Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → design-check-sequence, write-explanation @ 5a8ea31
Topic 3 — Earth pulls things down — the PP100's nine question types, one exemplar each, with the coverage table
What this page is. James approves a bank's question TYPES before the bank is generated (vault: A bank is reviewed as its question types first, one exemplar each). Rebuilt after his read of the built topic (28 Sep 2026, night): the topic is now SIX lessons over FIVE atoms (FOR3-021 Earth pulls it down; FOR3-029 Earth is always pulling; FOR3-030 Earth's pull points straight down; FOR3-028 every part of you; FOR3-022 a strong enough pull beats Earth's pull; L06 names gravity on FOR3-021). Following his rule, the types are the lesson quizzes' and the mixed practice's own forms with FOUR options each and fresh scenes, plus two harder types; and the coverage table shows every atom tested alone and in a pair. ONE exemplar per type is written in full, exactly as it sits in content/G3T03.py (PP100, TYPE_SHEET_ONLY). Once the types stand, about fifty items are generated from them (his sizing: "often you'll just need maybe five" per atom), the L02 "Is Earth pulling on it?" cases and the L03 "Which way?" cases carrying the bulk ("those will work really well in the PP100 as well").
How to read a type line. Each says what the stem asks, what the four options are (the kind of thing), and names its exemplar's scene. Tags follow depth of reasoning: easy = recall or one one-step judgement; medium = a fresh case; hard = a judgement of a claim or two ideas chained. No option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem is a positive question; a figure never carries an arrow where the answer is a direction, and never animates a prediction; "beat Earth's pull" is said only of things that go up.
Coverage table — every atom alone and in a pair (James: "test each learning objective… in isolation and then also… two at a time")
| Atom | Tested alone by | Tested in a pair by |
|---|---|---|
| FOR3-021 Earth pulls it down | Type 1 (what made it fall) | Type 2 with 029 (when is Earth pulling on a ball that sits, flies up and comes down) |
| FOR3-029 Earth is always pulling | Type 2 (when is Earth pulling on it — a still case) | Type 2 with 021 (a fall in the timeline); Type 3 with 030 (a moving thing: which way — the moving-up and moving-along cases are James's "great question"); Type 8 with 022 (Omar's claim rests on "Earth pulls everything down") |
| FOR3-030 Earth's pull points straight down | Type 3 (a still thing: a hanging lamp, a picture on a wall) | Type 3 with 029 (a thrown-up ball, a traveling rocket, a moving car, a frisbee); Type 3 with 022 (a box being pulled up on a cable: which way does Earth pull it); Type 9 with 028 (an upside-down body: which way is her hair pulled) |
| FOR3-028 every part of you | Type 4 (which parts, given a position) | Type 9 with 030 (upside down: which way is a named part pulled) |
| FOR3-022 a strong enough pull beats Earth's pull | Types 5 (the hold stops), 6 (which pull won, went up), 7 (what beat Earth's pull) | Type 8 with 029 (a claim judged by a happening); Type 3 with 030 (an object pulled up: which way does Earth pull it) |
Every row is non-empty. The stays-put case ("was the pull strong enough? no") is a two-option lesson form and is not a bank type; Type 6 keeps the went-up cases.
