The real animals of the Just So Stories: the whale, camel, rhino, leopard, elephant, kangaroo, armadillo and crab

Tests: 7 of 12 right · Exam: 2 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 13 of 16 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 404 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 ✓

«so the Camel got his hump for being lazy, that's what the book says» What is true?

1. Camels got humps when people started riding them — score 5
2. The hump is a fat store that evolved slowly and helps camels live in deserts — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
3. The hump is a water tank that fills up when a camel is idle — score -1
4. Lazy camels really do grow bigger humps than hard-working ones — score 3

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 2 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 154, line 1: «Cartoons love animal tricks: a bull goes mad at a red cape, a camel unscrews its hump and pours out water, a porcupine fires quills like arrows, and Tom the ca…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); a different doer (counts against) (+2); the same thing acted on «hump» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★ · wrong ✗

A cartoon shows a blue whale gulping down a sailor whole. What is wrong with it?

1. Blue whales have teeth and would bite him first — ← Mova's choice · score 4
2. Its throat is too narrow; it sieves krill — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Nothing, blue whales often eat sailors — no support
4. Blue whales live only in rivers, not at sea — score 4

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. 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 404, line 5: «Blue whales and humpbacks have no teeth: rows of baleen plates hang from the top jaw and sieve tiny krill and small fish out of huge mouthfuls of water, a bit…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «teeth» (+2); the same doer «blue whales» (+1); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★ · right ✓

Gran says the Rhino got his folds from cake crumbs. Which is the real reason?

1. Thick, folded skin grew over many generations and lets it bend — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 1
2. The mud it lies in dried and cracked into folds — no support
3. Rhinos got folds from scratching against palm-trees — no support
4. A heat wave made the rhino's skin shrink and wrinkle — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 404, line 8: «Rhino skin is very thick, up to about five centimetres in places; the Indian rhino's deep folds make it look as if it wears plates of armour, and they let it b…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «skin» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«leopards just stand in shade till they get spotty, innit» What would you say?

1. Yes, but only young leopards can do it — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. No, leopards get spots from a rash — no support
3. Yes, it takes about a month in deep shade — no support
4. No, a leopard cub is born with its spots — ✓ 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 5 · ★★ · right ✓

What would happen if a crab never moulted?

1. It could not grow any bigger — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 1
2. Its shell would go soft for ever — no support
3. It would turn into a lobster — score 1
4. It would grow too fast — score 1

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 1 with score 1, tied with another option at 1 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 389, line 13: «In a test reported in 2021, cuttlefish waited for their favourite shrimp instead of eating a less tasty crab at once, which needs self-control.», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «tasty crab» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«the crocodile pulled the elephant's nose and that's why it's long, my lil bro reckons» What is right?

1. Elephants are born with short noses that a crocodile must pull — score 2
2. Trunks grew because elephants stretched them to reach water every day — score 1
3. Trunks grew slowly over millions of years; a stretched nose is not passed to babies — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. It is true, but it happened to every elephant, not one — ← Mova's choice · score 4

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 193, line 7: «A dog's nose has hundreds of millions of smell sensors and smells many thousands of times better than ours, so it can find a biscuit inside a closed bag in a b…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «find» (+2); the same circumstance (+2). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓

★★ Dingoes came to Australia some thousands of years ago, but kangaroos were hopping millions of years before. What does this prove?

1. The Dingo cannot have given the Kangaroo its long legs — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 10
2. Kangaroos once had short legs a few thousand years ago — score 7
3. Dingoes must be older than kangaroos — score 8
4. Kangaroos were taught to hop by people — score 8

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 10, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 404, line 13: «Kangaroos were hopping for millions of years before dingoes reached Australia, probably with seafaring people at least 3,500 years ago, so the Dingo cannot hav…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «give» (+5); the same receiver «kangaroo» (+2); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «dingo» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★★ · right ✓

«armadillo is half hedgehog half tortoise, the book says so» What is true?

