--- title: Defences: tricks and myths: playing dead, dropping tails, ink, and d… — how Mova does on the tests · Biology description: Lesson 249 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 7 of 12 tests right, exam 2 of 4, every question with the options, the student's choice, the right answer and why it chose. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/) / 249 # Defences: tricks and myths: playing dead, dropping tails, ink, and do ostriches bury their heads? **Tests:** 7 of 12 right · **Exam:** 2 of 4 right · **Kind:** plain · **Understood:** 11 of 16 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72` Lesson 249 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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/). 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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/). ### Test 1 · wrong ✗ {#t1} In a cartoon an ostrich sticks its head in the sand when a lion comes. What would a real ostrich more likely do? - **1.** Climb a tree — **← Mova's choice** · score 9 - **2.** Run away very fast or kick — **✓ the right answer** · score 4 - **3.** Bury its head and wait — score 8 - **4.** Fly away high — no support **Why:** It took the question to ask what is done. It chose option 1 with score 9, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 124, line 15: «Lions in a few places, such as parts of Uganda and Tanzania, often climb trees, and scientists are not sure why they do it there and hardly anywhere else.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «trees» (+3); it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same action «climb» (+2); a different doer (counts against) (+1). The right option, 2, scored 4. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t1/) ### Test 2 · right ✓ {#t2} In a cartoon a chameleon walks onto a tartan blanket and turns tartan. What is right? - **1.** Yes, real chameleons can copy any pattern they sit on in a second, even stripes and spots — score 4 - **2.** They only change colour at night — score 6 - **3.** They turn invisible on blankets — score 8 - **4.** Real chameleons change colour mostly for mood and temperature, and cannot copy patterns like that — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 9 **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 9, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 249, line 12: «Chameleons change colour mostly to show mood and temperature, not to match everything around them; tiny crystals in their skin change spacing, which changes th…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «change» (+4); the same doer «chameleons» (+2); the same property (+2); the same thing acted on «colour» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t2/) ### Test 3 · right ✓ {#t3} In a cartoon Bugs Bunny waves a red cape and the bull goes mad at the colour. What is true? - **1.** The bull charges the moving cape, it cannot tell red from green — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7 - **2.** Red is the only colour that bulls can see, so it makes them angry — score 6 - **3.** The bull is chasing the smell of the cape — score 6 - **4.** Bulls never charge anything — score 3 **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 249, line 15: «Bulls cannot tell red from green: they charge the moving cape, not its colour, and a blue cape waved the same way would work too; never go into a field with a…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «charge» (+4); the same doer «bulls» (+2); the same thing acted on «moving cape» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t3/) ### Test 4 · right ✓ {#t4} «goldfish only remember 3 seconds, so he won't mind the tiny bowl» What is right? - **1.** Goldfish remember for months and can learn tricks, so they need space and interest — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 8 - **2.** True, so a small bare bowl is fine, because it will forget everything every few seconds — score 5 - **3.** They remember for exactly one day — score 6 - **4.** True, but only for orange ones — no support **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 8, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 249, line 14: «Goldfish can remember things for months: they learn to push levers, come to the sound of feeding and recognise colours, shapes and even music, so the three-sec…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «remember» (+4); the same doer «goldfish» (+2); the same property (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t4/) ### Test 5 · right ✓ {#t5} In a cartoon like Tom and Jerry, a baby bird falls out of its nest, the cat touches it, and the mother flies away for good. What is true? - **1.** The chick must be raised by the cat — no support - **2.** The mother always leaves for ever if a person has touched it — score 6 - **3.** The mother can smell the cat for years — score 4 - **4.** Most birds will not abandon a chick because it was touched — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 9 **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 9, against 6 for the next best. Its support: lesson 249, line 16: «Most birds have a weak sense of smell and will not abandon a chick because a person touched it; the real danger is moving the chick away from where its parents…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «abandon» (+3); the same doer «most birds» (+3); its «because» matches the remembered cause (+2); the same thing acted on «chick» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t5/) ### Test 6 · right ✓ {#t6} «camel's got 2 humps so it's got double water innit» What is right? - **1.** No, humps store fat, not water — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7 - **2.** Yes, each hump is a water tank — score 4 - **3.** No, humps are full of air — no support - **4.** Yes, one water and one milk — no support **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 7, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 249, line 17: «A camel's hump stores fat, not water, which gives energy when food is short, and the hump sags as the fat is used up; camels save water by hardly sweating and…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «store» (+4); the same doer «hump» (+2); the same thing acted on «fat» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t6/) ### Test 7 · right ✓ {#t7} «2 camels with 1 hump each, 3 camels with 2 humps. humps total» - **1.** 8 — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support - **2.** 5 — no support - **3.** 7 — no support - **4.** 10 — no support **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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t7/) ### Test 8 · right ✓ {#t8} «3 ostriches in the field. how many legs? and don't say 12» - **1.** 6 — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support - **2.