--- title: Wild animals and tall tales — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Wild animals and tall tales», a lesson of the myths course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Picture it: an ostrich, terrified, plunges its head into the sand and stays there, bottom in the air, thinking nobody can see it. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/) [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/) / [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/) / Wild animals and tall tales # Wild animals and tall tales Lesson 8 of the myths course of Mova's primary school: 17 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/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/0/) — Picture it: an ostrich, terrified, plunges its head into the sand and stays there, bottom in the air, thinking nobody can see it. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/1/) — It is a brilliant picture, and the Romans were already telling it two thousand years ago. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/2/) — Wild-animal tall tales spread because we see animals from far away, in cartoons, or in old films, and a good story beats a dull truth: lemmings leaping off cliffs, bats that are blind, camels with water tanks on their backs. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/3/) — Take each one apart and it's even better: the ostrich is turning its eggs in a nest dug in the ground, and the lemming film was staged, with lemmings pushed off a ledge for the camera. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/4/) — Some tales are nearly true, like the owl that turns its head "all the way round"; it turns about three-quarters of the way, and that is amazing enough. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/5/) — And some tales are worse than wrong: the claim that sharks never get cancer was used to sell useless pills, and many sharks were killed for them. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/6/) — Ostriches don't bury their heads; when in danger they lie flat or run at up to about 70 kilometres an hour, and they turn their eggs in nests dug in the ground. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/7/) — Lemmings don't kill themselves in groups; a 1958 Disney film staged it, and when there are too many lemmings they spread out and some drown crossing water by accident. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/9/) — All bats can see, and fruit bats rely on their eyes; many bats also find their way by echolocation, listening to echoes of their own calls. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/10/) — Porcupines can't shoot their quills; the quills come loose easily when touched and stick into an attacker. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/11/) — A camel's hump stores fat, not water; camels save water very cleverly and can drink a huge amount at once. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/12/) — Owls can turn their heads about 270 degrees, three-quarters of a circle, and special blood vessels let them do it safely. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/13/) — Chameleons change colour mostly to show mood, send signals and control their temperature, not to match whatever they sit on. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/14/) — Sharks do get cancer, and pills made of shark cartilage (the bendy stuff a shark's skeleton is made of) don't cure it; the myth was used to sell pills and has harmed sharks. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/15/) — Wolves howl to talk to their pack and mark their territory; the Moon doesn't make them howl. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/16/) — A tortoise's shell is part of its skeleton, joined to its backbone and ribs, so it can never climb out of it. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/17/) — Even a documentary can be staged, so it is worth asking how a scene was filmed. - ← previous: [Pets and farm animals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/7-pets-and-farm-animals/) - next →: [Small creatures and creepy-crawlies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/9-small-creatures-and-creepy-crawlies/) - ↑ back to [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/)