Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ cb79e2e
Topic 25 — Dangerous weather — 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/G3T25.py (PP100, flagged TYPE_SHEET_ONLY). Ten types for three atoms — two alone-types per atom and four pair types. No other bank item exists yet. Once the types stand, about fifty items are generated from them, varying the place, the weather, the defense, the names and the evidence card, easy-heavy.
Revised 28 Sep 2026 (night) after the non-author review (REVIEW_G3T25_2026-09-28.md): every exemplar is re-instanced on a scene no quiz or practice item uses (B1–B3, F9–F13 — the first sheet's inventory had six shared scenes); a hurricane is never sorted to one harm, because a hurricane brings wind AND flood water (B2), so type 1's exemplar is a described thunderstorm and the bank note bars the hurricane; PP-10's card gives the wind without its name (B1); PP-8 chains thunderstorm → lightning → the rod without printing either word (B3); every best-explanation card carries an observation that rules out EACH wrong explanation (F3–F5, S7, S17); the seven MCQ keys re-spread to B C A D B C D after the cold read.
James's rulings applied. Hard items are typed, never MCQs (28 Sep night): three text-entry types. Easy and medium are four-option MCQs. Every best-explanation item puts the observations on a DRAWN evidence card so the stem stays one or two sentences; the explanations are parallel single statements, never a verdict with its reason; no stem leans on a video; every stem is a positive question; no item figure carries a verdict mark; no headache character (Isadora, Rupert, Harriet) appears; bank names (Rosamund, Cordelia, Philippa, Marguerite, Henrietta) appear in no quiz or practice item. Nothing James has rejected appears here.
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; the engine prints Correct / Not quite). Tags follow depth of reasoning: easy = one weather named for its harm, one harm for its damage, one defense for what it holds back, or one evidence card read for the explanation that fits; medium = two steps (weather → harm → defense), a judgement about which observation kills a named explanation, or an explanation that is a defense at work; hard = the answer produced, not recognised, after two steps or a read of the evidence.
The ten types
| Type | Item | Atom | Tag | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PP-1 | EAR3-013 | easy | MCQ | a named weather that brings ONE harm: which harm does it bring | the four harms: flood water / strong wind / lightning / deep snow | a tornado crossing a Kansas farm |
| 2 | PP-2 | EAR3-013 | easy | MCQ | a named harm: what damage does it do | four damages, parallel events | strong wind at a Michigan lakeside campsite |
| 3 | PP-3 | EAR3-014 | easy | MCQ | a DESCRIBED defense at a place: what does it hold back | the four harms | a row of tall trees along the west side of a South Dakota farmhouse |
| 4 | PP-4 | SR3-022 | easy | MCQ, drawn | a drawn evidence card: which explanation fits everything observed | four single-sentence explanations | Rosamund's trampoline in the neighbor's field |
| 5 | PP-5 | EAR3-013 + EAR3-014 (pair) | medium | MCQ | a described weather: which defense holds back the harm it brings | four defenses | a week of rain, the creek behind an Iowa school rising to its doors |
| 6 | PP-6 | SR3-022 | medium | MCQ | a named student's explanation: which observation shows it does not fit | four observations, one read from Topic 22's table word "calm" | Cordelia's wind and the recycling bin |
| 7 | PP-7 | SR3-022 + EAR3-014 (pair) | medium | MCQ, drawn | a drawn evidence card after a flood: which explanation fits everything observed | four explanations, the key a defense at work | one dry, dusty floor on Philippa's flooded street |
| 8 | PP-8 | EAR3-014 + EAR3-013 (pair) | hard | text | a described weather: type the name of the defense the farmer puts on the roof | term_accept("lightning rod", "lightning rods") | summer thunderstorms on a Montana farm |
| 9 | PP-9 | EAR3-014 | hard | text | a named defense in use: type the harm it holds back | term_accept("wind", "strong wind", "winds", "strong winds") | Marguerite's grandpa's storm shutters in Alabama |
| 10 | PP-10 | SR3-022 + EAR3-013 (pair) | hard | text, drawn | a drawn evidence card: type the harm that did this damage | the same wind list | Henrietta's street: shingles off three roofs, two trees down, every fence leaning east |
Hard because (type 8): two steps — the weather names the harm (lightning), the harm names the defense (a lightning rod) — and the stem prints neither word. Hard because (type 9): the harm is produced, and the defense's name does not contain it ("storm" is the trap). Hard because (type 10): the observations are read off the card (shingles and trees down are wind's damage; fences leaning one way is the wind's direction), the harm that fits them is chosen against the two the card rules out (no water, no snow), and it is typed — the card never prints "wind". Medium because (type 5): two steps, both recognised. Medium because (type 6): the student holds the explanation up against four observations and finds the one it contradicts, read from the class table's wind word. Medium because (type 7): the explanation that fits is a defense doing its job.
