Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ efd8fba · v2 fix pass (reviews of 2 Oct applied) @ e23b67f · v3 polish (Reader C) @ e23b67f
Topic 34 — How plants make their own food — the PP100's question types, with their exemplars (v3, 2 October 2026)
v2 (reviews applied, same day): Selena → Dora as claim-maker; PP-37 is a words-only item (no chain card prints LIGHT in the bank; the two drawn type-10 items keep a "?" where they ask); PP-16 and PP-33 take he / she forms of their fixed sets; PP-20 is a young lettuce plant (moss survives a month under a bucket); PP-21 names the light never switched on; PP-22's key is "The roots take in water from the soil, not food."; PP-23, PP-24, PP-29, PP-42, PP-46 and PP-50 rewritten so no key is the odd shape (check_key_tells.py: 0 of 94); PP-54's why says the rice came FROM a plant. Letters unchanged: A 11 · B 13 · C 10 · D 13.
v3 (Reader C's re-read applied, same day): PP-50 (type 16) has four badger statements of one shape and one length, the key "A badger gets its energy from the food it eats." at C; PP-27's key moved to C and PP-45's to A so the bank's string has no three keys in a row on one letter (the bank's own run was PP-26/27/28; the runs Reader C saw were the bundle's shuffle); SUN accepts every light form with and without its article; Wendy is Wendy in every claim. Letters now A 11 · B 12 · C 11 · D 13.
In one line: 54 items, 47 four-option MCQs and 7 typed; seventeen types; LIF4-010 (a plant makes its food) carries the easy tier plus three medium and four hard term items; LIF4-011 (an animal cannot) runs easy to medium with two hard reason items; LIF4-012 (trace the energy) is medium and hard only. MCQ keys A 11 · B 12 · C 11 · D 13 (v3).
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 (content/G4T34_pp100_bank.py); this sheet is the way in. Tags follow depth of reasoning — easy = one fact or a one-step sort; medium = the rule applied to a fresh case, a reason picked, or a drawn chain read; hard = two or more links chained, a claim judged by its correct reason, a path built, or a term produced — and rise with the atom's order. Every hard item carries a one-line "hard because" (hb) in the bank file.
Rulings already applied. Four options on every MCQ (six fixed sets, rotated so the key moves: where-the-food-is-made "in its leaves / in its roots / in the soil around it / in its flowers"; what-from-the-air "carbon dioxide / water / sugar / soil"; what-the-food-is "sugar / soil / water / sunlight"; the dark "It turns pale, then dies / It grows faster than before / It makes its food from the soil instead / Nothing changes"; how-an-animal-gets-food "It eats plants or other animals / It makes food in its body / It takes in food from the soil / It makes food from sunlight"; where-the-energy-came-from "from the Sun / from the soil / from the water it drank / from its own body" — a fixed set is whitelisted from the longest-option check because the same words sit under every item); no option bundles a verdict with its reason (every claim is "X is wrong when she says … What is the correct reason?" with four single-statement reasons, the key never the longest); every stem is a positive question of at most two sentences (S23 clean); an item chain card prints "?" where it asks and its blind text is the boxes and chips as data; "carbon dioxide" is recalled by MCQ among its sisters (RECALL_BY_MCQ, 13 letters); the typed keys are "sugar", "leaves" and "the Sun" (lexicon words, spellable, child spellings and article forms in the accept lists); no multi-select; every item names ONE atom; US spelling; units as words.
The bar list (real things a generated item must never use): "photosynthesis", "chlorophyll", "oxygen" as something the leaf gives out, "producer", "consumer", "predator", "prey" (not this topic's words); "eats sunlight", "food from the soil", "drinks" for roots, "captures", "traps", "soaks up", "fuel" (the language rules); a mushroom or other fungus as a food-maker (not a plant; Topic 35's decomposers); any plant whose leaves are not the obvious food-maker to a child (a cactus's spines are left to the practice set's "which makes its own food" only); a non-US animal (hedgehog, camel, python, tortoise, dormouse); any lesson scene (the sunflower on the windowsill, the second sunflower in the closet, Wendy's cat in the window, the cow, the hawk, the bear, the lizard on the rock, the rabbit and the grass, the owl and the mouse and the seeds, Dora's milk and the store, the intro's lunch on the field with the apple and the sparrow); any quiz, attached or practice scene (pumpkin, corn, maple, apple tree, fern, tomato, rose bush, strawberry, pepper, hamster, elk, frog on a lily pad, goat, clover, squirrel, snake on a rock, dog, goldfish, horse and hay, the beach, caterpillar and bush, groundhog, coyote, wheat, bread, hamburger, deer, hen and egg, heron, beetle and bluebird, sheep, wolf, oak and acorns, grapevine, bean, jay, spinach in a basement, pelican, cactus, rattlesnake, roadrunner, bison, grasshopper and mockingbird, cereal and the farmer, peach, cricket and skunk, bobcat and quail); a claim-maker from another topic's row (only Sally, Wendy and Dora); "biggest / smallest" for a count.
