---
title: The microscopic world: cells, the building blocks of life — how Mova does on the tests · Biology
description: Lesson 256 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 4 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 microscopic world: cells, the building blocks of life

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**Tests:** 4 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 256 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/).

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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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/).

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### Test 1 · wrong ✗ {#t1}

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«my brother says we're made of 100 cells, like big lego bricks» What is right?

- **1.** No, about 30 trillion or more, far too small to see — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** No, just one giant cell — no support
- **3.** Yes, about a hundred big ones that you could count — no support
- **4.** No, people are made of atoms, not cells, so we have none — **← Mova's choice** · 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 256, line 14: «Cells make copies of themselves by splitting in two, and your body makes millions of new cells every second.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «make» (+4); the same circumstance (+1). 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t1/)

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### Test 2 · right ✓ {#t2}

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In a cartoon about the body, cells are little people with faces who chat and argue. What is true about real cells?

- **1.** They have no faces or brains, but each kind has its own job — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **2.** They talk to each other in little words, just like people do at work — no support
- **3.** They are all exactly the same — no support
- **4.** They wear tiny uniforms for their jobs — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 256, line 5: «Cartoons sometimes show cells as little people with faces and jobs; real cells have no faces or brains, but each kind really does have its own job, like carryi…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «own job» (+3); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2); the same doer «kind» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t2/)

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### Test 3 · wrong ✗ {#t3}

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«a chicken egg is one cell?? no way, it's massive» What is right?

- **1.** No, it is made of about a million tiny cells, all packed tightly in together — **← Mova's choice** · score 6
- **2.** Yes, but only brown eggs from hens that live on farms — no support
- **3.** Yes, an unfertilised yolk is often called a single, very large cell — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** No, eggs are not alive at all — score 6

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 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 233, line 2: «Their brains are small, but the nerve cells are packed very tightly, so a crow's walnut-sized brain holds about as many as some monkey brains.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «pack» (+4); the same property (+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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t3/)

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### Test 4 · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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Count them: under the microscope Leo counts 3 amoebas and 5 slipper animals. How many single cells is that?

- **1.** 5 — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** 8 — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** 3 — no support
- **4.** 15 — 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t4/)

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### Test 5 · wrong ✗ {#t5}

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What would you see if you looked at a plant leaf cell and your cheek cell side by side?

- **1.** They would look exactly the same, because all living cells are alike inside, plant or animal — **← Mova's choice** · score 7
- **2.** The leaf cell would have no nucleus — score 7
- **3.** The cheek cell would be green — score 4
- **4.** The leaf cell has a stiff wall and green chloroplasts; the cheek cell does not — **✓ the right answer** · score 7

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. 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 64, line 6: «Every living thing is made of cells; under a microscope, cheek cells look like flat shapes with a dark dot in the middle, the nucleus, which holds the cell's i…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «look» (+5); the same doer «cheek cells» (+2). The right option, 4, scored 7. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t5/)

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### Test 6 · right ✓ {#t6}

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«i'll pick my scab, it's fine» Why is that not a good idea?

- **1.** Scabs are needed to make new blood for the body — no support
- **2.** Picking a scab makes the bone break — no support
- **3.** The scab protects the wound while new cells fill the gap — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **4.** The scab is the place where all of your new skin cells are made, then sent round the body — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 256, line 3: «A single cell can eat, move and make copies of itself by splitting in two; that is how your scraped knee heals, as new skin cells divide and fill the gap while…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «protect» (+3); the same thing acted on «wound» (+3). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t6/)

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### Test 7 · wrong ✗ {#t7}

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How can two metres of DNA fit in a tiny cell?

- **1.** It is only two metres in giants — **← Mova's choice** · score 5
- **2.** It sticks out of the cell like a very long, thin tail — score 5
- **3.** It is extremely thin and tightly packed and coiled — **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **4.** It is folded once in half — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what something is like. It chose option 1 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 158, line 7: «The longest well-measured anacondas are about seven metres; stories of twenty or thirty metres were never proved, and dried skins stretch and look longer than…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same circumstance (+3); the same thing acted on «seven metres» (+1); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). The right option, 3, scored 4. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t7/)

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### Test 8 · wrong ✗ {#t8}

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Why did no one know about tiny living things in water before the 1600s?