Bank notes for the generator. Type 1: with all four harms as options, only a weather that brings ONE harm is an honest instance — a tornado (strong wind), a blizzard (deep snow), rain for days with the river over its banks (flood water). A hurricane is NEVER an instance (wind and flood water), and a thunderstorm is not either with strong wind or flood water among the options (the cold reader defended both) — a thunderstorm → lightning item is a two-option quiz form, not a bank form. Type 3: never a lightning rod or a snow fence by name (the name contains the harm), and the windbreak only as "a row of trees" DESCRIBED; a levee, sandbags and storm shutters by name are honest. Type 9 the same in reverse: storm shutters, a levee, sandbags. Types 4, 7 and 10: every evidence card carries an observation that rules out EACH wrong explanation, one that gives the weather that night in Topic 22's words ("the wind howled from the west"; "the rain gauge reads 24 mm"; "the class table says calm"), and never the harm's name as a word the student can match to the answer. Type 5 and type 8: "rain for days, the water rising" → sandbags or a levee, and "thunderstorms" → a lightning rod are the two clean chains; a hurricane's wind → storm shutters is honest for type 5 only when the stem says "the hurricane's wind".
Coverage (every atom alone, and the pairs)
| Atom | Types testing it alone | Pair types |
|---|---|---|
| EAR3-013 weather can turn dangerous (the harm, the damage) | 1, 2 | 5 (with EAR3-014), 8 (with EAR3-014), 10 (with SR3-022) |
| EAR3-014 judge a hazard defense (what it holds back) | 3, 9 | 5, 7 (with SR3-022), 8 |
| SR3-022 choose the best explanation | 4, 6 | 7 (with EAR3-014), 10 (with EAR3-013) |
Two alone-types per atom. Order in the file: easy PP-1…PP-4 → medium PP-5…PP-7 → hard PP-8, PP-9, PP-10. Keys of the seven MCQs, in file order: PP-1 B · PP-2 C · PP-3 A · PP-4 D · PP-5 B · PP-6 C · PP-7 D (one A, two B, two C, two D — no letter over 35 %). Typed items: 3 of 10 on the sheet; in a bank of about fifty, types 8, 9 and 10 supply the 12–15 typed items on fresh places and fresh cards.
