads in bushes, and the story grew from there.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «grow» (+3). The right option, 2, scored 3. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«they found a NEW species?? surely there's nothing left to find» What is true?

1. Only new dinosaurs are ever found — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, the last new species was found long ago, before your grandparents — no support
3. Thousands are named every year, mostly small animals and plants — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. New species appear only in films — 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 ✗

Count them: a pod of 5 pilot whales strands on a beach. How many tails and how many flippers do the rescuers keep wet, if each whale has 2 flippers?

1. 5 tails and 5 flippers — ← Mova's choice · score -2
2. 5 tails and 20 flippers — score -2
3. 5 tails and 10 flippers — ✓ the right answer · score -2
4. 10 tails and 10 flippers — score -2

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score -2, tied with another option at -2 (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 option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. Against it: the same doer «four flippers» (-1); the same thing acted on «four flippers» (-1). The right option, 3, scored -2. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★ · wrong ✗

What would happen if the Asian giant hornet had not been found and stopped in North America?

1. It would have slowly turned into a friendly bee — no support
2. It would have made more honey — ← Mova's choice · score 7
3. Nothing, hornets cannot live in cold places — no support
4. It could have spread and killed many honeybees, as invaders often do — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 296, line 14: «The Asian giant hornet, called the murder hornet in headlines, attacks honeybee hives and can kill a whole hive; it reached North America in 2019; scientists t…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «hornet» (+4); the same action «reach» (+3). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★★ · right ✓

«orcas are hunting sailors off spain, it's war» What is the best correction?

1. Yes, the orcas sink every boat they meet — score -1
2. No, it is only one dolphin — no support
3. Yes, orcas have eaten many sailors there, and the navy is fighting back — no support
4. No person has been hurt; scientists are not sure why the orcas push rudders — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 2

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 2, against -1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 296, line 1: «Animal stories are some of the most shared news in the world: a baby panda, a shark in a flooded street, a clever crow, orcas pushing boats. Some are true, som…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «push» (+3). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 12 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«wildlife down 73%, so 3 out of 4 animals are dead» Why should you read numbers in the news carefully?

1. Because 73 is bigger than 100 — no support
2. Because news numbers are always made up — ← Mova's choice · score 3
3. It is an average of population changes, not a count of dead animals — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Because wild animals cannot be counted at all, so every number is a guess — no support

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 2 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 3, line 16: «Centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs, so no centipede has exactly 100 legs.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «odd number» (+2); a different doer (counts against) (+1). 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 course of action consistent with established guidance where an animal has been reported as having escaped from a zoological garden.

1. Food should be placed in the street to attract the animal — ← Mova's choice · score 4
2. The animal should be pursued for the purpose of photography — score 1
3. The public should maintain a distance and permit trained keepers to recapture the animal — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Members of the public should endeavour to capture the animal themselves — score 2

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 251, line 4: «Put a pondweed leaf in a glass of water on a sunny windowsill and watch: tiny bubbles of oxygen rise from it, the factory working in front of your eyes.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «put» (+3); the same thing acted on «pondweed leaf» (+1). The right option, 3, 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 photographs of sharks in flooded streets.

1. Such images are produced by the sharks' own cameras — no support
2. Such images depict dolphins mistaken for sharks — ← Mova's choice · score 1
3. Such images invariably record genuine incursions of marine animals into towns — no support
4. Such images are customarily edited pictures recirculated after successive floods — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 204, line 3: «Watch the fish in a garden pond in winter: they sink to the bottom and barely move, because cold water slows their bodies down and the deep water stays a littl…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same circumstance (+2); the same thing acted on «fish» (+1). 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

Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the figure of approximately seventy-three per cent published in the Living Planet Index of 2024?

1. It denotes the proportion of all wild animals now residing in zoological gardens — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It denotes the average decline across monitored wildlife populations since 1970 — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It denotes the proportion of all species rendered extinct since 1970 — no support
4. It denotes the reduction in the body size of animals since 1970 — 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 ✓

Ascertain the principal reason for which reports of attacks by animals upon persons attract extensive coverage.

1. Such attacks are rare, and rare events are deemed newsworthy — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 2
2. Such attacks are required by law to be reported in newspapers — no support
3. Such attacks constitute the commonest cause of injury — no support
4. Such attacks are invariably perpetrated by sharks — 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 296, line 15: «Animal attacks on people are rare, and they make big news because they are rare; headlines can make a rare danger feel common.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/296-animals-in-the-news-true-stories-fakes-and-how-to-read-them/