Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ efd8fba · v2 fix pass (the 2 Oct reviews) @ e23b67f · v3 polish (Reader C's re-read) @ e23b67f
Topic 36 — Traits from parents, and traits from life — the PP100's question types, with their exemplars (v2, 2 October 2026)
v3 (polish, the same evening, after Reader C's full re-read): PP-13's third option is now "from the hot sun on the building site" (the bricks' weight was the key said again); PP-39's key is one clause, "He learned to ride, so it is an acquired trait.", and its long distractor carries the same joiner and is longer; the claim-maker Sonia is now Paula (PP-39, PP-43); keys, tags, atoms and the ten forms are unchanged; check_key_tells.py → KEY TELLS: 0 of 121 MCQs flagged.
v2 (the three reviews applied, same day): the claim-maker Stella is now Tina; every where-from option is in the lexicon's frame with no tail ("from how it lived" / "from its parents", the two scene distractors kept and shortened — PP-9 to PP-13); the three by-reason keys are one clause ("An acquired trait stays with the one that got it." PP-38; "A learned behavior stays with the animal that learned it." PP-46; "Hunting is an instinct it was born knowing." PP-47); PP-17 and PP-18 offer four bare traits of one shape; the five card items (PP-21, 22, 28, 33, 34) read FACT rows — THE TRAIT / FIRST SEEN / ITS PARENTS / WHAT HAPPENED TO IT, or WHAT IT DOES / THE FIRST TIME / WHO SHOWED IT — never yes / no / partly; check_key_tells.py → KEY TELLS: 0 of 120 MCQs flagged. Keys, tags, atoms and the ten forms are unchanged.
In one line: 50 items, 47 four-option MCQs, 1 multi-select, 2 typed ("trait"); ten forms; the role words (inherited trait, acquired trait, instinct, learned behavior) are recalled by MCQ among their sisters, never typed (James's brief for this topic); MCQ keys A 12 · B 12 · C 11 · D 12; no key is its item's longest option outside the two fixed sets.
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 (50 items in content/G4T36_pp100_bank.py); 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. The bank file's type_ numbers (1–20) are finer than the ten forms here; the mapping is in the table. Tags follow depth of reasoning — easy = one fact or a one-step sort with the evidence given; medium = the rule applied to a fresh case, one of four named traits picked, a drawn card read; hard = a claim judged by its correct reason, two ideas chained, a set answer, or a term produced — and rise with the atom's order: LIF4-030 (traits from the parents) carries easy items and two hard typed term items; LIF4-034 (traits from life) easy and medium; LIF4-031 (the sort) medium and hard; LIF4-032 (both) medium and hard; LIF4-033 (instinct or learned) medium and hard. Every hard item carries a one-line "hard because" (hb) in the bank file.
Rulings already applied. Every heritable-or-acquired stem carries its evidence (born with it and the parents have it; or the event in its life — training, an injury, food, where it grew) — vault A heritable-or-acquired check carries its evidence in the stem; a stem that only describes two individuals that differ never appears. Four options on every MCQ; two fixed sets, copied word for word from the lessons' box names: SORT4 = "an inherited trait / an acquired trait / both inherited and acquired / not a trait" (every option is a real key somewhere: "both" keys the LIF4-032 items; "not a trait" is a live distractor against the trait definition) and BEH4 = "an instinct / a learned behavior / both an instinct and a learned behavior / not a behavior". No option bundles a verdict with its reason (every claim is "X is wrong … What is the correct reason?" with four single-statement reasons). Every stem is a positive question of at most two sentences unless tagged hard (S23). An item card (Trait J … Behavior V) carries only FACT rows — THE TRAIT / FIRST SEEN / ITS PARENTS / WHAT HAPPENED TO IT (a behavior card: WHAT IT DOES / THE FIRST TIME / WHO SHOWED IT) — never the deciding word and never yes / no / partly (v2: the v1 rows printed the sorting questions already answered), and its blind text lists the rows as data. US spelling; units as words.
