--- title: Cats through history: Egypt's sacred cats, ship cats and Tom and Jerry — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Cats through history: Egypt's sacred cats, ship cats and Tom and Jerry», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Nobody really sat down to tame the cat. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Cats through history: Egypt's sacred c… # Cats through history: Egypt's sacred cats, ship cats and Tom and Jerry Lesson 294 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/0/) — Nobody really sat down to tame the cat. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/1/) — About 10,000 years ago, when the first farmers in the Middle East stored grain, mice moved in, and wild cats followed the mice. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/2/) — People let the useful hunters stay, so in a way cats tamed themselves. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/3/) — In ancient Egypt cats kept mice and snakes away from food and homes and became sacred: the goddess Bastet had a cat's head, and millions of cats were mummified as gifts to the gods. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/4/) — Later, cats sailed on ships to catch rats, and that is how they spread around the world. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/5/) — Today they curl up on our sofas and purr. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/6/) — Cartoons get cats wrong in funny ways. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/7/) — Tom never catches Jerry, cartoon cats lap saucers of milk, and they always land on their feet. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/8/) — Real cats usually catch the mouse, milk upsets most grown-up cats' tummies, and a fall from a window can badly hurt them. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/9/) — Wild cats came to the first farming villages in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago to hunt mice in the grain stores, and people let them stay. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/10/) — The oldest known cat buried with a person was found in Cyprus and is about 9,500 years old. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/11/) — Ancient Egyptians loved cats, which kept mice and snakes away; the goddess Bastet had a cat's head, and killing a cat could bring a death sentence. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/12/) — Millions of cat mummies were made as gifts to the gods; in the 1800s so many were found that some were ground up as fertiliser, and scientists now X-ray them. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/13/) — Real cats do hunt mice and often play with them first, which is practice; real mice cannot outsmart a cat with traps and hammers as Jerry does. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/14/) — Cats jump at a cucumber placed silently behind them because something new and snake-like has suddenly appeared, and scaring pets on purpose is unkind. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/15/) — Cats have a righting reflex that twists them in the air, but they can still be badly hurt in falls, and vets see many cats that fell from windows; cats do not have nine lives. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/16/) — Most adult cats cannot digest milk sugar well and can get an upset tummy; water is the best drink, and shop cat milk has the milk sugar removed. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/17/) — In medieval Europe some people linked black cats with witches, but in Britain and Japan black cats can mean good luck; it is only superstition. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/18/) — Ships carried cats to catch rats that ate food and ropes, sailors thought cats brought luck, and cats spread around the world on ships. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/19/) — Pet cats that go outside kill many wild birds and small animals, and in Australia cats are a big threat to native animals; a bell on the collar and keeping cats in at night help. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/20/) — Cats purr when happy but also when hurt or scared, to calm themselves; the purr is made by muscles in the voice box, and lions cannot purr but can roar. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/21/) — Cats sleep about 12 to 16 hours a day, because hunters save energy between short bursts of action, and lions also sleep most of the day. - ← previous: [Horses, cattle, camels and chickens: how people tamed animals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/293-horses-cattle-camels-and-chickens-how-people-tamed-animals/) - next →: [Animal myths put right: elephants and mice, lemmings, ostriches and goldfish](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/295-animal-myths-put-right-elephants-and-mice-lemmings-ostriches-and-goldfish/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)