The Islamic golden age and the wider medieval world
Tests: 6 of 10 right · Exam: 2 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 7 of 14 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 22 of the history 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 ✓
dude says Arabic numerals were invented in Arabia obviously its in the name. right?
- 1. No, they were first developed in India — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Yes, Mansa Musa invented them — no support
- 3. Yes, they come only from Arabia and nowhere else — no support
- 4. No, they come from Rome — 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 2 · ★ · right ✓
Your little sister thinks eyes shoot out beams like a superhero to see. Who proved this wrong long ago?
- 1. Genghis Khan, who rode horses — no support
- 2. Ibn Battuta, who travelled to China — score 4
- 3. Ibn al-Haytham, who showed light enters the eyes — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 12
- 4. Mansa Musa, who studied gold and how it shines — no support
Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 12, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 22, line 13: «Ibn al-Haytham showed that we see because light enters our eyes, not because the eyes send out rays, and he tested his ideas by experiment.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same action «enter» (+3); the same doer «light» (+3); the same thing acted on «eyes» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · ★ · right ✓
Why does every computer program depend on a word from a scholar in Baghdad?
- 1. Every program is written in Arabic — no support
- 2. Al-Khwarizmi built the very first computer out of brass and wood — no support
- 3. Computers were invented in Baghdad — no support
- 4. Programs run on algorithms, named after al-Khwarizmi — ← 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, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 10: «The scholar al-Khwarizmi wrote a famous book on solving equations; the word algebra comes from its title and the word algorithm comes from his name; an algorit…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «run» (+3); the same doer «computer program» (+2); the same place «algorithms» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 4 · ★ · wrong ✗
What would have happened to many Greek books if nobody had translated them into Arabic?
- 1. Many would probably have been lost for ever — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. They would have turned into Latin by themselves — ← Mova's choice · score 4
- 3. They would have been written in English — score 3
- 4. Nothing, everyone in Europe read Greek — 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 22, line 16: «Muslims learned papermaking from China and built paper mills in Baghdad and later in Spain, so books became cheaper.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «become» (+2); the same doer «books» (+2). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 5 · ★ · right ✓
A cartoon shows medieval Africa as only jungle with no towns. What should you put right?
- 1. Only Europeans built cities — no support
- 2. Africa had no people then — no support
- 3. Africa had rich kingdoms like Mali and cities with libraries like Timbuktu — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 8
- 4. It is completely accurate — no support
Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 8, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 5: «Further south, West Africa had rich kingdoms too: Mansa Musa of Mali gave away so much gold on his journey to Mecca that the price of gold fell in Cairo.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same doer «west africa» (+2); the same thing acted on «rich kingdoms» (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 6 · ★ · right ✓
You look up at the star Betelgeuse. Where does its name come from?
- 1. Latin, from the Roman soldiers who watched the sky — no support
- 2. Arabic, from medieval astronomers — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 18
- 3. Chinese, from Kublai Khan — score 8
- 4. English, from Shakespeare — score 8
Why: It took the question to ask where. It chose option 2 with score 18, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 22, line 14: «Muslim astronomers improved the astrolabe, an instrument for telling the time and finding direction by the stars, and star names such as Aldebaran and Betelgeu…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+6); the same action «come» (+4); the same doer «star names» (+4); the same place «arabic» (+4). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 7 · ★ · wrong ✗
Why would cheap paper help learning?
- 1. Paper replaced teachers — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Paper made people cleverer all by itself, without reading — no support
- 3. Paper was used only for money — no support
- 4. More books could be made, so more people could read them — ✓ 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 8 · ★ · right ✓
In al-Andalus, who often lived side by side?
- 1. Muslims, Christians and Jews — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 21
- 2. Only Muslims — score 21
- 3. Nobody, it was empty — no support
- 4. Only Vikings and Mongols who came to trade — no support
Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 21, tied with another option at 21 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 22, line 15: «In Muslim Spain, called al-Andalus, cities such as Córdoba had great libraries, and Granada has the palace of the Alhambra; Muslims, Christians and Jews often…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+6); the same doer «muslims» (+4); the same circumstance (+4); the same action «live» (+3). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 9 · ★ · wrong ✗
How did Ibn Battuta's book help historians today?
- 1. It gave the rules of jousting for knights — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. It was a map of the Moon — no support
- 3. It describes many lands of the medieval world he saw — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. It was a book of sums and puzzles — 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 · ★ · wrong ✗
why'd everyone go to baghdad back then, nothing to do there surely
- 1. It was a small fishing village on a muddy river bank — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. It was a huge city of trade, science and books — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. It was only a castle for knights — no support
- 4. Nobody went 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
Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗
Identify the scholar from whose name the term algorithm is derived.
- 1. Mansa Musa — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Ibn Battuta — no support
- 3. Al-Khwarizmi — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Ibn Sina — 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 ✗
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the contribution of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad?
- 1. The invention of the printing press — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The conquest of China — no support
- 3. The translation of Greek, Persian and Indian works into Arabic — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. The construction of castles throughout Europe — 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 price of gold in Cairo subsequent to the pilgrimage of Mansa Musa.
- 1. It fell, owing to the quantity of gold he distributed — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
- 2. It remained wholly unaltered — no support
- 3. It rose sharply, owing to a shortage throughout the region — no support
- 4. Gold was thereafter prohibited — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 18: «Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 and gave away so much gold that its price fell in Cairo.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «fall» (+2); the same doer «price» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓
Ascertain the land in which the numerals nought to nine, commonly termed Arabic, were originally developed.
- 1. India — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Greece — no support
- 3. Arabia — no support
- 4. Spain and Portugal — 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/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/