---
title: Elephants: families, tusks, ears and memory — how Mova does on the tests · Biology
description: Lesson 22 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 4 of 11 tests right, exam 2 of 4, every question with the options, the student's choice, the right answer and why it chose.
---

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# Elephants: families, tusks, ears and memory

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**Tests:** 4 of 11 right · **Exam:** 2 of 4 right · **Kind:** ★ · **Understood:** 5 of 15 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 22 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/).

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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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/).

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### Test 1 · ★ · right ✓ {#t1}

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Dumbo flies with his ears innit. could a real elephant?

- **1.** No, but its ears do work as coolers and warning signals — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** No, real elephants have no ears at all, only two small holes in the head — no support
- **3.** Yes, if the ears are big enough — no support
- **4.** Yes, but only baby elephants — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t1/)

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### Test 2 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t2}

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Count them: a herd has five adult elephants and three calves. How many ears is that?

- **1.** 12 — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** 32 — no support
- **3.** 16 — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** 8 — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t2/)

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### Test 3 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t3}

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Why might a herd led by a young matriarch do worse in a drought?

- **1.** Young females have no trunks — no support
- **2.** The other elephants refuse to follow a young female — no support
- **3.** She can't walk as fast — **← Mova's choice** · score 0
- **4.** She has fewer memories of far-away water — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 0, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 1: «An elephant herd is a family of grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters and babies, and it walks in a line behind the oldest female, the matriarch, because she h…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «walk» (+2); the same doer «herd» (+1). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-3). The right option, 4, 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t3/)

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### Test 4 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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My uncle says elephants can grow a new tusk if one is cut off. Right?

- **1.** No, a tusk cut off at the root never grows back — **✓ the right answer** · score 3
- **2.** No, because elephants don't have any tusks to cut — **← Mova's choice** · score 10
- **3.** Yes, a new one grows in a month — no support
- **4.** Yes, but only on Asian elephants — score 2

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 10, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 22, line 11: «Elephants use their tusks to dig for water and salt, strip bark, move things and defend themselves.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «tusks» (+4); its «because» matches the remembered cause (+4); the same doer «elephants» (+2). The right option, 1, scored 3. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t4/)

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### Test 5 · ★ · right ✓ {#t5}

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What would you expect if poachers kill mostly elephants with big tusks for many years?

- **1.** Elephants would start to grow new tusks on their legs and backs instead — score 8
- **2.** Tusks would grow twice as fast — no support
- **3.** More elephants born without tusks, because tuskless ones survived — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 11
- **4.** Nothing would change at all — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 3 with score 11, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 22, line 12: «Poachers kill elephants for their tusks, and selling ivory is banned in most countries; where poachers killed many big-tusked elephants, more elephants are now…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «bear» (+4); it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same thing acted on «more elephants» (+2); the same circumstance (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t5/)

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### Test 6 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t6}

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An elephant always uses its left tusk to dig, and that tusk is worn shorter. What is this like?

- **1.** Being colour-blind — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Being left-handed — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** Being a different species — no support
- **4.** Having a broken leg — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t6/)

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### Test 7 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t7}

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get out of the way!! the elephant's got its ears spread and its head shaking

- **1.** Wave your arms and go closer — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** No, run straight past it — no support
- **3.** Climb up onto its back and stroke it to calm it down — no support
- **4.** Yes, back away slowly to a safe distance — **✓ 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t7/)

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### Test 8 · ★ · right ✓ {#t8}

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The saying is "an elephant never forgets". How true is it?

- **1.** Partly true: they remember friends and places for decades — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7
- **2.** Totally true: they remember every single thing — no support
- **3.** It's about their tusks, not their memory — no support
- **4.** Not true at all: they forget in minutes — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 1 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 22, line 5: «Dumbo flies with his ears and cartoons show elephants as clumsy and forgetful; real ears never lift an elephant off the ground, but they do cool it, and real e…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «remember» (+4); the same circumstance (+2); the same thing acted on «friends» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t8/)

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### Test 9 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t9}

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Your friend says the oldest elephant leads because she's the biggest. What's the better reason?

- **1.** She can carry all of the calves on her back at once when they are tired — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** She is the only one who can see — no support
- **3.** She has the most experience and remembers the most — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** She has the loudest trumpet — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t9/)

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### Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t10}

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A one-year-old calf is surrounded by its mother and two aunts. Why do the aunts help?

- **1.** They want to take the calf for themselves — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Females in the herd share in looking after the calves — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** The mother has gone off to live with the big males and left her calf behind — no support
- **4.** The calf is their teacher — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t10/)

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### Test 11 · ★ · right ✓ {#t11}

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Which animals besides elephants have passed the mirror test?

- **1.** Only humans — score 3
- **2.** Snakes, frogs and snails — score 3
- **3.** Cats, cows and goldfish — score 3
- **4.** Great apes, dolphins and magpies — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 18

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 4 with score 18, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 22, line 19: «An Asian elephant named Happy touched a mark on her head after seeing it in a mirror, which suggests she knew the reflection was herself; great apes, dolphins…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+6); the same action «pass» (+4); the same doer «great apes» (+4); the same thing acted on «mirror test» (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/t11/)

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

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Identify the principal reason for which an elephant herd is led by its eldest female.

- **1.** Her status as the youngest member of the entire herd — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The length of her tusks — no support
- **3.** Her accumulated memory of resources and dangers — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Her superior bodily mass — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/e1/)

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### Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e2}

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the thermoregulatory function of the elephant's auricles?

- **1.** They generate heat by means of friction — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** They serve no purpose whatsoever other than that of the perception of sound — no support
- **3.** Blood circulating through them is cooled when they are flapped — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** They store water for periods of drought — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/e2/)

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### Exam question 3 · formal language · right ✓ {#e3}

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It is given that tusks are composed of ivory. Determine which anatomical category they belong to.

- **1.** Teeth — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** Claws — no support
- **3.** Horns — no support
- **4.** Cheekbones — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/e3/)

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### Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓ {#e4}

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State the approximate duration of gestation in the elephant, being the longest among terrestrial animals.

- **1.** Twenty-two months — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** Three months — no support
- **3.** Nine months — no support
- **4.** Five years — 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/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/e4/)

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- ← previous: [21. Elephants: the trunk and everything it does](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/21-elephants-the-trunk/)
- next →: [23. Bears](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/23-bears/)
- ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/)