The bar list (real things a generated item must never use): "genes", "DNA", "heredity", "characteristic", "passed down / passed on" (a parcel a young reader takes literally — say "came from the parents"); "predator / prey"; any claim that an injury, a scar or a learned trick is inherited as a KEY; no body-shaming trait (weight, "ugly", "fat", "weak"); no human height item that compares children against each other (height only as "from both"); no real organism whose genetics the item does not know (a trait pair that is really two populations of one animal); any lesson scene (floppy-eared puppies and their brown coats; Tina's brown eyes and her scar; the sunflower; Paula's bike; Paula's running dog; the wind-bent pine; the board with two boxes; the dog fetching; Sylvia's height; the big dog and the small dog; the shed spider; the dog sitting on command; the robin chick; the parrot; the sea turtles; the begging dog); any quiz, attached or practice scene (the spotted horse, rabbit, lamb, pumpkin plant, curly hair, green frogs, duck, gray kittens, notched cat, skater, cart horse, maple by a wall, pepper plants, chin dimple, piano, trimmed park tree, chipped tooth, white-pawed kitten, rabbit's tuft, cupboard cat, horn buds, star-marked foal, whistling boy, Sylvia's swimming, thorn-scarred dog, big puppy, fox cub, jumping horse, tall corn, small lamb, blue-eyed boy, juggling, big calf, feed-bucket horse, dolphin, beaver, moth, city crow, kangaroo, pecking chick; the practice's geese, kittens in a litter, oak seedlings, zebra, sailor, woodpecker, mouse card, short parents, seal card, salmon, hummingbird, goldfish; the summary's owl chick, hot-pan scar, pouncing kitten); a claim-maker from another topic's row (only Paula, Tina and Sylvia); "biggest / smallest" for anything but size.
The ten forms (bank type_ numbers in brackets)
| Form | Items | Atoms | Tags | Shape | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A [1, 5, 4-predict] | 9 | 030, 034 | easy | MCQ, per-item options | where a trait came from, the evidence in the stem (born with it, the parents have it / the event in its life); once, what the young's trait will most likely be | from the parents / from something that happened in its life / two things around the animal that play no part | a cardinal chick; a strawberry runner; an otter's torn ear; a bricklayer's arms; a fawn's tail |
| B [2] | 2 | 030 | easy | MCQ | which of four things in a scene is a trait of the living thing | one thing that is part of the living thing, three things around it | a chipmunk; a rose bush |
| C [3, 6, 9, 15, 20] | 10 | 030, 034, 031, 032, 033 | easy → medium | MCQ | one living thing with three or four named traits and their evidence: which came from the parents / from how it lived / is acquired / came from both / is learned | the traits as plain nouns, singly or paired; "none of these" | a hamster; a donkey; a guinea pig; a llama; a cherry tree; a coyote; a turkey; an elephant; a wheat plant; a hen |
| D [7] | 2 | 034 | medium | MCQ | which of four traits a named living thing COULD get from how it lived | three traits every member has from the seed or birth, one shaped by an event or its surroundings | a pea plant; a black bear |
| E [8, 11, 16, 18] | 14 | 031, 032, 033 | medium → hard | MCQ, the fixed sets, five on drawn cards | which kind of trait / which kind of behavior this is, the evidence in the stem or on the card; the language link (born knowing = which kind of trait) | SORT4; BEH4 | a trout's spots; a pelican at the boats; cards Q R S T V; a drummer's daughter; a giraffe; a honeybee; a goat at a gate; a minnow; a pig and its bell |
| F [4] | 2 | 030 | hard | typed | the word for something a living thing has, from three fresh features | trait, traits, a trait, the trait, its trait(s), trate(s), trayt, trat, triat, trait. | a catfish; a cactus |
| G [10, 13, 17] | 6 | 031, 032, 033 | hard | MCQ | a named child's claim is wrong: what is the correct reason (the catalogued beliefs: an injury is inherited; a parent has it so it is inherited; size from the parents alone; a plant's size from its care alone; a trained animal's young born trained; every behavior learned by watching) | four one-clause reasons; three distractors that half-accept the belief; the key never the longest | a lizard's tail; a boy and his mother on horseback; two piglets; two bean seedlings; a circus pony; a baby alligator |
| H [14, 10-young, 19] | 4 | 031, 032, 033 | hard | MCQ | two ideas chained: the same parents (or the same care) rule out one cause, so what is the correct reason the two differ; a trained animal's young on the day they are born: which statement is true | four single statements | two fawns; marigolds of two kinds; a sheep and its lamb; a campground bear and her cubs |
| I [12] | 1 | 032 | hard | multi-select (the answer IS a set) | select the two things that played a part in a size | its parents' size / the food it got / two things around it (the halter's color, its name) | a pony |
| — | 50 | easy 13 · medium 22 · hard 15 |
Hard because — F: the word is produced, not picked. G: each claim is judged by its correct reason, which needs the lesson's rule held against the belief, and every distractor half-accepts the belief, so the key is not the odd one out. H: two steps (rule out one cause, then name the other; sort the behavior, then say what the young have from the start). I: a set, with two distractors that are things around the animal. E's link items: the behavior is sorted first, then matched to the kind of trait that is the same idea.
