Glaciers and ice ages

Tests: 6 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 9 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 54 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 ✓

In a cartoon a glacier zooms down the mountain like a car. What should be corrected?

1. Glaciers do not move at all, they just sit and melt — no support
2. Glaciers flow very slowly, often a few metres a day — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
3. Glaciers move only uphill — no support
4. Glaciers slide fast only at night, when it is cold — score -1

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 2 with score 5, against -1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 54, line 1: «A glacier is a river of ice. Snow piles up year after year, gets squashed into ice, and the ice becomes so heavy that it slowly flows downhill, often only a fe…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «flow» (+3); the same property (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★ · right ✓

You hike in Norway along a long, narrow arm of the sea with cliffs on both sides. What carved it?

1. A glacier, before the sea flooded the valley — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 11
2. An earthquake opening a crack — no support
3. Waves cutting a cave that later fell in — no support
4. A wide river winding slowly through a hot desert — score 0

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 11, against 0 for the next best. Its support: lesson 54, line 8: «Fjords are long, deep sea inlets made when the sea flooded valleys carved by glaciers.», 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 «flood» (+3); the same doer «sea» (+3); the same thing acted on «valleys» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★ · wrong ✗

A farmer finds a huge granite boulder in a field where all the rocks below are chalk. How did it most likely get there?

1. Wind blew it there from far away — no support
2. Ice carried it there and dropped it — ✓ the right answer · score 5
3. It grew there slowly from a tiny seed — ← Mova's choice · score 6
4. People made it in a factory and lost it — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 3 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 27, line 18: «Farmers who grow crops like cocoa and coffee often earn very little of the price paid in shops, because most of it goes to traders, factories, brands and shops.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «grow» (+4); the same doer «farmers» (+2). The right option, 2, scored 5. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★★ · right ✓

What would happen to sea level if lots of ice on land melted?

1. It would rise — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
2. It would stay exactly the same — score 2
3. The sea would freeze — no support
4. It would fall — score 2

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 1 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 23, line 15: «Sea level has risen by more than 20 centimetres since 1900, and it is now rising faster, which puts low places such as the Netherlands, Bangladesh and islands…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «rise» (+2); the same doer «level» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★★ · right ✓

An early hunter 12,000 years ago wants to walk from England to the Netherlands. Could he?

1. No, the sea was even deeper then than it is now — no support
2. Yes, across Doggerland while the sea was low — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
3. Only by boat across a wide ocean — no support
4. No, people did not exist then — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 54, line 3: «For the last 2.6 million years Earth has swung between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacials. About 20,000 years ago ice covered much of Britain, so mu…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «sea» (+3); the same property (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★★ · wrong ✗

"glaciers r just snow that never melted, they dont even move" — Tom. Fix it.

1. Glaciers are frozen sea water that floats — no support
2. Glaciers are snow squashed into ice that flows downhill — ✓ the right answer · score 4
3. Glaciers are made of white rock — ← Mova's choice · score 6
4. Tom is right, glaciers never move — no support

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 6, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 54, line 4: «Imagine a boulder as big as a car sitting alone in a field, made of rock found nowhere nearby: ice carried it there. Today almost all mountain glaciers are shr…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «make» (+3); the same circumstance (+2); a different thing acted on (counts against) (+1). The right option, 2, scored 4. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Paintings of London show people having fairs on the frozen Thames in the 1600s. Which cold time fits?

1. The Cambrian explosion — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The last great ice age — no support
3. The Little Ice Age — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. The Jurassic period — 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 ✓

Why does a U-shaped valley tell a geologist that a glacier was once there?

1. Glaciers carve wide, flat-floored valleys; rivers carve V-shapes — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 6
2. Rivers always make U-shapes, so a U shows an old river was there — score 4
3. U-shaped valleys appear after earthquakes — no support
4. U-shaped valleys are made only by wind — score 1

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 6, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 54, line 7: «Glaciers carve wide valleys with flat floors and steep sides, called U-shaped valleys.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «carve» (+3); the same doer «glaciers» (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★★ · wrong ✗

What would happen to some big rivers of Asia in the dry season if their mountain glaciers vanished?

1. They would carry far more water for ever — score 3
2. They would flow backwards — ← Mova's choice · score 4
3. They could carry much less water — ✓ the right answer · score 3
4. They would turn salty — no support

Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 54, line 16: «Mountain glaciers feed rivers that hundreds of millions of people depend on, especially in Asia.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «feed» (+2); the same doer «mountain glaciers» (+2). The right option, 3, scored 3. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Which is true about ice ages?

1. There has only ever been one ice age, and it ended when the dinosaurs died — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The last ice age ended last century — no support
3. Ice ages happened only in Africa — no support
4. Earth has swung between cold and warm periods for 2.6 million years — ✓ 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 11 · ★★ · right ✓

An old photo from 1900 shows a glacier filling a valley; today it is a small patch of ice far up. Why?

1. Glaciers always grow in summer — no support
2. The photo shows a different planet — no support
3. Most mountain glaciers are shrinking fast with warming — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 7
4. Someone dug the glacier out — no support

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 54, line 15: «Today almost all mountain glaciers are shrinking fast because of human-caused global warming.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «shrink» (+2); the same doer «mountain glaciers» (+2); the same circumstance (+2); the same property (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · right ✓

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a glacier?

1. A mass of ice that proceeds downhill under its own weight — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. A formation of snow suspended in the atmosphere — no support
3. A deposit of crystalline rock resembling ice — no support
4. A stationary body of frozen fresh water — 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 sea level stood approximately 120 metres lower during the most recent glacial period.

1. The oceans evaporated entirely into space — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The Moon ceased to exert any pull — no support
3. The sea floor was elevated by volcanoes — no support
4. Vast quantities of water were retained as ice upon the land — ✓ 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 · wrong ✗

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning erratics.

1. They are fissures within glacial ice — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. They are lakes situated within volcanic craters formerly occupied by glaciers — no support
3. They are deposits formed by desert winds — no support
4. They are boulders transported and deposited by glaciers far from their origin — ✓ the right answer · 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 4 · formal language · wrong ✗

Ascertain the present condition of the majority of the world's mountain glaciers.

1. They are expanding rapidly in all regions — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. They have remained unaltered since 1850 — no support
3. They are diminishing rapidly in consequence of human-caused warming — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. They have entirely disappeared — 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/geography/54-glaciers-and-ice-ages/