Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ b0fa825; v2 (2 Oct 2026, evening) → write-mcqs @ efd8fba; v3 (2 Oct 2026, night, Reader C's polish) → write-mcqs @ 69d9899
Topic 23 — The water cycle — the PP100's ten question types, with their exemplars
What this page is. James reads a bank as its question TYPES first (vault: A bank is reviewed as its question types first, one exemplar each). Under the Grade 4 standing brief the bank is built straight away (51 items in content/G4T23_pp100_bank.py after the v2 fix pass of 2 Oct, evening — 50 four-option MCQs and one multi-select; v1 had 53 after the non-author cold pass); this sheet is the way in. Each type line says what the stem asks, what the four options (or the accept list) are, and prints one exemplar in full. Tags follow depth of reasoning — easy = one fact or one step read off a described or drawn scene; medium = the rule applied to a fresh case, the reason picked, or a step placed in the loop; hard = two ideas chained, the loop counted or run backwards, a claim judged by its correct reason, a set answer, or a word produced — and the difficulty rises with the atom's position (EAR4-053 mostly easy; EAR4-057 medium and hard only).
Rulings already applied. Four options on every MCQ (two fixed sets: the steps set "evaporation / condensation / precipitation / collection", rotated per item so the key moves; the kinds set "rain / snow / sleet / hail"); every item tagged to exactly ONE atom; the easy tier leads the bank; typing is used where it produces a thing (four typed items: "cloud", "drops", "the sea", "the Sun" — all tagged MEDIUM after the cold pass, because each is one recalled everyday word; the three coined terms are nine letters or more and are recalled by MCQ by rule), so the hard tier is correct-reason claims, the loop counted or followed, the chained why and the set answer; one multi-select, where the answer genuinely is a set; no option bundles a verdict with its reason (every claim item is "X is wrong. What is the correct reason?" with four single-statement reasons); no reference list or step table sits on any item (the lettered loop is DATA the item reads, not the rule: it carries no step words); every stem is a positive question with a subject and a verb; key letters A 10 · B 16 · C 15 · D 7 over the 48 MCQs; US spelling; units as words.
The bar list (real things and words a generated item must never use): "runoff", "accumulation", "groundwater", "infiltration", "transpiration" (grades 6-8 words; the course says "collection", "soaks into the ground"); "steam" (the white cloud above a kettle is drops; the course never says steam); "humidity"; any cloud-type name (cumulus, cirrus…); "dry ice"; "the ocean" as the course's word (accepted in the typed sea item, but every stem and option says "the sea"); any temperature in degrees; any claim that a named real lake, river or sea never dries or never freezes; "frost" only as water that did NOT fall from a cloud; "fog" only as a cloud near the ground with nothing falling; "sleet" in its US sense (rain that freezes into small grains of ice as it falls) — never the British mix of rain and snow; "the Sun lifts / sucks / pulls the water up" only inside a child's claim that the key corrects; "gravity" — the course says "Earth pulls the big drops down"; a cloud "made of water vapor" (a cloud is tiny drops; water vapor is the invisible gas). Every character name comes from the topic's row of grade4/NAMES_POOL.md (Miss Hayes; Landon, Belle, Laura) and no other.
The ten types
| Type | Items | Atom | Tags | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scenes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 053 | easy | MCQ; one on drawn cards | which of four cases is precipitation (water that fell from a cloud); which card shows drops that did not fall from a cloud | four cases (snow on a town's roofs / fog in a valley / dew on a tent / fountain spray); the three lettered fall cards | snow on roofs by morning; cards N, P, Q |
| 2 | 7 | 053 | easy, medium | MCQ, the kinds set or four statements | which kind is liquid water; what hail is; which kind a described one is; which of two clouds has drops that joined (the dark one that rains); why a cloud does not fall; sleet named as the precipitation step | the kinds set; four single-statement reasons; the steps set | flakes freezing in a cold cloud; rain freezing as it falls; a thick dark cloud beside a thin white one; sleet on a Nebraska town |
| 3 | 8 | 054 | easy, medium | MCQ | where run-off water gathers first; where a river's water goes at the coast; where rain on soft soil goes; where a river's water comes from; what a stream's water does next; where drain water flows; where a pond's extra water came from; the one big place rivers reach (v2: the typed sea item made an MCQ) | four places or four happenings | snowmelt on a Colorado slope; a river at the coast; a meadow; a small stream through a flat Illinois farm (v2); a town's drains; a farm pond after a storm |
| 4 | 5 | 055 | easy, medium | MCQ, the steps set; two on the lettered loop | at which LETTER a named step happens (v2: the two lettered-loop items read step → position, the reverse of L03's position → step items); which step a described change is (water into the air; drops on a bike gone by morning; melted snow in a river) | the steps set, rotated | positions N and Q on the loop; a parked bike; snowmelt in a river |
