Topic 37 How plants make new plants — what needs James (0)
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Question types (10)
One exemplar per question type in the test bank; approving a type approves every item written to it. The full type sheet.
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 1 · bank item PP-1 · tests LIF3-071
EasyMCQType 1 — a cone tree with no flowers yet seeds: where do its seeds come from
A cedar tree never makes flowers, yet every fall small seeds drop from it. Where do the cedar's seeds come from?
- a) its cones ← key
- b) its needles
- c) its roots
- d) its bark
Why it is this type: The cedar never makes flowers, yet it makes seeds. / Plants with flowers or cones make seeds, so the cedar must make cones. / Its seeds sit inside the cones, between the woody scales. / So the cedar's seeds come from its cones.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 2 · bank item PP-2 · tests LIF3-072
EasyMCQType 2 — fine brown dust under a potted fern's leaves: what is it
Adaora keeps a fern in a pot on a white windowsill, and after a week fine brown dust lies on the sill under its leaves. What is the dust?
- a) seeds
- b) spores ← key
- c) dry soil
- d) bits of dead leaf
Why it is this type: A fern has no flowers or cones, so it makes no seeds. / It releases spores from the dots under its leaves. / The fine brown dust on the sill is those spores. / So the dust is spores.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 3 · bank item PP-3 · tests LIF3-014
EasyMCQType 3 — four named plants in a scene: which one makes spores
Faris walks through a park past a tulip bed, a pine tree, a moss-covered log and a bean plant. Which of the four plants makes spores?
- a) the tulip
- b) the pine tree
- c) the moss ← key
- d) the bean plant
Why it is this type: The tulip and the bean plant make flowers, and the pine tree makes cones, so all three make seeds. / The moss never makes flowers or cones. / So the moss makes spores.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 4 · bank item PP-4 · tests LIF3-024
EasyMCQType 4 — a photo of a plant in fruit (one faded flower still on a small fruit; the stem does not say where the fruit grew): where were the seeds made
Here is a squash plant in late summer, with squashes hanging from its stems. Where were the squash seeds made?
- a) in the leaves
- b) in the stem
- c) in the roots
- d) in the flowers ← key
Why it is this type: A plant's flower is where its seeds are made. / Each squash grew where one of the plant's flowers was; one faded flower is still on the end of a small squash. / So the squash seeds were made in the flowers.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 5 · bank item PP-5 · tests LIF3-071
MediumMCQType 5 — four parts of four different foods: which can grow into a new plant
Which of these can grow into a new plant?
- a) a strip of orange peel
- b) an avocado stone ← key
- c) a lettuce leaf
- d) a piece of banana
Why it is this type: Medium because: the definition is applied across four different foods.
The why line (what a student reads after answering): A seed is a plant's package for growing a new plant. / The avocado stone is the avocado tree's seed: it holds a tiny plant and its food. / Peel, a leaf and a piece of banana hold no tiny plant. / So the avocado stone can grow into a new plant.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 6 · bank item PP-6 · tests LIF3-072 LIF3-014
MediumMCQType 6 — a plant that has never made a flower or a cone: how does it make new plants
A small green plant on a forest floor has never made a flower or a cone. How does it make new plants?
- a) It releases spores. ← key
- b) It releases seeds.
- c) It makes seeds in flowers.
- d) It makes spores in cones.
Why it is this type: Medium because: the sort is run on a described plant with no name to lean on.
The why line (what a student reads after answering): The plant never makes flowers or cones. / Plants with flowers or cones make seeds; plants without them make spores. / So it makes new plants by releasing spores, and it has no cones to make anything in.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 7 · bank item PP-7 · tests LIF3-014 LIF3-071
MediumMCQType 7 — a tree with cones and no flowers: which sentence is true of it
A tree makes cones but never makes flowers. Which sentence is true of the tree?
- a) It makes spores in its cones.
- b) It makes seeds in its cones. ← key
- c) It makes seeds in its needles.
- d) It makes spores under its needles.
Why it is this type: Medium because: two facts are held at once — cones mean seeds, and the seeds are in the cones.
The why line (what a student reads after answering): The tree makes cones. / Plants with flowers or cones make seeds, not spores. / The seeds sit inside the cones. / So the tree makes seeds in its cones.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 8 · bank item PP-8 · tests LIF3-024
MediumMCQType 8 — a plant grows from a seed: which of four events happens first
A pepper plant grows from a seed. Which of these happens first?
- a) A pepper grows.
- b) Seeds grow inside the pepper.
- c) A white flower opens. ← key
- d) The pepper turns red.
Why it is this type: Medium because: the flower's job is used to order events in time.
The why line (what a student reads after answering): A plant's flower is where its seeds are made. / So the flower opens first. / Then its petals fall, a pepper grows where the flower was, and the seeds grow inside it.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 9 · bank item PP-9 · tests LIF3-014 LIF3-072
HardtypedType 9 — a plant the course never showed, described as never making flowers or cones: type the name of the specks it releases
text entry
A liverwort is a small flat green plant that grows on damp rocks. It never makes flowers or cones. Type the name of the specks it releases to grow new liverworts.
