---
title: Animal minds: the octopus, escape artist and puzzle solver — how Mova does on the tests · Biology
description: Lesson 234 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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# Animal minds: the octopus, escape artist and puzzle solver

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**Tests:** 7 of 11 right · **Exam:** 1 of 4 right · **Kind:** ★★ · **Understood:** 9 of 15 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 234 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/).

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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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/).

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### Test 1 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t1}

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«octopus has 9 brains, saw it on TikTok» What is closer to the truth?

- **1.** One main brain, plus big nerve bundles in each of the eight arms — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **2.** One brain inside each of its three hearts, and nothing in the head — no support
- **3.** Nine brains, all the same size — no support
- **4.** No brain, just arms — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 234, line 7: «An octopus has one main brain, not nine, but about two thirds of its nerve cells are in its arms, which do much of their own thinking.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «one main brain» (+4). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t1/)

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### Test 2 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t2}

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A shark grabs at a mimic octopus, which suddenly looks like a striped sea snake. Why would the shark back off?

- **1.** Sea snakes are dangerous, so the trick scares it — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** Sharks hate the colour of the stripes, so they always swim off — no support
- **3.** The octopus turned into a real snake — score 4
- **4.** The shark was full anyway — **← 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 91, line 2: «The sharks swim past the smaller fish without snapping at them, because the keepers feed them full meals from a long pole and a full shark is not hunting.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «full shark» (+3); the same property (+3). The right option, 1, 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t2/)

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### Test 3 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t3}

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«it's a squishy blob, how's it smarter than my hamster» What is the best answer?

- **1.** It solves puzzles, uses tools and escapes tanks — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** Its whole squishy blob is one giant brain — no support
- **3.** It is not, octopuses are not clever at all — no support
- **4.** It copies the hamster — 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t3/)

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### Test 4 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t4}

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What would happen if a hole in an octopus tank were bigger than its beak?

- **1.** It would get stuck by its bones — no support
- **2.** It would be too scared to try — no support
- **3.** It would fill the hole with ink — no support
- **4.** The octopus could squeeze through and escape — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 9

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 4 with score 9, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 92, line 9: «An octopus has no bones, and its beak is its only hard part, so it can squeeze through any hole bigger than the beak; octopuses have escaped from aquarium tank…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «escape» (+6); the same doer «octopuses» (+3). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t4/)

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### Test 5 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t5}

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A diver sees a pile of coconut shells walk across the sand. What is happening?

- **1.** The tide is rolling them along the sand — no support
- **2.** Fish are pushing them along the sea floor — **← Mova's choice** · score 4
- **3.** A whole crab family is moving house — no support
- **4.** A veined octopus is carrying them — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 39, line 21: «The nautilus is an octopus relative that still has an outside coiled shell with gas-filled chambers and around 90 tentacles without suckers.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «octopus relative» (+3); the same thing acted on «coiled shell» (+1). 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t5/)

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### Test 6 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t6}

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In a cartoon an octopus mum walks her 8 kids to school. What is really true?

- **1.** Octopus mums teach their young for years — no support
- **2.** Baby octopuses never meet their parents and learn alone — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 3
- **3.** Octopus dads take the babies to school every day — score 1
- **4.** Octopus babies live with their grandparents until they are grown — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 3, against 1 for the next best. Its support: lesson 234, line 14: «Many octopuses live only one or two years; the mother guards her eggs until they hatch and then dies, so babies learn everything alone.», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «learn» (+3); the same property (+1). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t6/)

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### Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t7}

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«gross, its blood is blue, is it ill» What is the answer?

- **1.** It is cold and frozen — no support
- **2.** No, its blood uses copper, which makes it blue — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7
- **3.** Yes, blue blood means it is very ill and needs a vet — no support
- **4.** It drank ink — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 92, line 11: «An octopus has three hearts, two for the gills and one for the body, and its blood is blue because it uses copper instead of iron to carry oxygen.», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «use» (+3); the same doer «blood» (+3); the same thing acted on «copper» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t7/)

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### Test 8 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t8}

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Count them: 2 octopuses and 1 squid swim past. How many hearts?

- **1.** 9 hearts — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** 11 hearts — no support
- **3.** 3 hearts — no support
- **4.** 6 hearts — 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t8/)

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### Test 9 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t9}

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Count them: 3 octopuses. How many arms, and how many hard beaks?

- **1.** 30 arms and 3 beaks — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** 27 arms and 0 beaks — no support
- **3.** 24 arms and 24 beaks — no support
- **4.** 24 arms and 3 beaks — **✓ 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t9/)

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### Test 10 · ★★ · right ✓ {#t10}

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An octopus kept squirting water at a bright lamp until it short-circuited. What does this suggest?

- **1.** Octopuses love electricity — no support
- **2.** Octopuses want to drink from the lamps in their tanks — score 6
- **3.** It was just an accident every time, nothing more than that — no support
- **4.** Octopuses can notice what bothers them and act on it — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 9

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 4 with score 9, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 173, line 3: «Other reef animals win by tricks: a fake eye near the tail, a fish that swells into a spiky ball, an octopus that pretends to be a lionfish and then a sea snak…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «pretend» (+5); the same doer «octopus» (+4). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t10/)

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### Test 11 · ★★ · wrong ✗ {#t11}

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A cut-off octopus arm still tries to grab a bit of fish. Why is that possible?

- **1.** The arm has its own brain and eyes — **← Mova's choice** · score 4
- **2.** The fish pulls the arm — no support
- **3.** The arm is still a whole octopus — no support
- **4.** Each arm has its own big bundle of nerve cells — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 40, line 12: «Most starfish have five arms, but some kinds have more, and the sunflower sea star can have up to 24; a lost arm can grow back, and each arm has a small eye at…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «small eye» (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/t11/)

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

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the nervous system of the octopus?

- **1.** It comprises a separate brain located within each of the three hearts, the head containing none — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** It comprises nine brains of equal size — no support
- **3.** It comprises a single central brain together with substantial nerve bundles in each of the eight arms — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** It comprises no nervous tissue whatsoever — 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/e1/)

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

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Identify the principal reason for which an octopus is able to pass through an aperture of very small dimensions.

- **1.** Its capacity to dissolve its beak at will and grow it again — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The absence of bones, the beak being its only hard part — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** Its ability to enlarge the aperture by force — no support
- **4.** The elasticity of its skeleton — 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/e2/)

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

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Ascertain the reason for which the blood of the octopus is of a blue colour.

- **1.** Sea water of a blue colour is absorbed into it through the skin — no support
- **2.** Ink is mixed with the blood — no support
- **3.** The animal is permanently chilled — no support
- **4.** Copper rather than iron is employed in the transport of oxygen — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 5

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 5, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 234, line 15: «An octopus has three hearts and blue blood, because its blood uses copper instead of iron to carry oxygen; its cousin the squid has three hearts too.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «copper» (+4); the same action «use» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/e3/)

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

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Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the upbringing of young octopuses.

- **1.** The young remain within the eggs for the whole of their lives — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The young never encounter their parents and must learn without instruction — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** The young are instructed by their mother for several years — no support
- **4.** The young are reared by their father — 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/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/e4/)

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- ← previous: [233. Animal minds: clever crows, ravens, jays and par…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/233-animal-minds-clever-crows-ravens-jays-and-parrots/)
- next →: [235. Animal minds: dolphins' names, orca grandmothers…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/235-animal-minds-dolphins-names-orca-grandmothers-and-whale-songs/)
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