--- title: The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises and crocodiles — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises and crocodiles», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The Komodo dragon, the biggest lizard alive, flicks a long yellow tongue to smell, and a sign tell --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/) [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/) / The reptile house: Komodo dragons, cha… # The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises and crocodiles Lesson 88 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 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/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/0/) — The Komodo dragon, the biggest lizard alive, flicks a long yellow tongue to smell, and a sign tells a true surprise: a female at a British zoo laid eggs that hatched with no father at all. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/1/) — A chameleon fires its tongue like a catapult and grabs a cricket in a split second, while a gecko strolls upside down on the glass, held by millions of tiny hairs on its toes. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/2/) — In cartoons a chameleon turns tartan on a picnic blanket and a tortoise steps out of its shell for a bath, but a chameleon changes colour mostly to show its mood or warm up, and a tortoise's shell is part of its skeleton, joined to its ribs and backbone. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/3/) — The crocodile lying with its mouth wide open is not waiting to bite; it cannot sweat, so it lets heat out through its mouth, much as a dog pants. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/4/) — The Komodo dragon is the biggest living lizard, up to about 3 metres long, found on a few islands in Indonesia; its flicking tongue can smell a dead animal from far away, and it has venom glands in its jaw. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/5/) — Female Komodo dragons at Chester Zoo and London Zoo in the 2000s laid eggs that hatched without a male, which is called virgin birth. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/6/) — A chameleon's tongue can stretch to about twice its body length and shoots out in a split second, with a sticky tip that grabs the insect. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/7/) — Chameleons change colour mostly to show their mood and to warm up or cool down, not mainly to match the background. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/8/) — Geckos stick to glass with millions of tiny toe hairs that cling by very weak attractions between molecules, and scientists have made tape that copies them. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/9/) — Giant tortoises can weigh over 200 kilograms, live well over 100 years, perhaps helped by their slow, calm lives, and feel touch through their shells and skin. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/10/) — A tortoise's shell is part of its skeleton, joined to its ribs and backbone, so it can never leave it. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/11/) — Jonathan, a giant tortoise on St Helena, is thought to have hatched in about 1832, making him the oldest known living land animal. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/12/) — Crocodiles cannot sweat, so they lie with their mouths open to let heat out and go into water or shade. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/13/) — Alligators have wide U-shaped snouts that hide their lower teeth; crocodiles have V-shaped snouts with a big lower tooth showing, and southern Florida is the only place they live side by side in the wild. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/14/) — Crocodiles swallow prey whole or in big chunks, and they also swallow stones, which may help them grind food or stay balanced in water. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/15/) — In crocodiles, alligators and many turtles, the warmth of the nest decides whether the eggs hatch as males or females; in sea turtles, warmer sand gives more females. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/16/) — Crocodiles and their relatives sometimes have tears while eating, probably from air pushed through the head, not from sadness; «crocodile tears» means pretend sorrow. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/88-reptile-house-komodo-chameleons-tortoises-crocodiles/17/) — The Australian frilled lizard opens a huge neck frill and hisses to look bigger, then runs away on its back legs. - ← previous: [The reptile house: snakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/87-reptile-house-snakes/) - next →: [The amphibian room: poison frogs, axolotls and the frog rescue](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/89-amphibian-room-poison-frogs-axolotls-frog-rescue/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)