Design-move inventory (every move on the page, then the bank's)
| Move (what the student does with what) | Lesson-side instances | Bank exemplar |
|---|---|---|
| a named weather → the harm it brings | L01 q1 (Hector's river), q2 (a Colorado blizzard), q7 (a Nebraska thunderstorm, two options); PR-10 (which weather brings lightning, reversed); SUMMARY-1 (deep snow → a blizzard, reversed) | PP-1: a tornado crossing a Kansas farm, four harms — the quiz has no tornado sort (its tornado is Ismael's claim), and a tornado is the one weather that brings one harm |
| a named harm → the damage it does | L01 q3 (a Kansas farm's wind), q8 (lightning at a tree), q10 (Rosalind's flood water); L01-V (the drawn flood at a door); PR-7 (Vermont snow) | PP-2: strong wind at a Michigan campsite, four full-sentence damages — the quiz's wind item is a farm with verb-phrase options; a campsite and the sentence form are the change |
| damage seen → the harm that did it | PR-1 (Tallulah's street, drawn) | the read inside PP-10 (typed) — no alone type |
| a named or drawn defense → what it holds back | L02 q1 (Louisiana shutters), q2 (the Wyoming fence, drawn), q3 (the school rod, drawn); L02-V (the bakery sandbags); SUMMARY-2 (the barn rod); PR-4 (the rod, typed); PR-11 (a levee, typed) | PP-3: a row of trees along a farmhouse, DESCRIBED — the windbreak appears in no item; PP-9: storm shutters in use on a grandpa's Alabama beach house, the harm typed (the quiz's shutters item asks the other way round, on Lucinda's street) |
| judge a plan: does this defense hold back the harm coming | L02 q4 (Matilda's sandbags), q7 (Tallulah's rod), q8 (Barnaby's levee against wind), q9 (Rosalind's dad's shutters against snow); PR-8 (Dulce's rod against wind) | none — a bare yes / no has two options; the bank's judgement lives in type 5 |
| a named harm → the defense for it | L02 q10 (Lucinda's windows), q11 (Ismael's river); PR-2 (a hurricane's wind → storm shutters) | folded into PP-5 as the second step |
| a described weather → the defense (two steps) | — (PR-2 names the harm in the stem) | PP-5: a week of rain, a school creek → sandbags across the doors (no MCQ option set elsewhere offers sandbags as the chosen defense); PP-8: Montana thunderstorms → the rod, typed |
| a defense stops the weather (claim) | L02 q5 (Hector: the levee stops the rain); PR-3 (Barnaby: the snow fence stops the snow) | none — the correction lives in the type-3 / type-9 whys |
| one explanation against one observation (scaffold) | L03 q1 (Tallulah's bike), q2 (Ismael's dry garden) | none — a scaffold is a lesson move |
| a drawn evidence card → the explanation that fits everything | L03 q3 (Rosalind's flag pole), q4 (Barnaby's tomatoes), q7 (Ismael's hat), q9 (Tallulah's window); L03-V (Dulce's trash can); SUMMARY-3 (Hector's shed door); PR-5 (Matilda's puddle) | PP-4: Rosamund's trampoline in the field — a new object, a new card, a fourth option; PP-7: the one dry floor after the flood — the explanation is sandbags at work |
| which observation shows a named explanation does not fit | L03 q6 (Ambrose's squirrel and the clean-cut hose); PR-9 (Dulce's bear and the paw prints) | PP-6: Cordelia's wind and the recycling bin — the killer is Topic 22's table word "calm", read not seen |
| the best explanation is the one you like (claim) | L03 q5 (Lucinda) | none |
| an unseen event can still be the best explanation (claim) | L03 q8 | none |
| read the evidence, name the harm, produce it | — | PP-10: Henrietta's street on Thursday morning, the harm typed — the only typed evidence item |
| the term by recall | L01 q11, L02 q12–q13, L03 q10, PR-12…PR-15 | none — the practice set's job |
Re-read after the rewrites: no bank exemplar shares a scene or a person with a lesson, quiz or practice item, and no two exemplars share a move.
The exemplars, in full
Type 1 — PP-1 · EAR3-013 · easy
Stem: A tornado crosses a farm in Kansas. Which harm does the tornado bring?
- flood water
- strong wind ← key
- lightning
- deep snow
Why: A tornado is a spinning column of very strong wind that reaches the ground. / So the harm it brings is strong wind.
Type 2 — PP-2 · EAR3-013 · easy
Stem: Strong wind reaches a lakeside campsite in Michigan. What damage does strong wind do?
- It blocks the roads.
- It soaks the floors of houses.
- It knocks trees down. ← key
- It sets roofs on fire.
Why: Each harm does its own damage. / Strong wind pushes on trees and roofs. / So it knocks trees down and tears shingles off.
Type 3 — PP-3 · EAR3-014 · easy
Stem: A row of tall trees stands along the west side of a farmhouse in South Dakota. What does the row of trees hold back?
- strong wind ← key
- flood water
- lightning
- deep snow
Why: A row of trees beside a house is a windbreak. / The trees take the wind, so the house behind them is out of the wind. / So the row of trees holds back strong wind.
Type 4 — PP-4 · SR3-022 · easy · drawing evidence_pp_trampoline
Card: What Rosamund observed — 1. The trampoline lies upside down in the field, thirty steps away. 2. All night, the wind howled from the south. 3. The trampoline's legs are bent, not unscrewed. 4. There is no snow on the ground. 5. The frame is shiny, with no rust.