- **1.** People thought looking at water was rude — **← Mova's choice** · score 3
- **2.** Water was always boiled before — score 2
- **3.** They did not exist before then — score 2
- **4.** Without microscopes they were too small to see — **✓ 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 3, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 184, line 8: «The Ganges river dolphin is almost blind and finds food by echolocation (making clicks and listening for their echoes), because the muddy river water makes eye…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «search» (+3); the same circumstance (+1). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t8/)

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### Test 9 · right ✓ {#t9}

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«we share DNA with a banana lol so we're half banana» What is right?

- **1.** No, bananas have no DNA at all — no support
- **2.** Yes, that is why monkeys like bananas — no support
- **3.** Yes, we are exactly half banana inside, which is why so many people like to eat them — no support
- **4.** We share many basic cell instructions, but that does not make us part banana — **← 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 256, line 16: «Each cell's DNA, stretched out, would be about two metres long, and people share many basic DNA instructions even with a banana.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «many basic dna instructions» (+4); the same action «share» (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t9/)

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### Test 10 · wrong ✗ {#t10}

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A paramecium bumps into a stone. With no brain, what can it do?

- **1.** Grow a brain to think about it — score 4
- **2.** Call for help from all the other cells close by — **← Mova's choice** · score 7
- **3.** Reverse its tiny hairs and swim another way — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Nothing, it stays stuck forever — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what is done. It chose option 2 with score 7, against 4 for the next best. Its support: lesson 92, line 17: «Many deep-sea animals make their own light, called bioluminescence, to find food, lure prey and signal; the anglerfish dangles a glowing lure in front of its m…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same action «call» (+3). 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t10/)

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### Test 11 · right ✓ {#t11}

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Why might a nerve cell need to be so long?

- **1.** Because long cells store more food — score 5
- **2.** To carry messages fast all the way from one place to another — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 7
- **3.** Because it is the oldest cell — score 4
- **4.** To hold up the leg like a strong bone, from the hip down to the toe — score 5

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 2 with score 7, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 256, line 13: «Nerve cells carry messages fast from one part of the body to another, and some are very long; one runs from the bottom of your spine to your big toe, about a m…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «carry» (+3); the same thing acted on «messages» (+3); the same property (+1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/t11/)

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

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Identify the investigator who, in the year 1665, first applied the term «cell» to structures observed within cork.

- **1.** Robert Hooke — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** Charles Darwin — no support
- **3.** Louis Pasteur — no support
- **4.** Antonie van Leeuwenhoek — 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/e1/)

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

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Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the difference between plant and animal cells.

- **1.** Plant and animal cells are in all respects identical, differing only in their colour and in their size — no support
- **2.** Animal cells possess a rigid wall, whereas plant cells possess none at all — **← Mova's choice** · score 1
- **3.** Plant cells possess a rigid cell wall, whereas animal cells are bounded solely by a membrane — **✓ the right answer** · score 1
- **4.** Only animal cells contain a nucleus — score 1

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 1, tied with another option at 1 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 256, line 9: «Plant cells have a stiff wall, a nucleus and, in green parts, chloroplasts that catch light; iodine stain makes the nucleus show as a dark dot.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «stiff wall» (+4). Against it: the same doer «plant cells» (-3). The right option, 3, scored 1. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/e2/)

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

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the manner in which an organism replaces cells lost through injury?

- **1.** Cells are imported from the blood in finished form — no support
- **2.** New cells are formed afresh from the material of the scab as it hardens — **← Mova's choice** · score 6
- **3.** Existing cells divide into two, thereby generating new cells — **✓ the right answer** · score 5
- **4.** Lost cells are never replaced — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 2 with score 6, against 5 for the next best. Its support: lesson 71, line 9: «Each hair grows from a follicle in the skin, about 1 centimetre a month; we lose about 50 to 100 hairs a day, and cutting hair does not make it grow back thick…», reached through a sentence linked to the one the question matched. What matched: the same action «make» (+6); the same thing acted on «hair» (+3). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-3). 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/e3/)

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

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Ascertain the approximate number of cells of which an adult human body is composed, according to current scientific estimates.

- **1.** Approximately one million — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Between thirty and thirty-seven trillion — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** Precisely one hundred thousand, as counted by microscope — no support
- **4.** Approximately two hundred — 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/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/e4/)

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- ← previous: [255. Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/)
- next →: [257. The microscopic world: bacteria, good and bad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/257-the-microscopic-world-bacteria-good-and-bad/)
- ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/)