The desert: living with little water
Tests: 6 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 6 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 5 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 ✓
«road runner's well faster than the coyote, cartoon proves it» What is right?
- 1. Yes, roadrunners run at 300 km per hour, faster than any car on the road — score 6
- 2. No, roadrunners can fly away at jet speed — no support
- 3. Yes, coyotes can never catch them — score 2
- 4. A real coyote runs about twice as fast and sometimes catches roadrunners — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 14
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 14, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 5, line 4: «In the Road Runner cartoons the bird says «meep meep» and leaves Wile E. Coyote in a cloud of dust; a real roadrunner runs at about 30 km per hour and a real c…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «catch» (+4); the same doer «coyotes» (+4); the same thing acted on «roadrunners» (+4); the same property (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · ★ · right ✓
«camels store water in the humps so they don't need to drink» What is right?
- 1. No, the humps are fat, though a camel can drink over 100 litres at once — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 12
- 2. Yes, and they refill the humps from rain that falls on their backs in the desert — no support
- 3. No, the humps are full of air — no support
- 4. Yes, each hump is a water tank — score 5
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 12, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 5, line 6: «A camel's hump stores fat, not water; keeping fat in one place lets heat escape from the rest of the body, and a thirsty camel can drink more than 100 litres i…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «drink» (+4); the same doer «thirsty camel» (+4); the same thing acted on «100 litres» (+4). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · ★ · wrong ✗
Count them: two Bactrian camels and three dromedaries at the zoo. How many humps?
- 1. 6 — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 7 — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. 5 — no support
- 4. 10 — 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 ✓
Count them: a scorpion has 8 legs and 2 pincers. How many legs on four scorpions?
- 1. 32 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. 16 — no support
- 3. 24 — no support
- 4. 40 — 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 ✓
«found a glowing scorpion with me UV torch, gonna grab it for a pic» What is the best advice?
- 1. Do not pick it up, even though most kinds are not deadly — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Grab it, glowing ones are safe — no support
- 3. Grab it by the tail, because it can't sting you if you hold it there — no support
- 4. Fine, scorpions only sting in the day — 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 ✓
«desert at night, why's it freezing, we're in the Sahara ffs» Which is the best answer?
- 1. Desert sand makes ice at night — no support
- 2. The Sahara has winter every night — no support
- 3. Cold comes up from deep under the sand when the sun goes down — score 5
- 4. Dry air and clear skies let the ground's heat escape into space — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 5, line 1: «A desert is a place with very little rain, not necessarily a hot one: deserts bake by day but can freeze at night, because dry air and clear skies let the grou…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «let» (+2); the same doer «dry air» (+2); the same thing acted on «heat» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 7 · ★ · wrong ✗
What would happen to desert flowers if it never rained heavily for ten years?
- 1. They would grow anyway without water — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The seeds would sprout every year in the dry sand and flower in the heat — no support
- 3. Their seeds could wait in the soil until a good rain came — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. They would all turn into cactuses — 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 ✗
«antarctica's a desert?? it's ice not sand, you're mad» Which is the best answer?
- 1. It is not a desert, because deserts must always be hot and covered in sand — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. It is a desert only in summer — no support
- 3. It is a desert because it has sand under the ice — no support
- 4. A desert means very little rain or snow, and Antarctica gets very little — ✓ 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 rat that never drinks? rubbish» Which is the best answer?
- 1. True, but only because it drinks blood — ← Mova's choice · score 8
- 2. True, because it stores water in its cheeks — no support
- 3. Rubbish, every rat must drink water every single day, or it will die within a week — no support
- 4. True: the kangaroo rat gets water from its food and wastes almost none — ✓ the right answer · score 3
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 8, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 5, line 13: «Kangaroo rats can live without ever drinking: they get water from dry seeds and from burning their food, make very concentrated urine and plug their cool burro…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «drink» (+4); the same doer «kangaroo rats» (+4). The right option, 4, scored 3. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗
«that cactus is mega tall, must be like 10 years old» What is right?
- 1. A tall saguaro is probably over 100 years old, they grow very slowly — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Cactuses never get older than 10 — no support
- 3. It is probably 1 year old — ← Mova's choice · score 6
- 4. Yes, cactuses grow a metre a year, so it is about ten — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 5, line 8: «The saguaro cactus of Arizona and Mexico can grow over 12 metres tall and live over 150 years; its pleated stem swells like an accordion to store water, and it…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «saguaro cactus» (+4); the same property (+2). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★ · right ✓
«why's the snake going sideways, is it broken or what» Which is the best answer?
- 1. Sidewinding touches the hot sand at only two points and does not slip — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. The snake is injured and limping — no support
- 3. It is lost and looking for home — no support
- 4. It always moves sideways, even in water, because it cannot go forwards — no support
Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · 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 contents of the hump of a camel?
- 1. The hump constitutes a mass of bone — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The hump constitutes a reserve of fat upon which the animal may subsist when nourishment is scarce — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. The hump constitutes a reservoir of water from which the animal drinks in the course of a long journey — no support
- 4. The hump constitutes a cavity filled with air — 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 for which desert temperatures may decline below freezing during the night.
- 1. The sand generates cold during the hours of darkness — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The Sun is positioned nearer to the Earth by day — no support
- 3. Glacial winds traverse every desert nightly from the polar regions and from the mountains of the interior — no support
- 4. In the absence of atmospheric moisture and cloud, the heat of the ground escapes freely into space — ✓ 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 ✓
Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the kangaroo rat.
- 1. The kangaroo rat may subsist throughout its life without drinking, deriving water from its food — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
- 2. The kangaroo rat consumes water hourly from desert pools — no support
- 3. The kangaroo rat stores water within its tail in the manner of the hump of a camel — no support
- 4. The kangaroo rat subsists exclusively upon the blood of other animals — 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 5, line 13: «Kangaroo rats can live without ever drinking: they get water from dry seeds and from burning their food, make very concentrated urine and plug their cool burro…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «live» (+2); the same doer «kangaroo rats» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗
Ascertain the aggregate number of humps borne by four Bactrian camels and one dromedary.
- 1. Five — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Nine — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Eight — no support
- 4. Ten — 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/5-the-desert/