The seventeen types
| Type | Items | Atom | Tags | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scenes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 010 | easy | MCQ, fixed set | where a named plant makes its food | in its leaves / roots / the soil around it / flowers | a cedar, a cabbage, a dandelion, a blueberry bush |
| 2 | 3 | 010 | easy | MCQ, fixed set | what a leaf takes in from the air | carbon dioxide / water / sugar / soil | ivy, a cattail, a palm |
| 3 | 4 | 010 | easy | MCQ, fixed set (+ one root item) | what the food a leaf makes is; what a root takes in | sugar / soil / water / sunlight; sugar / light / water / carbon dioxide | a pecan tree, moss, cotton, a root |
| 4 | 3 | 010 | medium | MCQ, fixed set | what happens to a watered plant kept in the dark | turns pale then dies / grows faster / makes food from the soil / nothing | basil in a box, moss under a bucket, a houseplant in a windowless bathroom |
| 5 | 3 | 010 | medium | MCQ | the correct reason a soil-food or eats-sunlight claim is wrong; what a leaf needs to make sugar | four single statements | a lemon tree, a young birch, a tulip |
| 6 | 5 | 011 | easy | MCQ, fixed set | how a named animal (or a boy) gets its food | eats plants or other animals / makes food in its body / takes in food from the soil / makes food from sunlight | a raccoon, a trout, a woodpecker, a prairie dog, a boy |
| 7 | 4 | 011 | easy, medium | MCQ | which of four living things makes its own food; which must eat | one plant among three animals; one animal among three plants | chipmunk-crow-cardinal-moss; mule-tulip-turtle-trout; tulip-cattail-chipmunk-dandelion; cardinal-palm-moss-cabbage |
| 8 | 3 | 011 | medium | MCQ | why a sun-warmed animal must eat; which of two makes its own food; the true sentence about a plant-eater | four single statements | a seal, a beaver and a tree, a manatee |
| 9 | 5 | 012 | medium | MCQ, fixed set | where the energy in a named eater's food came from in the end (one or two links, in words) | from the Sun / the soil / the water it drank / its own body | a chipmunk, a duck, a bald eagle and a salmon, a girl's oatmeal, a mountain lion and a porcupine |
| 10 | 3 | 012 | medium | MCQ, drawn chain (two) and a chain in words (one) | the blank first box; the blank first chip; which of three named links got its energy straight from the Sun's light | the Sun / pond water / farmer / mud; soil / rain water / wind / light; the three links / all three | a duck's chain, a toad's chain, a kingfisher and its fish (words only, v2) |
| 11 | 1 | 010 | hard | MCQ keyed on the term | the gas named from what the leaf does with it | oxygen / water vapor / dust from the air / carbon dioxide | the definition |
| 12 | 2 | 010 | hard | typed | the name of the food a plant makes | sugar, a sugar, the sugar, sugars, suger, shugar, sugur, sugre, suggar | a grape vine, a pine seedling |
| 13 | 1 | 010 | hard | typed | the part of a plant that makes its food | leaves, the leaves, its leaves, leaf, a leaf, the leaf, its leaf, leafs, leeves, leavs, leves, the leafs | a cotton plant |
| 14 | 2 | 011 | hard | MCQ | a named child's claim that an animal makes its own food is wrong: the correct reason | four one-clause reasons, three half-accepting the belief | a turtle on a sunny log; a pig's stomach |
| 15 | 3 | 012 | hard | MCQ | the path the energy took, built from a scene told backwards; the only food-maker in a three-link story | four paths; four living things | shrimp noodles; honey from wildflowers; an eagle, a rat and grain |
| 16 | 4 | 012 | hard | MCQ | a named child's claim about where food's energy came from is wrong: the correct reason (the factory; an eater of animals cut off from the Sun; the sea water; sunshine on the animal) | four one-clause reasons | orange juice; a vulture and an opossum; a shark; a badger |
| 17 | 4 | 012 | hard | typed | where the energy came from in the end, after a two-link trace or for a made food | the Sun, sun, the sun, sunlight, the Sun's light, light from the Sun, from the Sun, sunshine, the Sun's energy, the sunn, the son, teh sun … | a crab and a snail; peanut butter; a bat and moths; rice with turkey |
Hard because — type 11: the term is recalled from what the gas does, no clue word in the stem. Types 12, 13, 17: the word is produced, not picked, and in 17 only after a two-link trace. Type 14: the belief (sunlight on an animal makes food; an animal's body makes food) is judged by the lesson's reason against three reasons that half-accept it. Type 15: the path is built from a scene told in reverse order, or two ideas are chained (who makes food, inside a three-link trace). Type 16: each claim is judged by its correct reason, which needs the trace held against the belief, and every distractor moves the source somewhere else plausible.
