Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ a538c92
Topic 23 — Weather over a season, and far away — the PP100's ten question types, with their exemplars
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, 28 Sep 2026). This sheet writes the exemplars in full, exactly as they sit in content/G3T23.py (PP100, flagged TYPE_SHEET_ONLY). Ten types for five atoms; type 5 carries a second form, so the sheet has eleven exemplars. No other bank item exists yet. Once the types stand, about fifty items are generated from them, varying the towns, the months, the values and the places, easy-heavy.
Revised 28 Sep 2026 (night) after the non-author review and the cold read (the cold read: Burlington's Decembers lifted to 14, 16, 15 so "snowy on many days" is honest; PP-4 carries two "dry" options so the temperature decides; "three years running" → "in a row") (REVIEW_G3T23_2026-09-28.md): every weather report is Topic 22's class weather table — heads Temperature (°F) · Wind from · Rain (mm) · How windy, cells bare, rain in millimeters pending James's mm-vs-inches ruling on Topic 22's page (Card 1); type 2 is re-instanced on rainy days and its step ("how many more") is now taught in L01 (Card 2); type 5 gains its second exemplar, a one-year graph keyed "You cannot tell yet." (Card 3, R16); no item's place name carries the answer's word — "the Namib, in Africa", "Borneo" (Card 4); Reno's sunny days moved to Juneau (R14); Fen's town is Richmond, Virginia (S12); PP-7's stem names what the options do (S08).
James's rulings applied. Hard items are typed, never MCQs (28 Sep night): one numeric-entry type (how many more rainy days — two bars read, the difference found) and two text-entry types (a month named; a place named). Easy and medium are four-option MCQs. Every comparison is drawn (a graph, a report table, an information table); no stem leans on a video; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem is a positive question; no item figure carries a verdict chip or a reading; every drawn bar sits on a gridline (figures.py asserts it); "You cannot tell yet." appears only on the prediction type and IS the key on its one-year form; a bank stem of three sentences is tagged hard (S23).
How to read a type line. Each says what the stem asks, what the four options are (the kind of thing), and gives its exemplar scene. Every MCQ has a why (no per-option feedback in the bank). Tags follow depth of reasoning: easy = one read off one drawing or one table cell; medium = two reads held together, or a graph read back against its table, or a prediction (or its honest refusal) from a drawn record; hard = two reads and a difference, or the shortest of twelve bars named as a likelihood, or three places compared and the name produced (typed).
The ten types
| Type | Item | Atom | Tag | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PP-1 | SR3-012 | easy | MCQ, drawn graph | which bar is the tallest (the warmest day) | four of the graph's labels | morning temperature, one week in July, Wichita: Mon 80, Tue 85, Wed 95, Thu 90, Fri 85 |
| 3 | PP-2 | EAR3-022 | easy | MCQ, drawn table | how tall a named month's bar is, from the records table | four "up to the N" heights | sunny days this fall, Juneau: Sep 9, Oct 8, Nov 6 |
| 7 | PP-3 | EAR3-021 | easy | MCQ, drawn report | which of three places is the warmest on one day | the three places / They are all the same. | September 9 in the morning: Duluth 58 °F, Memphis 86 °F, Orlando 88 °F |
| 9 | PP-4 | EAR3-024 | easy | MCQ, drawn card | which words describe a faraway place's typical weather | four two-word descriptions | the Namib, in Africa: about 70 °F in July, about 2 rainy days a year |
| 4 | PP-5 | EAR3-022 + SR3-012 (pair) | medium | MCQ, drawn graph | a table's numbers are stated; which bar is drawn wrong | the three months / None of them | Juneau's fall graph with October drawn to 5 (the table said 8) |
| 5 | PP-6 | EAR3-023 | medium | MCQ, drawn graph | three years of one month: what is next year's month likely to be like | two likely descriptions / an unlikely one / You cannot tell yet. | snowy days in December, three years, Burlington: 14, 16, 15 |
| 5, second form | PP-7 | EAR3-023 | medium | MCQ, drawn graph (ONE bar) | one year of one month: what is next year's month likely to be like — key "You cannot tell yet." | the same set as PP-6 | rainy days in June, one year, Boise: 4 |