| 5 | 5 | 055 | medium | MCQ | which step comes right before / right after a named step; the missing step; the step two steps on; the whole loop's name, recalled from a drop's story (v2) | the three other steps plus one Grade 3 sister word (melting / freezing) — the named step is never an option; water cycle / rain loop / cloud cycle / sea loop | before precipitation; after collection; evaporation → ? → precipitation; two steps after evaporation; the loop's name |
| 6 | 8 | 053 / 054 / 055 / 056 / 057 | medium, hard | MCQ | a named child's claim is wrong: what is the correct reason (the catalogued beliefs: a cloud is cotton wool; rain falls through holes; only the sea evaporates; the cycle has a start and an end; evaporated water is gone; the Sun sucks the water up; the Sun makes the rain fall; a drop in the ground has left the cycle) | four single-statement reasons | Laura's cotton-wool cloud; Landon's holes; Belle's sea-only evaporation; Laura's straight-line drawing of the cycle (v2); Landon's ballpark seats dry by afternoon (v2); Landon's sucking Sun; Belle's rain-making Sun; Laura's drop in the ground |
| 7 | 5 | 056 | easy, medium, hard | MCQ | what warms the water so it evaporates; the reason for July over January; what happens to sunlit water; an imagined removal (a lake with no Sun); why the Sun's energy matters for the rain though it does not make rain fall (two ideas chained) | four sources / four reasons / four happenings | a Wisconsin lake; a rock pool in the sun; a lake where the Sun never shines |
| 8 | 0 | — | — | typed | withdrawn in v2 (typing is for a coined term or a number; the three coined terms are nine letters or more and are recalled by MCQ; the two cloud items rode on L01's cloud section — the reviewer's cap) | — | — |
| 9 | 10 | 055 / 057 | medium, hard | MCQ; three on drawn drop cards (N, Q and, from v2, P — water vapor high up over the sea) | a drop's next step from a place on the card or in the stem (options are happenings); the step before a stated step; the step two steps on; the loop counted from a stated start; a three-step chain ending back at the start | four happenings, or three steps plus a sister word | drop cards N (snow on a mountain top) and Q (a hailstone); a rain barrel, asked as the step's name (v2); a cloud over the mountains; a steep roof; rain falling counted on; snow on a mountain followed to the sea |
| 10 | 1 | 054 | hard | multi-select | the TWO places where fallen water gathers | a lake / a cloud / the ground / the air | — |
Hard because — type 6 (hard items; the cotton-balls claim is medium, one step): each claim is judged by its correct reason, which needs the lesson's story held against the belief (tiny drops against cotton; drops joining and Earth's pull against holes; any water open to the air against sea-only; a loop with no start and no end against start-and-end; vapor → cloud → precipitation against gone-for-good; light carries energy → warm → evaporates against sucking; Earth's pull against a rain-making Sun; the ground as a collection place against leaving the cycle). Type 7 (hard item only): two ideas chained — the Sun's energy evaporates the water, and that water vapor is what makes the clouds and rain. Type 8 (all medium): the word is produced from its meaning, not picked — one step. Type 9 (hard items only): the loop is run backwards, counted on, or followed through three steps. Type 10: a set answer.
The design-move inventory, per type, against the lesson side (the type sheet's freshness column). Type 1 ↔ L01-q2…q7 (is this precipitation? yes / no): the bank form is four cases at once, never the yes / no form, and no quiz case (Chicago snow, fog over a lake, a sprinkler, an Iowa cornfield, Ohio sleet, dew on a car) reappears — the grep in the build record is the proof. Type 2 ↔ L01-q8 (what a cloud is made of, 3 options) and L01-q9 (why the drops fall, 3 options): the bank adds the fourth option and a scene ("a white puffy cloud floats over a farm"); the kinds-set items and the cloud-does-not-fall reason have no quiz twin. Type 3 ↔ L02-q1…q4: the bank changes the data (snowmelt, not rain; a river at the coast; a town's drains; a farm pond's extra water) and never the Vermont hillside or the paved parking lot. Type 4 ↔ L03-q3/q4 (positions J and L): the bank's render is a different lettering (R N P Q) and asks N and Q, the two positions the quiz did not. Type 5 ↔ L03-q5…q7 (which step comes next, in words): the bank asks before, missing and two-steps-on — new moves. Type 6 ↔ the quizzes' bare yes / no claims (L03-q8/q9, L04-q5/q6, L05-q9/q10): the bank's form is the correct-reason form and every belief is on a different scene. Type 7 ↔ L04-q3/q4/q9/q10: the WHAT (a rock pool, not a lake), the WHY (July over January, not sun over shade), the imagined removal (one lake, not the whole cycle — a SHARED move, scene kind differs, marked draw-one-per-test with L04-q9's twin only if a test ever drew lesson items), the chained why (no quiz twin). Type 8: no quiz item types anything (the coined terms are recalled by MCQ), so every typed item is new. Type 9 ↔ L05-q1…q8: the bank's drop cards carry fresh places (a city, a swimming pool, a hailstone), the bare items new places (a birdbath, a cloud over the mountains, a roof), and the chain items new counts (the step before; two steps on from precipitation, where the quiz counted from evaporation). Type 10: no quiz twin.
