---
title: The Southern Ocean: blue whales, colossal squid and life under the ice — how Mova does on the tests · Biology
description: Lesson 171 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 7 of 11 tests right, exam 1 of 4, every question with the options, the student's choice, the right answer and why it chose.
---

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# The Southern Ocean: blue whales, colossal squid and life under the ice

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**Tests:** 7 of 11 right · **Exam:** 1 of 4 right · **Kind:** plain · **Understood:** 12 of 15 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 171 of the biology 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/).

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Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: [the lesson's questions in the corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/).

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### Test 1 · wrong ✗ {#t1}

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In a cartoon like Finding Nemo two fish get swallowed and swim around inside a blue whale's mouth. What is real?

- **1.** Blue whales chew sharks with huge teeth — score 3
- **2.** A blue whale gulps water and strains out krill, then swallows only small food — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** Blue whales eat only seaweed — no support
- **4.** Blue whales swallow big fish whole, and even small sharks, every single day — **← Mova's choice** · score 8

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 8, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 52, line 13: «Pythons ambush their prey after waiting very still, squeeze it so it cannot breathe, and swallow it whole; some snakes sense the warmth of animals with heat pi…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «fish» (+3); the same property (+3); the same action «swallow» (+2). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t1/)

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### Test 2 · right ✓ {#t2}

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«my mate says blue whales are smaller than the biggest dinosaurs» What is right?

- **1.** No, the blue whale is the biggest animal that has ever lived — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7
- **2.** Yes, the blue whale is only a medium-sized animal — score 5
- **3.** No, sharks are the biggest animals that have ever lived in the sea — score 7
- **4.** Yes, dinosaurs were always bigger — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 46, line 9: «The blue whale, the biggest animal that has ever lived, eats almost only krill, small shrimp-like animals about 5 cm long that eat drifting algae, so its chain…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «live» (+4); the same doer «biggest animal» (+2); the same thing acted on «biggest animal» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t2/)

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### Test 3 · wrong ✗ {#t3}

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«3 elephant seals on the beach, how many flippers»

- **1.** 8 — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** 9 — no support
- **3.** 12 — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** 6 — no support

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**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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t3/)

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### Test 4 · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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«5-armed starfish and 2 sea spiders with 8 legs each, how many arms n legs altogether»

- **1.** 18 — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** 21 — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** 13 — no support
- **4.** 26 — no support

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**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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t4/)

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### Test 5 · wrong ✗ {#t5}

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What would happen if all the whales in the Southern Ocean disappeared?

- **1.** Krill would turn into fish — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The current round Antarctica would stop — no support
- **3.** The sea would freeze solid — no support
- **4.** Less whale poo would mean less iron for the tiny plants at the bottom of the food chain — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t5/)

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### Test 6 · right ✓ {#t6}

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«whales are just big fish innit» What is right?

- **1.** Yes, they breathe under water with gills like any fish — score 2
- **2.** Yes, they lay eggs in the sand — no support
- **3.** No, whales are mammals that breathe air and feed their babies milk — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 5
- **4.** No, they are giant squid — score 3

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 5, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 73, line 9: «Whales are mammals whose ancestors walked on land about 50 million years ago; their back legs shrank to small hidden bones, and their closest living land relat…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «mammals» (+3); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t6/)

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### Test 7 · right ✓ {#t7}

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A sperm whale comes up with fresh round marks on its head. What most likely happened?

- **1.** It caught a cold — no support
- **2.** It fought a squid in the deep and the suckers marked it — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 1
- **3.** It bumped into a ship — no support
- **4.** It slept on sharp rocks that had round holes all over them — score 0

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 1, against 0 for the next best. Its support: lesson 171, line 8: «Sperm whales dive more than two kilometres deep and can hold their breath for over an hour to hunt squid, and squid suckers leave round scars on their skin.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «squid» (+3). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t7/)

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### Test 8 · right ✓ {#t8}

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«bloody hell, a starfish just turned its stomach inside out on a mussel» What is going on?

- **1.** It is eating, digesting the mussel outside its body — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 2
- **2.** It is laying eggs — no support
- **3.** It is sick and dying — no support
- **4.** It is breathing out through its stomach on the rock — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 67, line 4: «The stomach churns it in strong acid, the long folded small intestine soaks up the goodness, and the large intestine takes back the water before what is left l…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same circumstance (+2); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «stomach» (+1). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-1); a different action (counts against) (-2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t8/)

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### Test 9 · right ✓ {#t9}

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Why would scientists be surprised to find sponges under nine hundred metres of ice?

