Toad's Edwardian England: early motor cars, caravans, steam trains, wash day and gold sovereigns
Tests: 4 of 11 right · Exam: 3 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 4 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 83 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 · ★★ · wrong ✗
«toad drives like 100 mph lol» How fast could a 1908 car legally go on a British road?
- 1. There was no limit — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 100 miles an hour — no support
- 3. 70 miles an hour — no support
- 4. 20 miles an hour — ✓ 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 2 · ★★ · right ✓
Toad sits in the road murmuring «Poop-poop!». Where did that sound come from on real early cars?
- 1. A bell fixed on the front bumper — no support
- 2. The engine coughing loudly every time it started — no support
- 3. Squeezing the rubber bulb of the horn — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 5
- 4. The driver shouting through a long speaking tube — no support
Why: It took the question to ask where. It chose option 3 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 83, line 2: «Toad's motor-car craze was a real craze of rich people at the time. Cars had no roof and no windscreen, and roads were dusty, so drivers wore goggles, gauntlet…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «squeeze» (+3); the same thing acted on «rubber bulb» (+3). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · ★★ · right ✓
«why didnt they just start the car with the key like normal» What is the best answer?
- 1. Keys had not been invented yet, so nobody could lock anything at all — no support
- 2. Many early cars had no electric starter, so you turned a handle at the front — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 13
- 3. Cars started by themselves when the warm sun shone on the engine — no support
- 4. You had to push every car down a hill to start it — no support
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 2 with score 13, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 83, line 9: «Many early cars were started by turning a starting handle at the front; it could kick back and hurt the driver's arm, and electric starters only came in from a…», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «starting handle» (+5); the same action «turn» (+4); the same place «front» (+4). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 4 · ★★ · wrong ✗
At the booking office Toad reaches for his waistcoat pocket and finds nothing. Why?
- 1. Washerwomen were not allowed by law to carry any money at all on trains — ← Mova's choice · score -6
- 2. A railway porter had picked his pocket while he slept on the bench — no support
- 3. He had left his coat and money in the cell, and the cotton gown had no pocket — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. His coins had fallen out through a hole in his waistcoat pocket — no support
Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score -6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 81, line 2: «The White Rabbit pulls a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, because men then carried pocket watches on a chain, not watches on the wrist. The Hatter's tea-part…», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «carry» (+4). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2); a different thing acted on (counts against) (-2). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 5 · ★★ · wrong ✗
«my gran's gran did washing all monday, why so long?» What is the best answer?
- 1. She was very slow because she chatted to the neighbours all the time — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Monday was the only day of the week there was any water — no support
- 3. Clothes had to be washed in the river and beaten with stones — no support
- 4. Everything was boiled, scrubbed, mangled and ironed by hand — ✓ 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 · ★★ · right ✓
A friend says Toad's caravan was the same as a modern caravan towed by a car. What is wrong?
- 1. Toad's caravan was pulled by a horse, as cars were still rare — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Toad's caravan had a big electric motor and batteries — no support
- 3. Toad's caravan was pulled along by a steam engine on rails — no support
- 4. Nothing, it was exactly the same, only yellow — 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 ✗
The book's gipsy is «very fond of horse-dealing». How should we read that today?
- 1. As a rule written in the law — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. As a true fact about every Romany person who has ever lived in Britain — no support
- 3. As an old idea about a whole people, which is unfair to them — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. As a joke about horses, not people — 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 ✗
The engine-driver lets Toad ride in the cab, though it is «against the Company's regulations». Why might the rule have existed?
- 1. Washerwomen were thought to bring bad luck to the trains they rode — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. The cab was hot, busy and dangerous, with a fire and moving parts — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Passengers might steal the coal and sell it in the town — no support
- 4. The cab was kept only for the horses that pulled the trucks — 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 ✗
Toad pays four shillings for a horse at «a shilling a leg». How much is that in old pence?
- 1. 4 pence — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 40 pence — no support
- 3. 12 pence — no support
- 4. 48 pence — ✓ 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 10 · ★★ · right ✓
«chauffeur sounds posh, what did it first mean?» What is right?
- 1. A French word for a racing driver — no support
- 2. A rich lord who owned many cars — no support
- 3. A servant who polished the boots — no support
- 4. A man who stoked the fire of a steam engine — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 10
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 10, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 83, line 11: «Rich car owners often paid a chauffeur to drive and look after the car; the word comes from French and first meant a man who stoked the fire of a steam engine.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «man» (+5); the same action «stoke» (+3); the same thing acted on «fire» (+2). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★★ · wrong ✗
★★★ A chauffeur drives at 20 miles an hour for 3 hours, then 10 miles an hour for 1 hour because of the dust. Toad says they went 100 miles. How far did they really go?
- 1. 80 miles — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. 100 miles — no support
- 3. 60 miles — no support
- 4. 70 miles — ✓ 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 1 · formal language · right ✓
Identify the period designated as the Edwardian age.
- 1. The reign of King Edward VII, from 1901 to 1910 — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. The period after the Second World War, from 1945 — no support
- 3. The reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901 — no support
- 4. The years of the Norman Conquest of England — 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 ✗
Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the attire of early motorists.
- 1. Such attire was prescribed by law for all persons using the highway — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Goggles were worn exclusively at night, when the lamps dazzled the driver — no support
- 3. Long coats were required by law to conceal the wheels — no support
- 4. Goggles and long coats were worn on account of open cars and dusty roads — ✓ 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 3 · formal language · right ✓
Ascertain the provisions introduced for motor cars in Britain from the year 1904.
- 1. A speed limit of 20 miles an hour, number plates and driving licences — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. A man walking in front with a flag — no support
- 3. The abolition of every limit upon speed throughout the kingdom — no support
- 4. A compulsory driving test for every motorist, together with a tax upon horses — 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 4 · formal language · right ✓
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises wash day before household washing machines?
- 1. It occupied most of a day with boiling, scrubbing, mangling and ironing by hand — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. It required no water whatsoever, the clothes being brushed — no support
- 3. It was performed only by machines in great factories in the towns — no support
- 4. It occupied ten minutes once a month, as clothes were seldom changed — 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/83-toad-s-edwardian-england-early-motor-cars-caravans-steam-trains-wash-day-and-gold-sovereigns/