1. It is a mammal of its own kind, with hair on its belly — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
2. It is a reptile, like the tortoise — no support
3. It is a kind of hedgehog that lives in America — no support
4. It really is a mix of the two animals — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 404, line 14: «Armadillos are mammals with hair on their bellies, not a mix of hedgehog and tortoise; «armadillo» is Spanish for «little armoured one», and only the three-ban…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «mammals» (+2); the same circumstance (+2); the same doer «armadillos» (+1); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★★ · wrong ✗

A friend wants to train a hedgehog to swim until it turns into an armadillo. What is wrong?

1. Hedgehogs can do it, but it takes about a year — no support
2. It only works if a tortoise helps — no support
3. Practising cannot change one animal into another kind — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Armadillos are just hedgehogs that learned to swim — ← Mova's choice · score 1

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 214, line 15: «Hedgehogs can swim, but they get stuck in ponds with steep sides, so a ramp or a few stones at the edge lets them climb out.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «hedgehogs» (+1). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★ · right ✓

Kipling's Cat «walks by himself». Which real fact matches the story best?

1. Cats tamed themselves by hunting mice and stayed independent — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 10
2. Cats will only live with people who give them milk — score 7
3. Cats were caught wild and trained like horses — score 2
4. Cats were the very first animals that people tamed — score 3

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 10, against 7 for the next best. Its support: lesson 404, line 17: «Wild cats moved into the first farming villages about 10,000 years ago to hunt the mice in the grain stores, and they stayed more independent than dogs: that i…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «hunt» (+5); the same doer «wild cats» (+2); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same thing acted on «mice» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★★ · wrong ✗

«bro the butterfly stamped and the whole palace vanished, physics is cooked» Why can't it happen?

1. Butterflies have no feet, so they cannot stamp at all — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It weighs much less than a gram, so its stamp is tiny — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Palaces are built on rock, which butterflies cannot shake — no support
4. Butterflies stamp only in cold weather, when it is weak — 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 12 · ★★ · right ✓

★★★ Kipling's order of taming is Dog, Horse, Cow. If you list the real order from the oldest to the newest, which animal moves?

1. None, Kipling's order is right — score 2
2. The horse, which comes after the cow — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 9
3. The cow, which comes first of all — score 7
4. The dog, which comes after the horse — score 9

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 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 404, line 18: «Dogs were tamed first, from wolves, at least 15,000 years ago; cows came about 10,000 years ago and horses only about 5,500 years ago, so Kipling's order Dog,…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same doer «order dog» (+3); the same circumstance (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the feeding apparatus of the blue whale?

1. It possesses a gullet capable of admitting a seafarer entire — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It possesses large teeth, by which seals and penguins are seized — no support
3. It possesses baleen plates, by which minute krill are strained from the water — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. It possesses a sticky tongue, by which fish are captured singly — 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 ✗

Identify the principal reason why the hypothesis that the Elephant obtained its trunk through stretching by a crocodile is erroneous.

1. The nasal tissue of elephants contains bone and cannot be stretched — score 1
2. Crocodiles are incapable of grasping the nose of any animal larger than a goat — score 0
3. Bodily changes acquired during a lifetime are not inherited by offspring — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The Elephant possessed a trunk before crocodiles came into existence — ← Mova's choice · score 4

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 4, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 83, line 17: «Elephants swim well, using the trunk held above the water like a snorkel.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «trunk» (+2); the same doer «elephants» (+1); a different action (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 3 · formal language · right ✓

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the armadillo.

1. It is an insect of exceptional size inhabiting the Amazon — score 1
2. It is a bird which has lost the power of flight — no support
3. It is a mammal whose name signifies «little armoured one» in Spanish — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
4. It is a reptile descended from the union of a hedgehog and a tortoise — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 4, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 404, line 14: «Armadillos are mammals with hair on their bellies, not a mix of hedgehog and tortoise; «armadillo» is Spanish for «little armoured one», and only the three-ban…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «mammals» (+2); the same doer «armadillos» (+1); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓

Ascertain which animal was first domesticated by human beings.

1. The cat, in the grain stores of the first farmers — no support
2. The dog, descended from the wolf — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
3. The horse, upon the steppes — no support
4. The cow, descended from the aurochs — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 139, line 4: «Rebecca Rabbit living in a burrow is the one that is true to life, while Danny Dog's grandad and every other dog, tiny or huge, all belong to one kind of anima…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same place «wolves» (+4). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

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