Accepted answers (typed): spore · a spore · the spore · spores
Why it is this type: Hard because: two steps — sort a plant the course never showed, then produce the term.
The why line (what a student reads after answering): The liverwort never makes flowers or cones. / Plants without flowers or cones make spores. / So the specks it releases are spores.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
Topic 37 · How plants make new plants · Type 10 · bank item PP-10 · tests LIF3-024 LIF3-071
HardtypedType 10 — flowers fade, cucumbers grow where they were, small pale things inside can grow new plants: type the word for them
text entry
A cucumber plant's yellow flowers fade, and cucumbers grow where the flowers were. Inside each cucumber are small pale things that can grow into new cucumber plants. Type the word for those small things.
Accepted answers (typed): seed · a seed · the seed · seeds
Why it is this type: Hard because: the term is produced, not recognised, from a described case.
The why line (what a student reads after answering): A plant's flower is where its seeds are made. / The cucumber grew where a flower was. / The small pale things inside can grow into new plants: each is a package with a tiny plant inside. / So they are seeds.
Recommendation: Approve as the exemplar
The lessons (4)
Each lesson in teaching order: its one-line summary, the article, the script and the quiz, then your ruling.
Topic 37 · Lesson 1
Lesson 1 What a seed is
Isolde shakes a pine cone under the pines and out drops something small and brown with a papery wing: can this become a tree as tall as a house? It's a seed. A bean seed, soaked and cut open: a tiny plant curled up, food for the start packed round it, a tough coat round both — a seed is a plant's package for growing a new plant. On a wet paper towel, kept warm, the coat splits and a root comes out: the tiny plant was alive all along, and it needed water and warmth, not soil. Apple pips are seeds; the pine's seeds sit in its cones; a whole coconut is one huge seed — plants with flowers or cones make seeds. Quiz: a cherry stone, an acorn (photo), a petal (is it a seed?); what is inside; where a pine makes its seeds; Osgar's "a seed is dead until it's planted" (no); a pea on a wet towel (yes); which part of a peach; the coconut; what a seed needs to start; "seed" typed last.
Topic 37 · Lesson 2
Lesson 2 What a spore is
a fern in the shady corner of Ferran's yard that has never made a flower or a cone, yet new ferns keep appearing round it. Turn a leaf over: rows of brown dots. Tap it over white paper: brown dust, finer than flour. Each speck is a spore; where one lands on damp ground, a new fern can grow. A spore is not a tiny seed: a seed is a package, a spore is one speck with no tiny plant and no food inside, far smaller than any seed (the two-panel card). Moss on a damp wall: no flowers, no cones, capsules that puff out spores. Quiz: what comes out of the dots; Oriol's "a spore is just a very small seed" (no); which has a tiny plant inside; how moss makes new moss; what a fern's spore can grow into; does a fern make flowers; which is bigger; Sabela's moss capsules; which plant makes spores; "spore" typed last.
Topic 37 · Lesson 3
Lesson 3 Seeds or spores? Sort the plant
Rhoswen in her grandmother's garden: a rose, a pine, a fern, moss on the wall — some make seeds, some make spores; which are which? One question sorts them all: does it ever make flowers or cones? The rose makes flowers, so seeds; the pine makes cones, so seeds; the fern never makes either, so spores; the moss the same — a sorting table fills a row at a time. Then the lawn: grass makes flowers too, tiny green ones, so grass makes seeds. A plant that makes flowers is a flowering plant; the pine never does — a nonflowering plant that still makes seeds. Quiz: a daisy, a fir tree, a moss, a horsetail with the datum in the stem; a fern and an oak (photo) with none; Rafaela's "a pine makes seeds even though it never flowers" (yes); a tulip and a pine on flowering / nonflowering; Elspet's nonflowering seed-maker; "flowering" typed last.
Topic 37 · Lesson 4
Lesson 4 What the flower does
Caradoc's apple tree, all pink-and-white flowers in spring and heavy with apples by fall; he cuts one open and finds five dark pips: where were the pips made? One flower watched: the petals fall, a small green ball stays where the flower was, all summer it grows, by fall it's an apple, and inside are the pips — the seeds, made in the flower; the apple grew round them, right where the flower was. A bean plant's white flowers fade and pods grow where they were, beans inside. A flower is pretty to look at, but its job is making the plant's seeds — a late frost that kills every flower means no apples that year. Quiz: a cherry tree's stones, a pea plant's seeds, Teodoro's tomato flowers (where made); Sholto's "a flower's only job is to look pretty" (no); Vittoria picks every flower off her strawberry plant (seeds this year? no); what is inside the pumpkin that grew where the flower was; which comes first on a pear tree; a young orange tree with no flower yet; Kalinda's beans made in the flowers (yes); "flower" typed last.
Skill: write-like-james @ 8b55b65 · built 6 October 2026 by build_tools_needs_you.py