---
title: Raccoons, opossums and skunks — how Mova does on the tests · Biology
description: Lesson 224 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 4 of 11 tests right, exam 4 of 4, every question with the options, the student's choice, the right answer and why it chose.
---

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# Raccoons, opossums and skunks

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

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Lesson 224 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/).

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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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/).

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### Test 1 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t1}

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«raccoons got into the green bin AGAIN, rubbish everywhere, how do they even open it»

- **1.** They wait for the wind to open it — **← Mova's choice** · score 5
- **2.** Their clever five-fingered paws can lift the lid — **✓ the right answer** · score 2
- **3.** They push it over and the lid melts — no support
- **4.** They ring the doorbell to scare people off first — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 5, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 80, line 3: «Many of these animals live right next to us: foxes trot down city streets at night, raccoons open bins, and robins follow gardeners for worms, just as their an…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «open» (+2); the same doer «raccoons» (+2); a different thing acted on (counts against) (+1). The right option, 2, scored 2. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t1/)

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### Test 2 · ★ · right ✓ {#t2}

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In an ice age cartoon two opossum brothers hang upside down by their tails all day. What is true?

- **1.** Adult opossums cannot hang by their tails for long; young ones only briefly — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **2.** Real opossums have no tails — no support
- **3.** Real opossums sleep hanging by their tails every night — score 4
- **4.** Real opossums hang upside down by their ears, not their tails, all day long — score 4

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 6, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 224, line 14: «Adult opossums cannot really hang by their tails for long like in cartoons; young ones can briefly, and the tail helps them grip branches and carry leaves.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «hang» (+2); the same doer «adult opossums» (+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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t2/)

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### Test 3 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t3}

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«possum on the road, not moving, it's dead innit» What could really be going on?

- **1.** It is waiting for a car to give it a lift — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** It may be playing dead because it is frightened — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** It is digging a hole under the road to hide its babies — no support
- **4.** It is definitely asleep for the whole winter — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t3/)

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### Test 4 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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Count them: a mother opossum carries 7 babies on her back. How many tails are there altogether?

- **1.** 14 — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** 8 — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** 7 — no support
- **4.** 1 — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t4/)

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### Test 5 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t5}

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In an old cartoon a skunk walks around and nobody notices the smell until he is close. What is true about real skunks?

- **1.** They spray every animal they meet without any warning at all — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** They warn with stamping and a raised tail before they spray — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** They spray only from their mouths — no support
- **4.** They smell of perfume to attract friends — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t5/)

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### Test 6 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t6}

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«there's a possum in our roof in Melbourne, same as the American ones?»

- **1.** Yes, they are the same animal — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Yes, they were brought over from America on ships and let go in the bush — no support
- **3.** No, Australian possums are rodents — no support
- **4.** No, Australian possums are a different family, though both have pouches — **✓ 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t6/)

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### Test 7 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t7}

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What would most likely happen if a dog chased a skunk that had already stamped and raised its tail?

- **1.** The dog would get sprayed with a terrible smell — **✓ the right answer** · score 3
- **2.** Nothing, skunks never spray dogs — **← Mova's choice** · score 4
- **3.** The skunk would play dead at once — score 3
- **4.** The skunk would climb a tree like a cat — score 3

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 53, line 8: «A skunk can spray a very smelly liquid up to about 3 metres, but it usually warns first by stamping, hissing and raising its tail.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «spray» (+4); the same doer «skunk» (+3). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-3). 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t7/)

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### Test 8 · ★ · right ✓ {#t8}

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A raccoon sits by a stream rubbing a crayfish, a little river animal like a tiny lobster, in the water. «aww it's washing its dinner» What is right?

- **1.** It is feeling the food, since wet paws are more sensitive — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7
- **2.** Yes, it is washing off the dirt — score 5
- **3.** It is trying to bring the crayfish back to life — no support
- **4.** It is cooling the food down in the cold water before it eats — score 6

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 7, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 224, line 7: «A raccoon dipping food in water is feeling it, not washing it; water makes its paws even more sensitive.», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «feel» (+3); the same doer «raccoon» (+3); the same thing acted on «food» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t8/)

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### Test 9 · ★ · wrong ✗ {#t9}

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«saw a raccoon in a German forest, did it escape from a zoo or what»

- **1.** Raccoons brought to Europe escaped and now live wild there — **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **2.** It must have been a badger — no support
- **3.** Raccoons have always lived in Germany — no support
- **4.** It must have escaped from a zoo that very same day — **← 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 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 128, line 1: «In Madagascar, Marty the zebra dreams of running free, Gloria the hippo floats gracefully, and Melman the giraffe worries about being ill, all after escaping f…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same place «central park zoo» (+4); the same action «escape» (+2). The right option, 1, scored 4. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t9/)

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### Test 10 · ★ · right ✓ {#t10}

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Count them: a raccoon has 5 fingers on each front paw. How many fingers on 2 raccoons' front paws?

- **1.** 20 — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** 10 — no support
- **3.** 25 — no support
- **4.** 40 — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t10/)

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### Test 11 · ★ · right ✓ {#t11}

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What would happen to an opossum's babies if they could not fit in the pouch any more?

- **1.** They would be left behind at once — score 3
- **2.** They would grow a pouch of their own — score 3
- **3.** They would ride on their mother's back — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 10
- **4.** They would hang from her tail — score 3

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 3 with score 10, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 224, line 3: «The opossum is a marsupial, like a kangaroo: its babies grow in a pouch and then ride on their mother's back, and when it is badly frightened it falls down, go…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «ride» (+4); the same doer «babies» (+3); the same place «back» (+3). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/t11/)

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### Exam question 1 · formal language · right ✓ {#e1}

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Identify the principal purpose of the behaviour in which a raccoon immerses its food in water.

- **1.** The sensitivity of the forepaws is thereby enhanced, permitting the food to be examined by touch — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** The prey is thereby drowned prior to consumption, so that it may no longer resist the raccoon — no support
- **3.** The food is thereby cooled prior to consumption — no support
- **4.** The food is thereby cleansed of harmful microorganisms — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/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 behaviour termed playing possum?

- **1.** The animal collapses, remains motionless and emits an offensive odour — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** The animal suspends itself by the tail for extended periods — no support
- **3.** The animal conceals its young beneath fallen leaves — no support
- **4.** The animal flees in a circular path to confuse a pursuer — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/e2/)

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

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Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the dentition of the Virginia opossum.

- **1.** It possesses fifty teeth, exceeding all other North American land mammals — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** It possesses thirty-two teeth, as does the adult human — no support
- **3.** It possesses one hundred teeth, which are shed and replaced annually — no support
- **4.** It possesses no teeth and consumes only soft food — 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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/e3/)

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

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Ascertain the relationship between the brushtail possum of Australia and the opossum of the Americas.

- **1.** They are a single species distributed across two continents — no support
- **2.** The former is a rodent, whereas the latter is a marsupial — no support
- **3.** Both are marsupials, but they belong to different families — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7
- **4.** The latter was introduced to Australia, where it became the former — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 224, line 15: «Australian possums, such as the brushtail possum that often lives in roofs, are different from American opossums; both are marsupials but from different famili…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «marsupials» (+4); the same doer «both» (+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/224-raccoons-opossums-and-skunks/e4/)

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- ← previous: [223. Gulls: chip thieves, rain dances and salty water](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/223-gulls-chip-thieves-rain-dances-and-salty-water/)
- next →: [225. Caring for a pet: needs, dangers and responsibil…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/225-caring-for-a-pet-needs-dangers-and-responsibility/)
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