Stem: Here is what Rosamund observed about the trampoline. Which explanation fits everything she observed?
- Somebody unscrewed the legs and carried it away.
- Deep snow crushed the trampoline.
- The frame rusted and fell over.
- Strong wind blew the trampoline into the field. ← key
Why: The wind howled from the south all night. / The legs are bent, not unscrewed; the frame is shiny; there is no snow. / Only the wind explanation fits all of that.
Type 5 — PP-5 · EAR3-013 + EAR3-014 · medium
Stem: Heavy rain has fallen all week, and the creek behind a school in Iowa is rising toward its doors. Which defense holds back the harm this weather brings?
- a lightning rod on the roof
- sandbags stacked across the doors ← key
- storm shutters over the windows
- a snow fence beside the road
Why: A week of rain has filled the creek, so the harm coming is flood water. / A wall of sandbags across a doorway holds back flood water. / So the sandbags are the defense.
Type 6 — PP-6 · SR3-022 · medium
Stem: Cordelia says the wind knocked over the recycling bin in the night. Which observation shows her explanation does not fit?
- The bin is blue.
- The bin stands by the curb.
- The class weather table says last night was calm. ← key
- The bin's lid is off.
Why: The class weather table says last night was calm. / Calm means almost no wind. / So that observation shows the wind explanation does not fit.
Type 7 — PP-7 · SR3-022 + EAR3-014 · medium · drawing evidence_pp_dryhouse
Card: What Philippa observed after the flood — 1. Flood water covered the street up to the doorsteps. 2. Every house on the street has a wet floor, except one. 3. Sandbags are stacked across that house's doorway. 4. All the houses are the same age. 5. The dry floor is dusty; nobody has mopped it.
Stem: Here is what Philippa observed after the flood on her street. Which explanation fits everything she observed?
- That house is newer than the others.
- The flood water never reached that house.
- Somebody mopped that floor before anyone looked.
- The sandbags held the flood water back from that house. ← key
Why: The flood water reached every doorstep. / All the houses are the same age, and the dry floor is dusty, not mopped. / Sandbags are stacked across the dry house's doorway. / Only the sandbags explanation fits all of that.
Type 8 — PP-8 · EAR3-014 + EAR3-013 · hard · text entry
Stem: Thunderstorms come to a farm in Montana every summer. Type the name of the defense the farmer puts on the barn roof.
Accept: lightning rod · a lightning rod · the lightning rod · lightning rods (the grader folds case)
Why: A thunderstorm brings lightning. / A metal rod on the roof, with a wire to the ground, gives lightning a safe path. / So the farmer puts a lightning rod on the barn roof.
Hard because: two steps (thunderstorm → lightning → the defense), the stem prints neither "lightning" nor "rod", and the defense is typed.
Type 9 — PP-9 · EAR3-014 · hard · text entry
Stem: Before the storm, Marguerite's grandpa closes the storm shutters over the windows of his beach house in Alabama. Type the harm the shutters hold back.
Accept: wind · strong wind · winds · strong winds, each bare and with an article (generated by term_accept)
Why: Storm shutters are strong covers that close over the windows. / They hold back the wind and the things the wind throws. / So the harm the shutters hold back is strong wind.
Hard because: the harm is produced, not recognised, and the defense's name does not contain it.
Type 10 — PP-10 · SR3-022 + EAR3-013 · hard · text entry · drawing evidence_pp_shingles
Card: What Henrietta observed on Thursday morning — 1. Shingles from three roofs lie all over the street. 2. Two trees lie across the road. 3. Every fence on the street leans toward the east. 4. There is no water and no snow on the street.
Stem: Here is what Henrietta observed on her street on Thursday morning. Type the harm that did this damage.
Accept: the same wind list
Why: Shingles are off three roofs and two trees are down: that is strong wind's damage. / Every fence leans the same way, the way a wind pushes. / There is no water and no snow. / So the harm was strong wind.
Hard because: the observations are read, the harm they fit is chosen against the two they rule out, and it is typed — the card never prints the word.