One exemplar per type, in full
Type 1 (easy, LIF4-010). A cedar tree stands in a yard in Oregon. Where does the tree make its food? — in its leaves / in its roots / in the soil around it / in its flowers. Why: A plant makes its own food in its leaves. A cedar tree is a plant. So the cedar tree makes its food in its leaves. (nearest lesson-side instance: L01-q1, the pumpkin plant, three options, a Grade 3 recall — here four options and a tree)
Type 2 (easy, LIF4-010). Ivy grows up a brick wall. Which of these do the ivy's leaves take in from the air? — water / carbon dioxide / sugar / soil. (nearest: L01-q3, the maple, three options)
Type 3 (easy, LIF4-010). A pecan tree makes its own food in its leaves. What is that food? — soil / water / sugar / sunlight. (nearest: L01-q4, the apple tree, three options)
Type 4 (medium, LIF4-010). A basil plant in a pot is watered every day, but it is kept inside a closed cardboard box for three weeks. What happens to the basil plant? — It turns pale, then dies. / It grows faster than before. / It makes its food from the soil instead. / Nothing changes. (nearest: L01-q5, the fern in the closet — here the dark is a box, and "nothing changes" is the fourth belief)
Type 5 (medium, LIF4-010). Wendy is wrong when she says a lemon tree gets its food from the soil. What is the correct reason? — The roots take in food from the soil only at night, when the soil is cool. / The soil feeds the tree only after it rains, when the soil is wet. / The tree takes in its food from the soil through its leaves. / The roots take in water from the soil, not food. (nearest: L01-q6, the tomato plant, bare yes / no — here the reason is picked)
Type 6 (easy, LIF4-011). A raccoon lives in a park in Michigan. How does the raccoon get its food? — It eats plants or other animals. / It makes food in its body. / It takes in food from the soil. / It makes food from sunlight. (nearest: L02-q2, the elk, three options)
Type 7 (easy, LIF4-011). Which one of these living things makes its own food? — a chipmunk / a crow / a cardinal / moss. (nearest: L02-q4, goat / clover / squirrel, three options)
Type 8 (medium, LIF4-011). A seal floats in sunny water for hours, then dives to catch fish. Why must the seal eat? — It cannot make its own food. / The water is too cold for it. / Fish are the only animals in the sea. / The sunlight gave it too much food. (nearest: L02-q8, the horse and the hay — here the sun-warmed animal of the lesson's near miss, in the water)
Type 9 (medium, LIF4-012). A chipmunk eats nuts from a hickory tree. Where did the energy in the chipmunk's food come from in the end? — from the Sun / from the soil / from the water it drank / from its own body. (nearest: L03-q3, the groundhog and the clover, three options)
Type 10 (medium, LIF4-012, drawn). Here is the energy chain for a toad in a garden, with the first arrow's chip blank. What carries the energy from the Sun to the cabbage? — the soil / the rain water / the wind / the light. (figure pp_chain_chip; blind text: the four boxes and the chips as data; nearest: L03-q2, the groundhog's chain with the first BOX blank — here the chip is the blank)
Type 11 (hard, LIF4-010). A leaf takes in this gas from the air and uses it, with water, to make sugar. What is the gas called? — oxygen / water vapor / dust from the air / carbon dioxide. (nearest: L01-q10, the same term recognised among three; PR-10)
Type 12 (hard, LIF4-010, typed). A grape vine's leaves make the vine's food on a sunny day. Type the name of the food they make. — accept: sugar, a sugar, the sugar, sugars, suger, shugar, sugur, sugre, suggar. (nearest: PR-12, the peach tree, typed in the practice set)