⟂ draw constraints (never in one test together, because one prints the other's answer or they are near twins). PP-11 ⟂ PP-12 (one render, two positions); PP-37 ⟂ PP-38 ⟂ PP-39 (the cotton-balls claim / typed "cloud" / typed "drops": each prints "tiny drops of water"); PP-42 ⟂ PP-50 (the holes claim / the rain-making-Sun claim: both key on "Earth pulls the big drops down"); PP-14 ⟂ PP-40 (what warms the water / typed "the Sun"); PP-21 ⟂ PP-23 (before precipitation / the missing step: both key condensation on adjacent facts); PP-24 ⟂ PP-51 (two steps after evaporation / two steps after precipitation: mirrored counts); PP-41 ⟂ PP-47 (the step before condensation / the loop counted from evaporation); PP-29 ⟂ PP-48 (the no-Sun lake / the chained why: both state that without the Sun's energy hardly any water evaporates); PP-35 (sleet named as precipitation) ⟂ every item whose stem prints "precipitation" (PP-01, PP-03, PP-04, PP-05, PP-06, PP-21, PP-23, PP-36); PP-36 (the loop's name) ⟂ every item whose stem prints "water cycle" (PP-11 … PP-13, PP-21 … PP-26, PP-45) — the test builder draws the two name items only beside items that do not print the name. Positions are the BUILT bank's (easy → medium → hard, as sorted in the file). v2 renumbering (three typed items cut, card P added at 39): PP-1 … PP-37 keep their numbers; old PP-41 → PP-38; new PP-39 (card P); old PP-42 … PP-53 → PP-40 … PP-51. The withdrawn constraints: PP-37 ⟂ 38 ⟂ 39 and PP-14 ⟂ 40 (the typed items are gone). Standing in v2 numbers: PP-11 ⟂ PP-12; PP-40 ⟂ PP-48 (holes / rain-making Sun); PP-21 ⟂ PP-23; PP-24 ⟂ PP-49; PP-39 ⟂ PP-38 (card P's vapor → condensation beside the step-before-condensation item: one prints the other's answer).
One exemplar per type, in full
Type 1 (easy, EAR4-053). Which of these is precipitation? — snow on a town's roofs / fog in a river valley / dew on a camping tent / spray from a fountain (v3: four options of one shape, so the key is no longer the longest). Why: Precipitation is water falling from clouds as rain, snow, sleet or hail. The snow fell from a cloud; fog, dew and spray do not fall from a cloud. So the snow on the roofs is precipitation. (nearest lesson-side instance: L01-q2, "Snow falls on a street in Chicago. Is the snow precipitation?", yes / no — here four cases are sorted at once and the three near misses are new)
Type 2 (medium, EAR4-053). A cloud floats in the sky without falling. What is the correct reason the cloud does not fall? — Its tiny, light drops float in the air. / It is made of smoke, which is lighter than air. / The Sun's light holds the cloud up. / The wind holds the cloud up from below. (v3: the key trimmed to the lesson's own words; it was the longest option) (nearest: L01-q8, what a cloud is made of — here the fact is used to explain a second observation)
Type 3 (medium, EAR4-054). After a rainstorm, a farm pond is fuller than before. Where did the extra water come from? — Water vapor from the air condensed into the pond. / Rain fell and ran off the fields into the pond. / Water came up from the sea. / The clouds pulled water down into the pond. (nearest: L02-q3, rain on a soft garden bed — a different move: the gathering read backwards from the fuller pond)
Type 4 (easy, EAR4-055, drawn). Here is the water cycle drawing with letter chips. Which step happens at N? — precipitation / collection / evaporation / condensation. Why: At N, the water vapor that went up has cooled into the tiny drops of a cloud. Water vapor turning back into liquid drops is condensation. So condensation happens at N. (figure pp_cycle_npqr: R at the left arrow, N at the cloud, P at the right arrow, Q at the water; its alt and blind text list what is drawn at each position — dots, a cloud, drops, water — and never a step word; nearest: L03-q3, position J on the J K L M render)
Type 5 (medium, EAR4-055). The steps go evaporation, then a missing step, then precipitation. Which step is missing? — collection / melting / condensation / freezing (the named steps are never offered; Grade 3's sister words fill the set). (nearest: L03-q6, "Water vapor has just condensed… Which step comes next?" — here the loop is read from both sides of a gap)
