Borders: why they are where they are
Tests: 7 of 11 right · Exam: 2 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 8 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 31 of the geography 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 ✓
My mate says Hadrian's Wall is the England–Scotland border, innit?
- 1. Yes, the Scots built it to keep the English out — no support
- 2. No, Hadrian's Wall is in Wales — no support
- 3. No, it was a Roman frontier and the border today lies to the north of it — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 4. Yes, the border still runs exactly along the wall from coast to coast, mate — 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 31, line 19: «Hadrian's Wall was a Roman frontier in northern England, and it does not follow today's border between England and Scotland, which lies to the north of it.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «lie» (+2); the same doer «border» (+2); the same circumstance (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · ★ · wrong ✗
Your cousin drives from France into Germany and sees only a sign. Why no passport check?
- 1. Drivers never need passports anywhere — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Germany has no border police at all — no support
- 3. The border was moved that morning — no support
- 4. Both are in the Schengen Area — ✓ 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 · ★ · wrong ✗
In EU5, France keeps fighting to reach the Rhine. What real idea is the game showing?
- 1. Germans did not live along the Rhine — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. French kings' old dream of "natural frontiers" on the Rhine — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. The Rhine was the only river in Europe with fish — no support
- 4. The Rhine was France's border in 1337 already — 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 ✓
If the Tordesillas line had been drawn 1,000 leagues further west, what would most likely be different?
- 1. Much more of South America might speak Portuguese — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Nothing, the line did not matter — no support
- 3. Spain would have owned Portugal — no support
- 4. Brazil would speak French, because France would have taken it — 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 ✗
wtf, why's the border between Egypt and Libya just a straight line, did they run out of hills or what
- 1. The Romans built a straight wall there — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Egypt and Libya are perfectly flat everywhere — no support
- 3. Outsiders drew it with a ruler on a map — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. A straight river used to run there — 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 friend says borders are natural and have always been where they are now. What is wrong?
- 1. Borders are agreed by people and have changed many times — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Only African borders have ever changed — no support
- 3. Nothing, borders never change — no support
- 4. Borders only change when rivers move their beds in floods — 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 · ★ · right ✓
In 1947 a farmer's village ended up on one side of the new border and his fields on the other. What does this show?
- 1. Borders do not affect people at all — no support
- 2. The border followed every farm exactly — no support
- 3. Farmers always lived far from their fields — no support
- 4. Borders drawn quickly can cut through people's lives — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 10
Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 4 with score 10, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 31, line 13: «When British India became independent in 1947, it was split into India and Pakistan, with a border drawn in a few weeks.», 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 «draw» (+3); the same thing acted on «border» (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 8 · ★ · right ✓
EU5 shows every border as a sharp line in 1337. How is the real past different?
- 1. There were no countries or rulers at all anywhere in 1337 — no support
- 2. Many borders were blurry zones, and exact lines came later — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 3. Real borders were drawn with GPS back then — no support
- 4. Real borders were exactly as the game shows — no support
Why: It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 2 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 31, line 4: «In Europa Universalis 5 borders move with every war and inheritance, and that is not far from the truth, but the game shows them as sharp lines, while real bor…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «real borders» (+2); the same thing acted on «blurry zones» (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 9 · ★ · right ✓
A fishing boat from another country fishes 5 nautical miles off your coast without asking. What is true?
- 1. It is inside your territorial waters — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. It is on land, legally speaking — no support
- 3. It is in the exclusive zone only, so it is fine — no support
- 4. It is in the open sea that nobody owns — 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 10 · ★ · right ✓
Which is true about the Berlin Conference?
- 1. African kings led the conference and drew the lines — no support
- 2. European powers made rules for taking Africa without Africans there — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 3. It gave every African people its own country — no support
- 4. It set the border between France and Germany — 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 31, line 10: «At the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885, European powers set rules for claiming African land, and no African rulers were invited.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «european powers» (+4); the same thing acted on «rules» (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★ · wrong ✗
lol my brother says the Somali people all live in Somalia. right?
- 1. No, they all live in Egypt now — no support
- 2. Yes, the border was drawn around them exactly, so they all fit inside — no support
- 3. Yes, every Somali lives inside Somalia — ← Mova's choice · score 4
- 4. No, they also live in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti — ✓ the right answer · score 4
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 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 31, line 12: «Colonial borders often split one people between several countries, or put rival peoples into one country; the Somali people, for example, live in Somalia, Ethi…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «somalia» (+4); the same action «live» (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). The right option, 4, scored 4. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗
Identify the principal reason for which numerous boundaries upon the African continent are rectilinear.
- 1. They correspond to Roman fortifications — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. They conform to the courses of ancient straight rivers — no support
- 3. They were delineated upon maps by external colonial powers — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. They were selected by African rulers for reasons of equity — 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 · right ✓
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494?
- 1. It apportioned newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal along a meridian — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
- 2. It conferred independence upon Brazil — score 7
- 3. It concluded the Hundred Years' War — score 7
- 4. It established the frontier between England and Scotland along the line of Hadrian's Wall — score 7
Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. 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 10, line 13: «The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and many Māori chiefs, is New Zealand's founding document; its English and Māori versions do n…», 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 «treaty» (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗
State the extent of a coastal state's territorial waters as measured from its coastline.
- 1. Forty-nine nautical miles — ← Mova's choice · score 5
- 2. Twelve nautical miles — ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 3. Two hundred nautical miles — score 5
- 4. Three hundred and seventy leagues — no support
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 31, line 16: «Countries also have borders at sea, with territorial waters reaching 12 nautical miles (a nautical mile is a sea mile, a bit under 2 kilometres) from the coast…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same property (+3); the same thing acted on «12 nautical miles» (+2). The right option, 2, 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 partition of British India in 1947.
- 1. The territory was transferred intact to a single successor state — no support
- 2. The partition affected no inhabitants of the region — no support
- 3. A boundary drawn within weeks divided India and Pakistan amid mass flight and violence — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 4. The frontier was negotiated over several decades without disturbance — 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 11, line 3: «Borders here have long, sometimes painful stories: British India was split in 1947, Korea has been split since 1945, and Thailand stayed free of European rule…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «british india» (+4); the same action «split» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/31-borders-why-they-are-where-they-are/