Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 1: a broken spear and a picture on birch-bark

Tests: 7 of 17 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 15 of 21 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 84 of the books 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 · ★ · wrong ✗

Zara: «Taffy could write, she just didn't feel like it, delulu teacher said otherwise.» (delulu = believing something silly) Put it right.

1. Taffy could not write, she only drew pictures instead of words — ← Mova's choice · score 7
2. Taffy could not write, only draw pictures — score 7
3. Taffy never wrote because the family used only drawing and speech — no support
4. Nobody in the family could read or write; Taffy can only draw — ✓ the right answer · score 6

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 84, line 4: «Taffy borrows the shark's tooth from his necklace and scratches a picture on the bark: Daddy with the broken spear, the black-handled spear, herself explaining…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «taffy» (+4); the same thing acted on «picture» (+3). The right option, 4, scored 6. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★ · right ✓

Why does the Stranger-man think Tegumai is a great Chief?

1. Tegumai never turns round or notices him, as if too grand — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
2. Tegumai never turns round or notices him, and he orders all his people to build a great hall of stone — score 4
3. Tegumai ignores him, as if he is too proud — score 4
4. Tegumai never turns round or notices him at all, as if he were too grand to see a stranger on the bank — score 4

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). 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 84, line 16: «Because Tegumai never turns round, the Stranger-man thinks he must be a haughty, great Chief, «Man-who-turns-his-back-on-callers».», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «turn round» (+2); the same doer «tegumai» (+1); the same property (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★ · right ✓

Tegumai says «we must make the best of a bad job». What does he do?

1. He sends Taffy home — no support
2. Sleeps — no support
3. Mends the spear himself — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score -3
4. Goes home — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what is done. It chose option 3 with score -3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 84, line 9: «Tegumai's spear is wood with shark's teeth at the end; he breaks it «clean across» by jabbing too hard on the river bottom, and he has forgotten to bring extra…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. Against it: the same thing acted on «extra spears» (-1); a different action (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★ · wrong ✗

What would have happened if the Stranger-man had understood Taffy's language?

1. Taffy would have got her spear — ← Mova's choice · score 5
2. He could simply have been told to fetch the spear — ✓ the right answer · score 4
3. He would have fished — score 4
4. He would have helped at once — score 4

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 1 with score 5, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 84, line 3: «A Stranger-man from a far tribe comes along. He does not understand a word of their language. Taffy tries to tell him to go and fetch the spear; he hands her a…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «taffy» (+5). The right option, 2, scored 4. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★ · wrong ✗

Which is TRUE about Taffy's picture?

1. It shows Taffy, Daddy, the swamp, the spears and a fish feast — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It shows Daddy, both spears, Taffy, the Stranger-man, the way home, Mummy and the beaver-swamp with all the beavers — no support
3. It shows Daddy, one spear, the Stranger-man, the beavers and the fish — no support
4. It shows Daddy, both spears, Taffy, the Stranger-man, the way home and Mummy — ✓ 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 6 · ★ · wrong ✗

Dev from Glasgow: «wee Taffy drew it all perfect, every beaver.» (wee = small) Put it right.

1. She drew the beavers' heads very neatly and proudly — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. She only drew the beavers' heads, and says she can't draw them — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. She drew all the beavers perfectly and says she can draw them all, and the picture is nicely finished — no support
4. She drew every beaver, so the picture was complete — 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 7 · ★ · wrong ✗

Real life: when and where was writing first invented?

1. About 5,000 years ago in Greece and Italy — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. About 50,000 years ago, in a cave in Spain, and later in many other places around the world — no support
3. About 5,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia and Egypt — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. About 5,000 years ago, first in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and later in India and China and Mexico — 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 · ★ · right ✓

Real life: why is a picture not yet writing?

1. It does not show the exact words, so people can read it differently — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
2. It does not show the exact words, so people can read it differently, and no one can say which reading is correct — score 7
3. It does not show exact words, so readers may interpret it in many ways — score 3
4. Pictures show things but not the sounds of spoken words — no support

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 84, line 20: «Real life: pictures are much older than writing. People painted animals in caves tens of thousands of years ago, but a picture is not yet writing: it does not…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «read» (+4); its «because» matches the remembered cause (+2); the same thing acted on «picture» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★ · right ✓

Real life, bare (= very) old: which came first in human history?

1. Cave pictures, tens of thousands of years before writing — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 1
2. Cave pictures, tens of thousands of years before writing, which was invented only in the last few thousand years — no support
3. Cave pictures, tens of thousands of years before writing, and before even the first farms and villages were built — no support
4. Stories were told aloud, then written down later on clay — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 21, line 4: «The White Rabbit blows three blasts on the trumpet and reads the accusation as a nursery rhyme: the Queen made some tarts, and the Knave stole them. The King s…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same property (+2); the same action «come» (+1). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗

Looking back: the Stranger-man believes a magic tooth will make people burst. Which earlier character also believed something that was not so?

1. The Elephant, who thought the Crocodile was kind — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The Whale, who thought the Mariner was dead — no support
3. Painted Jaguar, who thought the curled-up Hedgehog was the Tortoise — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The Mariner, who thought the whale was a sleeping island and so built a fire on its back — 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 11 · ★ · wrong ✗

Looking back: Tegumai's daughter is called «Best Beloved» here. Whom does Kipling call «O Best Beloved» all through the book?

1. The child listening to the stories told by the storyteller in the cave — score 3
2. Every child who has ever sat on a parent's knee and listened to a story — no support
3. The small child on the knee — ← Mova's choice · score 9
4. The child listening to the stories — ✓ the right answer · no support

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 9, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 74, line 5: «Kipling tells it out loud to a child he calls "Best Beloved", with funny made-up words, a teasing reminder about the braces, and a happy, silly ending.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same doer «kipling» (+2); the same thing acted on «child» (+2); the same action «call» (+1). The right option, 4, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 12 · ★ · right ✓

Looking back: like Taffy, which earlier hero was always asking questions?