The nine types
| Type | Item | Atom(s) | Tag | The stem asks… | The four options are… | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PP-1 | 021 | easy | what made an object fall, when it fell with nothing touching it | Earth's pull, and three named things in the scene that did not move it (a nearby thing, the air, the hand that let go) | a scarf falls from a girl's open hand to the snow |
| 2 | PP-2 | 029 (+021) | easy | WHEN Earth is pulling on a described object — still, moving up, moving along, coming down | four times: "all the time, still or moving" (key) and three "only while…" cases | a soccer ball sits, is kicked up, comes down |
| 3 | PP-7 | 030 (+029, or +022) | medium | which way Earth's pull acts on an object — moving along, moving up, being pulled up on a cable, or hanging still | four directions: straight down toward the ground (key), straight up, forward the way it moves (or sideways), and "Earth's pull does not act on it" where the case invites that belief. No figure carries an arrow | a frisbee flies along above the park |
| 4 | PP-3 | 028 | easy | which parts of a body or animal Earth pulls on, given a position (lying down, upside down, arm out, tail over an edge) | three single parts each with "only", and "every part of …" | the girl on her back on the grass |
| 5 | PP-4 | 022 | medium | what an object does when the push or pull that was holding it up stops (a beak opens, a hand lets go, an engine cuts out); the holder is still | four happenings: it falls / it stays where it is / it goes higher / it moves sideways. A figure shows the object HELD, never the motion asked about | a bird on a branch opens its beak and the twig… |
| 6 | PP-5 | 022 | medium | which pull won, given a named pull on an object that WENT UP | four pullers: the named pull, Earth's pull, and two other things in the scene that were not pulling | the flowerpot goes up |
| 7 | PP-6 | 022 | medium | what beat Earth's pull on an object that went up (a child picked up, a bucket on a rope, a climber); no push-off cases | four pushes or pulls that could be in the scene, all "on the [object]"; only one acted on the object in the direction it went | the dad picks up his toddler |
| 8 | PP-8 | 022 + 029 | hard | which everyday happening shows that a named student's claim is wrong — asked positively | four true everyday happenings; one disproves the claim, three do not bear on it. Two claims only: "nothing can ever go up" and "Earth pulls only on the part touching the ground" | Omar's claim |
| 9 | PP-9 | 030 + 028 | hard | which way Earth pulls a named part of a body that is upside down or sideways | four directions, one of them the body's own "toward her feet / toward her head" trap | the gymnast on the rings |
Order in the file: easy → medium → hard (PP-1 … PP-9: types 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3, 8, 9). Keys: B C D C A B B D A — no letter over three of nine.
The exemplars, in full
Type 1 — PP-1 · FOR3-021 · easy
Stem: A girl opens her hand, and her scarf falls to the snow. What made the scarf fall?
- a) the snow
- b) Earth's pull ← key
- c) the air
- d) her hand
Why: The scarf left her hand. / Nothing touched the scarf on its way down. / Earth's pull made the scarf fall. / Her hand, the air and the snow did not pull it down.
Type 2 — PP-2 · FOR3-029 (+ FOR3-021) · easy
Stem: A soccer ball sits still on the grass, then a boy kicks it and it flies up and comes down. When is Earth pulling on the ball?
- a) only while it sits still on the grass
- b) only while it flies up
- c) all the time, still or moving ← key
- d) only while it comes back down
Why: Earth is always pulling on every object, moving or still. / Earth pulls the ball while it sits on the grass, while it flies up, and while it comes down. / So Earth is pulling on the ball all the time.
Surface variations for the bank: a still case alone ("A mug sits on a shelf. When is Earth pulling on the mug?"), a moving-up case, a moving-along case — the L02 quiz's cases with four "when" options.
Type 4 — PP-3 · FOR3-028 · easy
Stem: A girl lies on her back on the grass with her arms held up in the air. Which parts of the girl does Earth pull on?
- a) only her back
- b) only her arms
- c) only her head
- d) every part of her ← key
Why: Earth pulls on every part of you. / So Earth pulls on the girl's back, her arms, her head and every other part of her. / The ground is in the way of her back, so her back stays on the grass. / Her arms stay up because she holds them up.
Type 5 — PP-4 · FOR3-022 · medium
Stem: A bird sitting on a high branch holds a twig in its beak, then opens its beak. What does the twig do?
- a) It stays where it is.
- b) It goes higher.
- c) It falls to the ground. ← key
- d) It moves sideways.
Why: The bird's beak was holding the twig up. / The beak opens, so that hold stops. / Only Earth's pull is left. / So the twig falls to the ground.
Medium because: a fresh case of "when the push or pull stops, only Earth's pull is left", where the hold stops by opening rather than breaking.
Type 6 — PP-5 · FOR3-022 · medium
Stem: A boy pulls up on a flowerpot, and the pot goes up off the ground. Which pull won?