** 3 — no support - **3.** 12 — no support - **4.** 9 — no support **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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t8/) ### Test 9 · wrong ✗ {#t9} «4 lizards lost their tails, no sorry 3 lost them. how many still got tails if there's 7 lizards» - **1.** 5 — **← Mova's choice** · no support - **2.** 7 — no support - **3.** 3 — no support - **4.** 4 — **✓ the right answer** · no support **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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t9/) ### Test 10 · wrong ✗ {#t10} What would happen if a hungry bird pecked the eyespot near the tip of a butterfly's wing? - **1.** The wing would tear, but the butterfly could escape alive — **✓ the right answer** · no support - **2.** The bird would be blinded — **← Mova's choice** · score 1 - **3.** The eyespot would bite back — no support - **4.** The butterfly would die at once — no support **Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 35, line 17: «The kiwi of New Zealand is a flightless bird that comes out at night and finds worms by smell with nostrils at the tip of its long beak, which no other bird ha…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «other bird» (+3). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-2). 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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t10/) ### Test 11 · wrong ✗ {#t11} «the possum's dead, look, tongue out and stinks. chuck it in the bin?» What is right? - **1.** It is asleep and just wants some food — **← Mova's choice** · score 3 - **2.** Leave it alone, it may be playing dead and will get up later — **✓ the right answer** · no support - **3.** It is certainly dead — no support - **4.** It is pretending to be dead so that it can jump up and bite you — no support **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 3, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 224, line 5: «And the Australian possum living in a roof is a different animal from the American opossum, though both carry their babies in pouches.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «australian possum» (+2); the same thing acted on «different animal» (+1). 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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t11/) ### Test 12 · wrong ✗ {#t12} «why'd the squid leave a fake squid shape in the water lol» - **1.** It is drawing pictures for fun — no support - **2.** It is leaving a message for friends — **← Mova's choice** · score 1 - **3.** It is throwing up its dinner — no support - **4.** To fool the predator into attacking the ink — **✓ the right answer** · no support **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 29, line 1: «Crocodiles and alligators are reptiles with four short legs, a long tail and a body that has hardly changed since their ancestors lived alongside the dinosaurs…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «perfect shape» (+2); the same circumstance (+1). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/t12/) ### Exam question 1 · formal language · right ✓ {#e1} Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the conduct popularly described as an ostrich burying its head in the sand? - **1.** It is practised exclusively by juvenile ostriches — score 5 - **2.** It is a well-documented response to the approach of predators, observed by many naturalists in Africa — score 5 - **3.** It is a myth arising from the lowering of the head to tend eggs or to lie concealed — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 10 - **4.** It is a means of obtaining water from beneath the sand — score 1 **Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 3 with score 10, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 76, line 14: «The ostrich is the biggest living bird, up to about 2.7 metres tall, and runs at around 70 kilometres per hour; it does not bury its head in sand; the myth may…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «lower» (+6); the same thing acted on «heads» (+4). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/e1/) ### Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e2} Identify the principal substance stored within the hump of a camel. - **1.** Air, which assists the animal in floating — **← Mova's choice** · no support - **2.** Water, which is released when the animal is thirsty — no support - **3.** Milk, which is reserved for the young — no support - **4.** Fat, which furnishes energy when food is scarce — **✓ the right answer** · no support **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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/e2/) ### Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗ {#e3} Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the response of a bull to the cape of a bullfighter. - **1.** The animal is attracted by the odour of the dye — **← Mova's choice** · no support - **2.** The animal perceives red as its sole visible colour — no support - **3.** The animal is enraged specifically by the colour red, which it perceives more vividly than any other — no support - **4.** The animal responds to the movement of the cape rather than to its colour — **✓ the right answer** · no support **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/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/e3/) ### Exam question 4 · formal language · right ✓ {#e4} Ascertain the reason for which the shedding of the tail benefits a lizard pursued by a predator. - **1.** The tail is venomous and poisons the predator — score 1 - **2.** The lizard thereby becomes invisible to its attacker — no support - **3.** The wriggling tail engages the attention of the predator whilst the lizard escapes — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6 - **4.** The tail summons other lizards to its assistance, which then drive the predator away together — score 2 **Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 6, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 142, line 12: «Many predators, such as cats and owls, have eyes in front to judge distance; many prey, such as rabbits and deer, have eyes on the sides to see all around.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «see» (+4); the same doer «many predators» (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/249-defences-tricks-and-myths-playing-dead-dropping-tails-ink-and-ostriches/e4/) - ← previous: [248. Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehogs and armour](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/) - next →: [250. Plants deeper: roots and how they drink, hold an…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/250-plants-deeper-roots-and-how-they-drink-hold-and-push/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/)