| 8 | PP-8 | EAR3-021 | medium | MCQ, drawn report | two columns read for two places: which sentence is true of the two places | four parallel "X is warmer, Y is wetter" statements | January 20 in the morning: Milwaukee 22 °F · N · 0 mm · windy; San Antonio 64 °F · S · 12 mm · calm |
| 2 | PP-9 | SR3-012 | hard | numeric, drawn graph | how many more rainy days one month had than another: read two bars, find the difference, type the number | acc_days(6): 6 · 6 days · 6 rainy days · 6 more | rainy days each month, fall, Tulsa: Sep 3, Oct 9, Nov 6 |
| 6 | PP-10 | EAR3-023 + SR3-012 (pair) | hard | text, drawn graph | twelve months of usual rainy days (ten years of records): which month is likely to have the fewest next year; type the month | July · Jul | Richmond, Virginia, twelve bars, July the shortest at 2 |
| 10 | PP-11 | EAR3-024 + EAR3-021 (pair) | hard | text, drawn table | three faraway places' information: type the name of the place where it rains on the most days | Borneo · the island of Borneo | the Kalahari, in Africa (about 30), Svalbard (about 30), Borneo (about 210) |
Hard because (type 2): two bars are read and a difference is found — James's own model of a hard item ("starting at 12 cm and ending up at 28, so you have to find a difference"); L01 now teaches the step in one part and drills it once, so the bank tests a taught skill at its hard end. Hard because (type 6): the shortest of twelve bars is found and named, and the graph's "usual over ten years" is read as what is likely next year — two ideas chained, and the month produced. Hard because (type 10): three rows are compared on one column and the place's name is produced, not recognised. Medium because (type 4): a graph is read back bar by bar against three stated numbers. Medium because (type 5, both forms): a prediction is made from a drawn three-year pattern — or honestly refused on one year of records, because once is not a pattern; the same option set on both forms means the student must read the graph, not the options. Medium because (type 8): two columns are read for two places and held together in one statement.
Coverage (every atom alone, and the pairs)
| Atom | Types testing it alone | Pair types |
|---|---|---|
| SR3-012 read a bar graph | 1, 2 | 4 (the graph read back against the table); 6 (the shortest bar named) |
| EAR3-022 chart a season's weather | 3, 4 | 4 (with SR3-012) |
| EAR3-023 predict a season's typical weather | 5 (both forms) | 6 (with SR3-012) |
| EAR3-021 compare weather in two places | 7, 8 | 10 (three places compared) |
| EAR3-024 describe a faraway place's usual weather | 9 | 10 (with EAR3-021) |
At most two alone-types per atom. Order in the file: easy PP-1…PP-4 → medium PP-5…PP-8 → hard PP-9, PP-10, PP-11. Keys of the eight MCQs, in file order: B A C C B A D B (two of A, three of B, two of C, one of D). Typed items: 3 of 11 on the sheet; in a bank of about fifty, types 2, 6 and 10 supply 12–15 typed items on fresh towns and values (every count 0–12 and every temperature that is a multiple of 5), the one-year form of type 5 supplies two or three items, and type 7 supplies two-place and three-place forms. The closer "They are all the same." is the three-place form's word for the quiz's "Neither: they are the same." (two places); the bank keeps one closer per form.
Fresh instances
No exemplar reuses a lesson, quiz or practice scene: Wichita's July week, Juneau's fall table and its wrong-bar graph, Duluth–Memphis–Orlando, the Namib, Burlington's Decembers, Boise's one June, Milwaukee–San Antonio, Tulsa's fall, Richmond's ten-year graph, the Kalahari–Svalbard–Borneo table appear nowhere else in the topic. (The practice set's Albany "none of them wrong" item and the L03 quiz's one-July Tucson item are the lesson-side instances of types 4 and 5's second form; the exemplars differ in scene kind — sunny days against snowy days; a June against a July.)
The exemplars, in full
Type 1 — PP-1 · SR3-012 · easy · drawing pp_temp_week_kansas
Stem: Look at the bar graph. Which day was the warmest?
- Monday
- Wednesday ← key
- Thursday
- Friday
Why: A taller bar means a bigger number. / Wednesday's bar is the tallest, landing on 95. / So Wednesday was the warmest.
Type 3 — PP-2 · EAR3-022 · easy · drawing pp_table_fall_juneau
Stem: A bar graph is made from this table. How tall is November's bar?