- a) the boy's pull ← key
- b) Earth's pull
- c) the ground's pull
- d) the air's pull
Why: The boy pulls the pot up. / Earth pulls the pot down. / The pot goes up, so the boy's pull was strong enough to beat Earth's pull. / The boy's pull won.
Medium because: the student reads "goes up" as the outcome and names the winning pull from it, on a fresh scene.
Type 7 — PP-6 · FOR3-022 · medium
Stem: A dad picks up his toddler, and the toddler goes up. What beat Earth's pull on the toddler?
- a) the air's push on the toddler
- b) the dad's pull on the toddler ← key
- c) the floor's push on the toddler
- d) the ground's pull on the toddler
Why: Earth pulls the toddler down. / The dad's hands pull the toddler up. / His pull is strong enough to beat Earth's pull. / So the toddler goes up.
Medium because: the toddler went up, and the student must find the one pull in the scene that acted upward on the toddler.
Type 3 — PP-7 · FOR3-030 (+ FOR3-029) · medium
Stem: A frisbee flies along above the park. Which way does Earth's pull act on the frisbee?
- a) forward, the way the frisbee flies
- b) straight down toward the ground ← key
- c) straight up toward the sky
- d) Earth's pull does not act on the frisbee while it flies
Why: Earth is always pulling on every object, even one flying along. / Earth's pull always points straight down, toward the ground. / So Earth pulls the frisbee straight down while it flies along. / The air's push keeps it up for a while, then it comes down.
Medium because: a fresh moving-along case; the student must hold "always pulling" and "straight down" against what the frisbee is seen to do. Surface variations for the bank (James's examples): a thrown-up ball, a traveling rocket, a moving car; a box on a crane's cable (030 + 022); and the still cases alone (a hanging lamp, a picture on a wall).
Type 8 — PP-8 · FOR3-022 + FOR3-029 · hard
Stem: Omar says nothing can ever go up, because Earth pulls everything down. Which happening shows that something can go up?
- a) A leaf falls from a tree to the grass.
- b) A heavy box stays on the floor when a girl pulls at it.
- c) A marble rolls along the floor.
- d) A girl's arms pull her up onto a high wall. ← key
Why: Earth pulls everything down, but a pull that is strong enough beats Earth's pull. / The girl's arms pull her up, and she goes up. / So something can go up. / The leaf falling, the box staying and the marble rolling do not show anything going up.
Hard because: the student judges a claim against four true happenings and picks the one that bears on it.
Type 9 — PP-9 · FOR3-030 + FOR3-028 · hard
Stem: A gymnast hangs upside down from the rings. Which way does Earth pull her hair?
- a) straight down toward the floor ← key
- b) toward her feet
- c) toward the ceiling
- d) sideways
Why: Earth pulls on every part of the gymnast, her hair too. / Earth's pull always points straight down, toward the floor. / Her feet are above her, so "toward her feet" would be up. / Earth pulls her hair straight down toward the floor, and that is the way it hangs.
Hard because: two ideas chained — Earth pulls every part (028) and the pull points straight down even when the body is upside down (030) — with the body's own direction word as the trap.
Reading notes for the review
- Types 2 and 3 are the forms James asked for on 28 Sep ("Something's moving upwards. Is the Earth pulling?… Which way does the Earth's pull act?") turned into four-option items; the L02 and L03 quizzes carry the same forms with two or three options.
- The verdict-and-reason option form is not used anywhere; type 8 asks positively which happening shows the claim's opposite.
- "Earth's pull does not act on it" (types 3) is a real belief (the pull switches off high up or while moving), not padding.
- Scenes here are fresh against the six lessons (apple, ball, raindrop, jumper, thrown ball; book on a table, rising ball, moving car, falling leaf; flying rocket, hanging lamp; standing child, arm, girl on the bar; ball in hand, crane, rocket, boy and rock) and against the lesson quizzes and the practice set (see the build record's fresh-instance table).
- Not planned: any multi-select; none of these answers is a set.