---
title: Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing — how Mova does on the tests · History
description: Lesson 3 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 0 of 10 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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# Mesopotamia: the first cities and writing

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**Tests:** 0 of 10 right · **Exam:** 1 of 4 right · **Kind:** plain · **Understood:** 4 of 14 · **Run:** 2026-10-18, commit `f3c23ea72`

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Lesson 3 of the history 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/).

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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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/).

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### Test 1 · wrong ✗ {#t1}

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Why are there 60 minutes in an hour and not 100?

- **1.** A computer chose sixty in 1990 — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The Romans had sixty fingers — no support
- **3.** Sixty is the biggest number there is, so it was the best one to use — no support
- **4.** The Sumerians counted in sixties and we kept it — **✓ 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t1/)

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### Test 2 · wrong ✗ {#t2}

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lol why didn't they just use paper?

- **1.** They thought paper was too boring — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** They had no paper, but clay was everywhere — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** They used paper but it all burned — no support
- **4.** Paper was banned by the kings, who hated it — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t2/)

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### Test 3 · wrong ✗ {#t3}

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What would happen to Uruk's fields if all the canals filled with mud?

- **1.** The river would flow uphill instead — no support
- **2.** The fields would grow more wheat than ever — **← Mova's choice** · score 2
- **3.** The crops would dry up and the city go hungry — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Nothing, it rained there every day — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 2 with score 2, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 3, line 8: «Farmers dug canals to carry river water to their fields, which is called irrigation.», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «fields» (+4). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t3/)

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### Test 4 · wrong ✗ {#t4}

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A friend says writing began with poems and stories. What really came first?

- **1.** Road signs for carts — **← Mova's choice** · score 4
- **2.** Long poems about the gods — score 4
- **3.** Lists counting grain and sheep — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Letters to friends far away — score 4

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**Why:** It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 4, tied with another option at 4 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 2, line 8: «Dogs were the first tamed animals, long before farming; sheep, goats, cattle and pigs came later, and horses much later.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «come» (+2); 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t4/)

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### Test 5 · wrong ✗ {#t5}

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A school tablet 4,000 years old has a mistake on it. What does that show?

- **1.** Writing was never taught to anyone, so they guessed — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Children learning to write made mistakes like us — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** The teacher could not write at all — no support
- **4.** Clay cannot hold writing well — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t5/)

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### Test 6 · wrong ✗ {#t6}

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Why did Mesopotamian farmers need canals but jungle farmers might not?

- **1.** Jungle plants do not need water — **← Mova's choice** · score 0
- **2.** Canals were only for fun — no support
- **3.** Mesopotamia was dry and needed river water — **✓ the right answer** · score 0
- **4.** Mesopotamia had too much rain — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 1 with score 0, tied with another option at 0 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 3, line 8: «Farmers dug canals to carry river water to their fields, which is called irrigation.», reached through the cause of the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same thing acted on «river water» (+4). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2); a different doer (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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t6/)

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### Test 7 · wrong ✗ {#t7}

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My cousin says Gilgamesh is a Marvel hero. What is he really?

- **1.** A Chinese inventor — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** A king in one of the oldest written stories — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** A Roman emperor — no support
- **4.** A Viking god of thunder with a magic hammer — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t7/)

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### Test 8 · wrong ✗ {#t8}

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Why do you think many peoples tell flood stories?

- **1.** Every land had the same king — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Someone sent one book round the whole world long ago — no support
- **3.** Floods never happened anywhere — no support
- **4.** Real floods were big, scary events for river peoples — **✓ 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t8/)

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### Test 9 · wrong ✗ {#t9}

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If you found wedge-shaped marks on an old piece of clay, what are they probably?

- **1.** Bird footprints by chance — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Hieroglyphs from Egypt — no support
- **3.** Cuneiform writing — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Chinese characters — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t9/)

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### Test 10 · wrong ✗ {#t10}

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Gilgamesh learns that all people die. What does this show about people 4,000 years ago?

- **1.** They did not care about anything — no support
- **2.** They worried about friendship and death like us — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **3.** They had no stories at all — **← Mova's choice** · score 4
- **4.** They thought nobody ever died — no support

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**Why:** It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 3 with score 4, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 3, line 17: «Many peoples tell flood stories, and the rivers of Mesopotamia really did flood badly.», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same doer «many peoples» (+2); the same thing acted on «flood stories» (+2). 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/t10/)

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

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Identify the two rivers between which the region designated Mesopotamia is situated.

- **1.** The Indus and the Ganges — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The Danube and the Rhine — no support
- **3.** The Tigris and the Euphrates — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** The Nile and the Jordan — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/e1/)

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

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Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the original purpose of Sumerian writing?

- **1.** The correspondence of private persons — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** The composition of epic poetry — no support
- **3.** The recording of quantities of grain and livestock — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** The proclamation of royal laws — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/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 term cuneiform.

- **1.** It signifies wedge-shaped — **← Mova's choice** · **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **2.** It signifies picture of a bird — no support
- **3.** It signifies written upon papyrus — no support
- **4.** It signifies sacred carving — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/e3/)

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

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Determine the base of the system of numeration employed by the Sumerians, whereof traces persist in the measurement of time.

- **1.** Twelve — **← Mova's choice** · no support
- **2.** Ten — no support
- **3.** Sixty — **✓ the right answer** · no support
- **4.** Twenty — 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/history/3-mesopotamia-first-cities-and-writing/e4/)

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- ← previous: [2. The first farms and towns](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/2-the-first-farms-and-towns/)
- next →: [4. Mesopotamia: wheels, laws and empires](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/4-mesopotamia-wheels-laws-and-empires/)
- ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/)