- up to the 6 ← key
- up to the 8
- up to the 9
- up to the 10
Why: Find November in the table. / The table says November had 6 sunny days. / So November's bar goes up to the 6.
Type 7 — PP-3 · EAR3-021 · easy · drawing pp_rep_three
Stem: The weather report shows September 9 in the morning in three places. Which place is the warmest?
- Duluth
- Memphis
- Orlando ← key
- They are all the same.
Why: Read the Temperature (°F) column for all three. / 58, 86 and 88. / 88 is the biggest number. / So Orlando is the warmest.
Type 9 — PP-4 · EAR3-024 · easy · drawing pp_card_namib
Stem: The card shows what a class found out about the Namib, in Africa. Which words describe its typical weather?
- hot and rainy
- cold and dry
- warm and dry ← key
- cool and rainy
Why: The card says about 70 °F in the morning in July: warm, not cold. / It says about 2 rainy days a year: very dry. / So the Namib's typical weather is warm and dry.
Type 4 — PP-5 · EAR3-022 + SR3-012 · medium · drawing pp_fall_juneau_wrong
Stem: A table said September 9, October 8, November 6 sunny days. Which bar is drawn wrong?
- September
- October ← key
- November
- None of them
Why: Each bar goes up to its number in the table. / September's lands on 9 and November's on 6, as the table says. / October's lands on 5, but the table says 8. / So October's bar is drawn wrong.
Type 5 — PP-6 · EAR3-023 · medium · drawing pp_decembers_snow
Stem: The graph shows the snowy days in December, three years in a row, in Burlington. What is next December there likely to be like?
- snowy on many days ← key
- no snow at all
- rainy on most days
- You cannot tell yet.
Why: Every December had 14, 15 or 16 snowy days, about half the month. / The same thing happened three years in a row. / So next December is likely to be snowy on many days.
Type 5, second form — PP-7 · EAR3-023 · medium · drawing pp_one_year_rain (ONE bar)
Stem: The graph shows the rainy days in June, one year only, in Boise. What is next June there likely to be like?
- hardly any rain
- rainy on most days
- snowy on most days
- You cannot tell yet. ← key
Why: A pattern is a part that happens again in the same way. / One June has not happened again yet. / Once is not again. / So nobody can tell yet what next June is likely to be like.
Medium because: the student must notice that the record is one year long before answering; a student who reads the one short bar as a pattern picks "hardly any rain".
Type 8 — PP-8 · EAR3-021 · medium · drawing pp_rep_two
Stem: The weather report shows January 20 in the morning in two places. Which sentence is true of the two places?
- Milwaukee is both warmer and wetter.
- San Antonio is both warmer and wetter. ← key
- Milwaukee is warmer, and San Antonio is wetter.
- San Antonio is warmer, and Milwaukee is wetter.
Why: Read the Temperature (°F) column: 64 is bigger than 22, so San Antonio is warmer. / Read the Rain (mm) column: 12 is more than 0, so San Antonio is wetter. / So San Antonio is both warmer and wetter.
Type 2 — PP-9 · SR3-012 · hard · numeric entry · drawing pp_rain_fall_diff
Stem: Look at the graph. How many more rainy days did October have than September? Type the number.
Accept: acc_days(6) — 6 · 6 days · 6 rainy days · 6 more · 6 more days
Why: October's bar lands on 9. / September's bar lands on 3. / 9 take away 3 is 6. / So October had 6 more rainy days than September.
Type 6 — PP-10 · EAR3-023 + SR3-012 · hard · text entry · drawing pp_year_rain_pp
Stem: The graph shows the usual rainy days in each month, from ten years of records in Richmond. Which month is likely to have the fewest rainy days next year? Type the month.
Accept: July · Jul
Why: The graph shows what is usual year after year. / The shortest bar is the month with the fewest rainy days. / July's bar is the shortest, landing on 2. / So July is likely to have the fewest rainy days next year.
Type 10 — PP-11 · EAR3-024 + EAR3-021 · hard · text entry · drawing pp_three_cards
Stem: The table gives information about three faraway places. Type the name of the place where it rains on the most days.
Accept: Borneo · the island of Borneo
Why: Read the rainy-days column for all three. / About 30, about 30 and about 210. / 210 is the biggest number. / So Borneo has rain on the most days.