1. The Crab, who asked the Whale why — no support
2. Kolokolo Bird, who asked the Crocodile and the whole river about everything under the sun — no support
3. The Elephant's Child, full of «'satiable curtiosity» — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
4. The Whale, always curious about the sea — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 14, line 2: «Alice asks what happens when they get back to the start, and the March Hare quickly changes the subject. They wake the Dormouse for a story: three sisters, Els…», 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 «alice» (+3). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 13 · ★ · wrong ✗

Looking back: the Elephant's Child set off with a hundred pounds of bananas. What does Tegumai carry in his mendy-bag?

1. Fish-hooks — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Sinews, leather strips, bee's-wax and resin — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Roots, berries, a knife and a flint — no support
4. Dried fish, a knife and some spare beads — 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 14 · ★ · right ✓

Ellie from Alabama: «Taffy was fixin' to run home herself.» (fixin' to = about to) Why didn't she?

1. Daddy said that she must stay with him by the river bank — score 2
2. Daddy forbade her because the path is steep — no support
3. She was too tired and the path was too long for a small child — score 4
4. Daddy said it was too far and she might fall in the beaver-swamp — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 4 with score 7, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 84, line 10: «Taffy offers to run home for the other spear, but Tegumai says it is too far, and she might fall into the beaver-swamp on the way.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «fall» (+4); the same place «beaver swamp» (+2); a different doer (counts against) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 15 · ★ · right ✓

★★★ Careful: the Stranger-man reads the spear «sticking in Daddy's back» as an attack. What does the story tell us really caused it?

1. The tooth slipped and the bark was too small — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
2. The Stranger-man was right: Taffy meant to attack Daddy with the sharp tooth from the necklace — score 3
3. The Stranger-man pushed the spear in too hard — score 7
4. The tooth slipped and the bark was too small, so Taffy was afraid and tried to hide it under the tree — score 7

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 84, line 18: «In the picture the black-handled spear «looks as if it was sticking in Daddy's back», because the tooth slipped and the bark was too small.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «slip» (+6); the same doer «tooth» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 16 · ★ · wrong ✗

★★★ Taffy's name means «Small-person-without-any-manners...». Her mother's means «Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions». Which of these is shown in THIS part?

1. The Stranger-man gives Taffy birch-bark — score 7
2. Mummy scolds Taffy for being rude — no support
3. Taffy asks many questions of the Stranger-man — ← Mova's choice · score 10
4. Taffy takes the Stranger-man's magic tooth without leave — ✓ the right answer · score 5

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 10, against 7 for the next best. Its support: lesson 84, line 5: «But the Stranger-man reads the picture quite differently. He thinks Tegumai must be a great Chief in danger, with enemies all around, and that the child is ask…», 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 action «ask» (+3); the same doer «child» (+3). The right option, 4, scored 5. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 17 · ★ · wrong ✗

★★★ The Stranger-man thinks the picture means «enemies are coming». Which of Taffy's drawings did he most likely take for an army?

1. The beavers' heads in the swamp — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The spear sticking in Daddy's back with the blood-red bark — no support
3. The spears crossed in Daddy's back — ← Mova's choice · score 7
4. The beavers' heads in the swamp, with Mummy and the spears and Daddy's back all in one picture — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 3, line 11: «She tells herself "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a great girl like you", a joke because she really is great, meaning huge, and orders herself: "Stop thi…», 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 «alice» (+3). The right option, 1, 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 material upon which Taffy executed her drawing.

1. A large flat piece of white birch-bark, carefully cut from a tree near the swamp — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. A piece of wet river mud — no support
3. A sheet of smooth clay — no support
4. A flat piece of birch-bark — ✓ 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 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Ascertain the reason for which Tegumai was unable to continue fishing.

1. His spear had been broken when Taffy pulled it from the river bottom and the carp swam away with the bait — ← Mova's choice · score 5
2. The swamp had swallowed his fishing line — no support
3. The fish had escaped from his spear — no support
4. His spear had been broken by being jabbed upon the river bottom — ✓ the right answer · score 5

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 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 84, line 9: «Tegumai's spear is wood with shark's teeth at the end; he breaks it «clean across» by jabbing too hard on the river bottom, and he has forgotten to bring extra…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «spear» (+3); the same action «break» (+2). The right option, 4, scored 5. · 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 Stranger-man's comprehension of the picture?

1. He guessed the Chief wanted a new spear — score 5
2. He supposed the Chief to be beset by enemies, so he ran off to find weapons and a shield for his new friend — score 5
3. He supposed the Chief to be beset by enemies and in need of his tribe — ✓ the right answer · score 5
4. He thought the Chief was hungry for fish — ← Mova's choice · score 6

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 4 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 84, line 5: «But the Stranger-man reads the picture quite differently. He thinks Tegumai must be a great Chief in danger, with enemies all around, and that the child is ask…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same doer «stranger man» (+2). The right option, 3, scored 5. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the invention of writing in the real world.

1. It arose about five thousand years ago, first in Mesopotamia and Egypt — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 3
2. It arose about three thousand years ago, first in China and India — no support
3. It arose about five thousand years ago, first in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and then spread to every continent — score 3
4. It arose about fifty thousand years ago, first in caves in Europe and later in Mesopotamia and Egypt — no support

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 84, line 19: «Real life: people did not write in the Stone Age. Writing was invented about 5,000 years ago, first in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and Egypt, and later, separately,…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «mesopotamia» (+4); the same property (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/84-justso-first-letter-1-a-broken-spear/