Type 13 (hard, LIF4-010, typed). A cotton plant makes its own food in one part of itself. Type the name of that part. — accept: leaves, the leaves, its leaves, leaf, a leaf, the leaf, its leaf, leafs, leeves, leavs, leves, the leafs. (nearest: L01-q1 / PR-1, the part picked among three)
Type 14 (hard, LIF4-011). Sally is wrong when she says a turtle on a sunny log makes its own food, like a plant does. What is the correct reason? — The turtle's body makes no sugar from the sunlight. / The turtle makes food only when it is in the water. / The turtle gets too little light on the log. / The turtle makes its food at night instead. (v2: "no leaves" is not the course's test — Topic 35 says so — and the ", so" clause marked the key) (nearest: L02-q5, the snake on the rock, bare yes / no)
Type 15 (hard, LIF4-012). A boy eats a bowl of noodles with shrimp. The shrimp ate tiny sea plants. Which path did the energy take to reach the boy? — the shrimp → the sea plants → the Sun → the boy / the Sun → the sea plants → the shrimp → the boy / the sea plants → the Sun → the shrimp → the boy / the Sun → the shrimp → the sea plants → the boy. (nearest: L03-q9, the hen's egg, "where from in the end" — here the whole path is built)
Type 16 (hard, LIF4-012). Sally is wrong when she says a vulture that eats a dead opossum got none of its energy from the Sun. What is the correct reason? — The vulture gets its energy from the Sun's warmth while it flies. / The opossum ate plants, and plants get their energy from the Sun's light. / The opossum got its energy from the Sun's warmth on its back. / A vulture makes its own food, so it needs no energy from anything else. (nearest: L03-q8, Wendy's deer-warmth claim, bare yes / no)
Type 17 (hard, LIF4-012, typed). A crab eats a snail, and the snail ate seaweed. Type where the energy in the crab's food came from in the end. — accept: the Sun, sun, the sun, Sun, sunlight, the sunlight, the Sun's light, the sun's light, the suns light, light from the Sun, light from the sun, from the Sun, from the sun, sunshine, the sunshine, the Sun's energy, the sun's energy, the sunn, the son, teh sun. (nearest: L03-q11 and PR-13, typed after a two-link chain on land — here the chain is in the sea)
⟂ draw constraints (an item that prints another's answer; near twins — never served in one test)
- PP-11 (the root takes in water) ⟂ PP-22 (its key says "The roots take in only water from the soil").
- PP-24 (what the leaf needs: water, carbon dioxide and the energy the light carries) ⟂ PP-5 / 6 / 7 (carbon dioxide from the air) and PP-38 (the term) and PP-23 (the light carries energy to the leaves).
- PP-38 (carbon dioxide named) ⟂ PP-5 / 6 / 7 (its stem repeats their key's job).
- PP-37 (which of three named links got its energy straight from the Sun's light: the water plants) ⟂ PP-46 (the only food-maker is the wheat plant) — one move in two scenes. (v2: PP-37 carries no drawing, so the v1 ⟂ with PP-35 / PP-36 / L03-02 — one filled card showing the others' blanks — is dissolved.)
- PP-12–16 (the how-an-animal-gets-food fixed set; PP-13 and PP-16 share the key position) — draw one per test.
- PP-30–34 (the where-the-energy-came-from fixed set; PP-30 and PP-34 share the key position) — draw one per test.
- PP-35 (the blank first box is the Sun) ⟂ every type 9 and type 17 item (their key).
- PP-39 / PP-40 (typed sugar) ⟂ PP-8 / 9 / 10 (sugar as an option) — recognition before recall holds by draw order: a typed sugar item is served only after one of PP-8 / 9 / 10.
- PP-41 (typed leaves) ⟂ PP-1–4 (leaves as an option) — same draw order rule.
- Near twins, draw one per test: PP-19 / 20 / 21 (the dark); PP-25 / 26 (which must eat); PP-17 / 18 (which makes its own food); PP-51–54 (typed the Sun); PP-47–50 (the claim reasons).