- **1.** Ice is far too hot for sponges, they like boiling water — no support
- **2.** They live far from open water and sunlight, where food is very scarce — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **3.** Sponges cannot live in water — score 4
- **4.** Sponges only live in hot, dry deserts — score 6

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 2 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 171, line 4: «Deeper down live the colossal squid and the sperm whales that hunt squid, and even under thick ice shelves, far from open water, scientists have found fish, sp…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «live» (+4); the same property (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t9/)

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### Test 10 · right ✓ {#t10}

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In an old cartoon a sailor gets swallowed whole by a giant whale and lives inside it. Which is true?

- **1.** A blue whale's throat is far too narrow to swallow a person — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 8
- **2.** Every whale has a little room inside it with a table and some chairs — no support
- **3.** Blue whales swallow whole ships every year — score 5
- **4.** Whales keep people as pets — score 1

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 8, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 171, line 5: «The blue whale is the biggest animal that has ever lived, bigger than any dinosaur; its heart is about the size of a bumper car at a fair, and its calls can tr…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same property (+3); the same doer «throat» (+2); its «because» matches the remembered cause (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t10/)

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### Test 11 · right ✓ {#t11}

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«humpbacks all sing the same song forever, right» What is right?

- **1.** No, humpbacks cannot make any sounds, they just splash — no support
- **2.** No, the songs change and whales across an ocean pick up the new ones — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **3.** Yes, only one whale sings, the same song for ever — score 2
- **4.** Yes, the song never changes — score 0

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 78, line 6: «Commercial whaling killed huge numbers of whales until a worldwide pause began in 1986, and humpbacks have since recovered strongly in several oceans, though s…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same place «oceans» (+3); the same doer «long songs» (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/t11/)

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### Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e1}

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Identify the organism which is acknowledged to be the largest animal ever to have existed.

- **1.** The largest of the dinosaurs — no support
- **2.** The colossal squid — **← Mova's choice** · score 5
- **3.** The blue whale — **✓ the right answer** · score 5
- **4.** The southern elephant seal — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 5, tied with another option at 5 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 171, line 7: «The colossal squid lives in the deep Southern Ocean and is the heaviest animal without a backbone known; a young one was reported filmed alive in the wild for…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same property (+3); the same doer «colossal squid» (+2). The right option, 3, scored 5. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/e1/)

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### Exam question 2 · formal language · right ✓ {#e2}

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the means by which a starfish digests its prey?

- **1.** Food is masticated by means of numerous teeth — no support
- **2.** Food is dissolved by venom injected through the spines — no support
- **3.** Prey is absorbed exclusively through the arms — no support
- **4.** The stomach is extended outside the body and digestion occurs externally — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 4

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 4 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 171, line 14: «A starfish pushes its stomach out of its body onto its food and digests the food outside; many Antarctic starfish are big and live for many years.», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+5); the same thing acted on «stomach» (+3). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-4). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/e2/)

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### Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e3}

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Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

- **1.** It is a current of air rather than of water — score 5
- **2.** It encircles Antarctica and is the strongest ocean current on Earth — **✓ the right answer** · score 5
- **3.** It is a freshwater river flowing beneath the thick ice of Antarctica — no support
- **4.** It flows only during the southern winter — **← Mova's choice** · score 6

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 171, line 10: «The Antarctic Circumpolar Current flows round Antarctica and is the strongest ocean current in the world, carrying many times more water than all the world's r…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «flow» (+4); the same doer «antarctic circumpolar current» (+2). The right option, 2, scored 5. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/e3/)

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### Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e4}

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Ascertain the manner in which whales contribute to the growth of phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean.

- **1.** Their songs stimulate the growth of plants upon the sea floor — **← Mova's choice** · score 2
- **2.** Their bodies shade the water from excessive light — no support
- **3.** Their excrement supplies iron which the phytoplankton require — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Their breath warms the surface waters — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 50, line 10: «Male humpback whales sing long songs of repeated themes for hours; males in one region sing nearly the same song, and new songs can spread across the Pacific o…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «sing» (+2). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/171-the-southern-ocean-blue-whales-colossal-squid-and-life-under-the-ice/e4/)

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- ← previous: [170. Antarctica: emperor huddles, krill, clear-bloode…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/170-antarctica-emperor-huddles-krill-clear-blooded-fish-and-stone-stealing-penguins/)
- next →: [172. Coral reef builders: polyps, bleaching, sand fro…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/172-coral-reef-builders-polyps-bleaching-sand-from-parrotfish-and-giant-clams/)
- ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/)