Type 6 (hard, EAR4-056). Landon says the Sun sucks the water up out of the lakes. Landon is wrong. What is the correct reason? — The Sun blows the water up with wind. / The Sun's light warms the water. It evaporates. / The Sun melts the lakes. / The Sun pulls the water up like a magnet. Hard because: the belief is judged against the mechanism (light carries energy, the water warms and evaporates; nothing is sucked up). (nearest: L04-q5, Belle's straw claim, bare yes / no — here the correct reason is chosen among four)
Type 7 (hard, EAR4-056). The Sun does not make the rain fall. Why does the Sun's energy still matter for the rain? — Its light pushes the clouds together. / Its warmth melts the hail into rain. / Its light pulls the rain down. / Its light warms the water, so water evaporates and there is water vapor to make clouds. Hard because: two ideas are chained — the Sun's energy evaporates the water, and the water vapor is what makes clouds and rain. (nearest: L04-q8, "Which of these does the Sun's energy do in the water cycle?" — one step; here the consequence for the rain is added)
Type 8 — withdrawn in v2. (v1 exemplar, kept for the record:) One thing's light carries the energy that warms the water on Earth so that it evaporates. Type the name of that thing. — accept: the Sun, Sun, sun, the sun, sunlight, the sunlight, sunshine, the sunshine; wrong_fb: wind → "Wind moves the air about, but it does not carry the energy that warms the water. The Sun's light does."; fire → "A fire warms a little. The energy that warms Earth's water comes from the Sun's light." Tagged medium after the cold pass: the energy source is produced as a name from its job — one step. (nearest: L04-q10, "Where does the energy that warms the sea come from?", the Sun / the wind / the sea floor — the picked form; this is the produced form)
Type 9 (medium, EAR4-057, drawn). Here is drop card Q. What happens to the hailstone on the card next? — It falls as hail. / It evaporates. / It condenses. / It flows into a river. (figure pp_drop_q: the card's WHERE row reads "a hailstone in a tall storm cloud", its WHAT HAPPENS NEXT row a question mark — the before card; the stem does not repeat the card, so the figure carries the data; nearest: L05-q6, a snowflake in a cold winter cloud, 3 options)
Type 9 (hard, EAR4-057). A drop is falling as rain from a cloud. Which step will it take two steps from now? — collection / evaporation / condensation / precipitation. Hard because: the loop is counted two steps on from a stated step. (nearest: L05-q8, two steps on from evaporation — here the count starts at precipitation; the cold pass's rewrite: "into a river" had put the drop at collection for a careful reader)
Type 10 (hard, EAR4-054, multi-select). Select the TWO places where fallen water gathers. — a lake / a cloud / the ground / the air. Hard because: a set answer — the two gathering places must be chosen together and the two air places left.
Multi-select count: one (the type 10 exemplar). Typed count: none in v2 (the four typed items of v1 — the sea, cloud, drops, the Sun — are cut or made MCQs; typing is for a coined term or a number). Hard tier (12): PP-40 … PP-51 in v2 numbers — six correct-reason claims, the multi-select, the loop counted, the chained why, two counts and a three-step chain. Keys (50 MCQs): A 12 · B 14 · C 14 · D 10. Bundled verdict + reason options: none.
v3 (2 Oct 2026, night). Reader C agreed every key on the v2 bundle and left four polish flags. In the bank: PP-01 (type 1 exemplar) now offers four options of one shape; PP-10's key is one clause ("from rain and melted snow off the land"); PP-16's key (type 2 exemplar) is the lesson's own words ("Its tiny, light drops float in the air."). Keys, tags, order and the ⟂ list are unchanged. The claim-maker Belle is renamed Belle in every item (Belle and Laura read as one child; the swap is recorded in grade4/NAMES_POOL.md). check_key_tells.py → KEY TELLS: 0 of 121 MCQs flagged.