---
title: Projections: why Greenland looks huge — how Mova does on the tests · Geography
description: Lesson 3 of the geography 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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# Projections: why Greenland looks huge

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**Tests:** 4 of 11 right · **Exam:** 1 of 4 right · **Kind:** ★★★ · **Understood:** 6 of 15 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 3 of the geography 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/).

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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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/).

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### Test 1 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t1}

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Why would a 1569 sailor care more about correct directions than correct sizes?

- **1.** Sailors never went near land — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Sizes of countries changed every year in those days — no support
- **3.** Directions are the same on every map ever made — no support
- **4.** He steered by compass and needed a steady bearing — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** Nothing it remembers matched the question, 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t1/)

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### Test 2 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t2}

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A shape is stretched three times wider and three times taller. How many times bigger does its area look?

- **1.** Six times bigger — **← Mova's choice** · score 10
- **2.** Nine times — **✓ the right answer** · score 8
- **3.** Twelve times — score 8
- **4.** Three times — score 8

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 10, against 8 for the next best. Its support: lesson 3, line 9: «At 60 degrees north a Mercator map stretches land about twice in each direction, so areas look about four times too big.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «look» (+4); the same doer «areas» (+4); the same property (+2). The right option, 2, scored 8. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t2/)

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### Test 3 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t3}

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on google maps greenland is like as big as africa so it must be massive right?

- **1.** No, Greenland is smaller than Wales — no support
- **2.** Yes, they are about the same size — no support
- **3.** It is big but Africa is about 14 times bigger — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 8
- **4.** Yes, Greenland is the biggest country — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 8, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 3, line 15: «Russia covers about 17 million square kilometres, but Africa covers about 30 million, so Africa is almost twice as big, though Mercator makes Russia look large…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «africa» (+4); the same property (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t3/)

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### Test 4 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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Why does a flight from London to Los Angeles look curved on a flat map?

- **1.** The pilot follows the coastline — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The plane goes round storms over the Atlantic Ocean — no support
- **3.** The great-circle route bends on a flat projection — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Planes must follow lines of latitude — 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t4/)

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### Test 5 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t5}

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Your EU5 Muscovy looks endless next to India. What should you remember?

- **1.** Muscovy really was bigger than all of Asia — no support
- **2.** Flat maps stretch northern lands, so check a globe — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 4
- **3.** The game map shows true sizes — score 3
- **4.** India was tiny in the Middle Ages — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 3, line 4: «The EU5 map is flat too, so Scandinavia, Muscovy and the far north look bigger than they really are next to Africa or India; use a globe when you want true siz…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+3); the same thing acted on «globe» (+2). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-1). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t5/)

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### Test 6 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t6}

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Why might a compromise map like the Winkel tripel be best for a classroom wall?

- **1.** It shows the poles as points with no error — score 3
- **2.** It has no distortion at all — score 4
- **3.** It keeps every error small so the world looks natural — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 6
- **4.** It keeps all compass directions exact, like Mercator's map for sailors — score 6

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 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 3, line 12: «Some maps, such as the Winkel tripel used by the National Geographic Society since 1998, accept a little error in everything to keep the whole world looking na…», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «keep» (+4); the same doer «maps» (+4). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t6/)

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### Test 7 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t7}

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Why do online maps care more about street shapes than country sizes?

- **1.** Web Mercator shows the true sizes of all countries perfectly — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** People zoom in to find streets, where shapes must look right — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** Streets are bigger than countries — no support
- **4.** Country sizes never matter to anyone — 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t7/)

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### Test 8 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t8}

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Why is Antarctica often a long white strip at the bottom of maps?

- **1.** Antarctica really is a long thin strip — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** It is drawn small to save space — no support
- **3.** Snow makes it look wider — no support
- **4.** The projection stretches it enormously sideways — **✓ the right answer** · no support

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**Why:** Nothing it remembers matched the question, 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t8/)

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### Test 9 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t9}

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What would happen if you tried to make a Mercator map that reached the North Pole?

- **1.** It would show the pole as a tiny dot at the very top — **← Mova's choice** · score 6
- **2.** It would show the pole correctly — score 6
- **3.** It would need an endless height of paper — **✓ the right answer** · score 0
- **4.** It would turn into a globe — score 2

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. 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 1, line 8: «A large-scale map, such as 1:25,000, shows a small area in great detail, while a small-scale map, such as 1:10,000,000, shows a huge area with little detail.», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «show» (+4); the same doer «scale map» (+4). Against it: a different thing acted on (counts against) (-2). The right option, 3, scored 0. · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t9/)

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### Test 10 · ★★★ · wrong ✗ {#t10}

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Teacher's map puts the Pacific in the middle and Europe at the edge. A kid says "that map's broken". Who is right?

- **1.** The kid, Europe must be in the middle — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Neither map is broken, the centre is a choice — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** The teacher, Europe-centred maps are illegal — no support
- **4.** The kid, the Pacific is too big for the middle — 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/t10/)

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### Test 11 · ★★★ · right ✓ {#t11}

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Which shows country sizes correctly, a Mercator or a Mollweide map?

- **1.** Mollweide, an equal-area map — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · score 2
- **2.** Mercator, a navigation map — score 2
- **3.** Neither can show any sizes — no support
- **4.** Both show sizes correctly — score 2

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**Why:** It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 2, tied with another option at 2 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 1, line 14: «Only a globe can show the shapes, areas, distances and directions of all places correctly at the same time.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «show» (+4); the same property (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2); a different thing acted on (counts against) (-2). · [the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/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 principal deficiency of the Mercator projection?

- **1.** It exaggerates areas in the vicinity of the equator — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** It cannot represent the Atlantic Ocean — no support
- **3.** It progressively exaggerates areas with increasing latitude — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** It misrepresents compass bearings — 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/e1/)

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

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Determine the factor by which the area of Africa exceeds that of Greenland.

- **1.** Approximately two — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Approximately one — no support
- **3.** Approximately fourteen — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Approximately one 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/e2/)

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

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Identify the class of projection whereby the relative areas of all territories are faithfully preserved.

- **1.** An equal-area projection — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** Web Mercator — no support
- **3.** A portolan projection of the Mediterranean — no support
- **4.** A Mercator projection — 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/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 shortest path between two points upon the globe.

- **1.** It coincides in every case with the equator — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** It invariably follows a parallel of latitude — no support
- **3.** It forms part of a great circle — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** It follows a constant compass bearing — 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/geography/3-projections-why-greenland-looks-huge/e4/)

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- ← previous: [2. Directions, latitude and longitude](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/2-directions-latitude-and-longitude/)
- next →: [4. Time zones and the date line](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/4-time-zones-and-the-date-line/)
- ↑ back to [Geography](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/)