Rodents of every kind: squirrels, marmots, prairie dogs, porcupines, chinchillas and dormice
Tests: 5 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: plain · Understood: 9 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 317 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 Ice Age, Scrat the squirrel spends the whole film chasing a single acorn. What do real grey squirrels do?
- 1. Bury thousands of nuts in different places and find many by memory and smell — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 2. Bury all their nuts in one big hole — score 2
- 3. Keep just one nut for their whole life and guard it from every other squirrel — score 0
- 4. Never store any food for winter — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 6, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 317, line 5: «Grey squirrels bury thousands of nuts in autumn, each in a different place, and find many by memory and smell; the nuts they forget can grow into trees.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same place «different place» (+4); the same action «bury» (+3). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · wrong ✗
Count them: 4 marmots stand up on their back legs to look around. How many front paws are off the ground?
- 1. 4 — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 12 — no support
- 3. 16 — no support
- 4. 8 — ✓ 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 3 · right ✓
Count them: a flying squirrel has a skin flap on each side between its front and back legs. How many flaps do 3 flying squirrels have?
- 1. 6 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. 9 — no support
- 3. 12 — no support
- 4. 3 — 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 · wrong ✗
«groundhog saw his shadow so 6 more weeks winter, proper science» What is true?
- 1. It is science, but only when it is sunny — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. It is a fun custom; no animal can forecast the weather weeks ahead — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. True, but only in America — no support
- 4. True, groundhogs feel the coming weather in their fur and are never wrong — 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 ✗
«mate reckons porcupines fire their spikes like arrows» What is right?
- 1. True, they reload every hour — no support
- 2. They cannot; the barbed quills stick in when touched — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. True, they can shoot them the length of a football pitch — ← Mova's choice · score 4
- 4. True, but only the baby ones — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 53, line 5: «Cartoons show porcupines shooting their quills like arrows and skunks spraying the moment they see anyone; real porcupines cannot shoot quills, and a skunk sta…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «shoot» (+4); the same doer «real porcupines» (+1). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 6 · wrong ✗
What would happen to a chinchilla given a bath in water every day?
- 1. It would grow longer and thicker fur to keep the water out — ← Mova's choice · score 2
- 2. Its thick fur would stay damp, which is bad for it — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Nothing, chinchillas love swimming — no support
- 4. It would turn into a guinea pig — 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 59, line 8: «A coconut is a seed in a fibrous, air-filled husk that floats and keeps sea water out; most other seeds would sink and be killed by the salt, but a coconut can…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «keep out» (+3). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 7 · right ✓
«in alvin and the chipmunks they sing — real chipmunks talk?» What is the truth?
- 1. Chipmunks are birds that copy songs — score 0
- 2. Chipmunks make no sound at all — no support
- 3. Chipmunks sing pop songs in the wild, just like in the cartoon — score 1
- 4. Chipmunks are squirrels that make chirps and calls, not words — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 4 with score 9, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 317, line 2: «The squirrel family alone holds tree squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks, marmots and prairie dogs, which are really ground squirrels that bark.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+6); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «tree squirrels» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 8 · wrong ✗
«why would a squirrel fly down the tree when it can just climb» What is the best answer?
- 1. It is too lazy to climb — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Flying squirrels have no claws at all — no support
- 3. Climbing wears down its front teeth, so it saves them by flying — no support
- 4. Gliding keeps it away from the ground, where predators wait — ✓ 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 ✗
A prairie dog town has many eyes and many holes. Why is that safer?
- 1. Someone spots danger quickly and everyone has a hole close by — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. The holes are full of water — no support
- 3. Big towns have no predators near them — ← Mova's choice · score 5
- 4. Predators get muddled and cannot count how many holes there are — no support
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 308, line 6: «The red-eyed tree frog of Central America sleeps by day with its bright colours tucked away and flashes its red eyes when disturbed, which may startle a predat…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+3); the same thing acted on «predator» (+2). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 10 · right ✓
In a story the Dormouse at the Mad Hatter's tea party keeps falling asleep. What is true of real hazel dormice?
- 1. They sleep only during tea — no support
- 2. They sleep through winter for up to about six months — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 3. They never sleep at all, not even in the coldest winter — no support
- 4. They sleep standing on their tails — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 317, line 17: «The hazel dormouse gets very fat in autumn on hazelnuts and berries and sleeps through winter for up to about six months; hazel dormice in Britain have fallen…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «sleep» (+3); the same property (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · right ✓
Why might two groups of porcupines far apart both have quills, if they are only distant relatives?
- 1. Quills helped both stay safe, so both grew them separately, many scientists think — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 2. One group swam across the wide sea every year to visit the other and share quills — no support
- 3. They swapped quills long ago — score 2
- 4. Quills are glued on by people — no support
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 5, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 317, line 14: «The American and the African and Asian porcupines are only distant relatives, and many scientists think they grew quills separately.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «grow» (+4); the same property (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗
Identify the nature of the animal commonly designated the prairie dog.
- 1. A marsupial which carries its young in a pouch — ← Mova's choice · score 3
- 2. A canine which dwells in burrows upon the prairie — no support
- 3. A species of bird which nests in the ground — no support
- 4. A ground squirrel which dwells in extensive subterranean colonies — ✓ the right answer · 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 112, line 7: «Modern zoos let animals choose whether to take part in training, and animals take part more often when they know they can walk away.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «take» (+3); the same doer «animals» (+1). Against it: a different thing acted on (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 quills of the North American porcupine.
- 1. They are venomous spines identical to those of fish — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. They are composed of bone and are shed annually — no support
- 3. They number approximately thirty and may be discharged at an assailant from a considerable distance — no support
- 4. They number approximately thirty thousand and are barbed hairs which cannot be projected — ✓ 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 ✓
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the present status of wild chinchillas?
- 1. They are abundant and their numbers are increasing — no support
- 2. Both wild species are endangered following extensive hunting for fur — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 3. They have never been hunted by human beings — no support
- 4. They became extinct in the wild before 1800 — 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 294, line 1: «Nobody really sat down to tame the cat. About 10,000 years ago, when the first farmers in the Middle East stored grain, mice moved in, and wild cats followed t…», 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 «first farmers» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗
Ascertain the reason for which the hazel dormouse accumulates considerable fat during the autumn.
- 1. It is an indication of disease — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. It permits the animal to float upon water during its long autumn migration across the sea — no support
- 3. It sustains the animal through hibernation lasting up to approximately six months — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. It serves as a store of heat for its young in summer — 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
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/317-rodents-of-every-kind-squirrels-marmots-prairie-dogs-porcupines-chinchillas-and-dormice/