One exemplar per form, in full
A (easy, LIF4-034). An otter has a torn ear from a fight with another otter last spring. Where did the torn ear come from? — from its parents / from the cold river water / from the fish it eats / from how it lived. Why: Some traits come from how a living thing lived: something that happened during its life made them. The otter's ear was whole until the fight last spring. So the torn ear came from how it lived. (nearest lesson-side instance: L02-q1, the cat's notched ear, two options — here four, and the animal, the event and the season are new)
B (easy, LIF4-030). Which of these is a trait of a chipmunk? — the log it hides under / the acorns it stores / its stripes / the forest it lives in. Why: Something a living thing has or can do is called a trait. The stripes are part of the chipmunk itself; the log, the acorns and the forest are around it. So the stripes are a trait. (nearest: L01-q2, the rabbit's long ears against its hutch and carrots, three options)
C (medium, LIF4-034). A llama was born with brown wool like its mother, comes to the barn when the farmer claps twice because the farmer taught it, and has a bent ear tip from a fence wire. Which of these came from how it lived? — the brown wool / the brown wool and the bent ear tip from the wire / none of these / coming to the claps and the bent ear tip. Why: A trait that came from how a living thing lived was not there from the start. The brown wool was there at birth, like its mother's; the claps were taught, and the fence wire bent the ear tip. So the claps and the bent ear tip came from how it lived. (nearest: none on the lesson side — the quizzes ask one trait at a time; the form is new to the bank)
D (medium, LIF4-034). Which of these is a trait a black bear could get from how it lived? — black fur / a torn ear / a short tail / five claws on each paw. Why: A trait from how a living thing lived was not there from the start; an event made it. The fur, the tail and the claws were there at birth; the fight tore the ear later. So the torn ear came from how it lived. (nearest: L02's rule; no quiz item asks it this way round)
E (medium, LIF4-031, drawn card). Here is a trait card for a bull. Which kind of trait is Trait R? [card: THE TRAIT a bull's bent horn; FIRST SEEN when it was one year old; ITS PARENTS both have straight horns; WHAT HAPPENED TO IT it caught the horn on a gate as a calf] — an inherited trait / an acquired trait / both inherited and acquired / not a trait. Why: A trait that came from how a living thing lived is called an acquired trait. The card says the bent horn was first seen when the bull was one year old, after it caught the horn on a gate as a calf, and both parents have straight horns. So Trait R is an acquired trait. (nearest: L03-q8, Trait K the cupboard cat, two options — here the four-option set and a new animal and event)
F (hard, LIF4-030, typed). A catfish has long whiskers, smooth skin and a flat wide head. Type the word for something a living thing has, like each of these. — accept: trait, traits, a trait, the trait, its trait, its traits, trate, trates, trayt, trat, triat, trait. Why: Something a living thing has or can do is called a trait. Whiskers, smooth skin and a flat head are things the catfish has. So the word is trait. (nearest: L01-q9, the duck's webbed feet; a fresh animal and three fresh features)
G (hard, LIF4-033). A circus pony learned to bow on command. Tina says its young will be born knowing how to bow on command. Tina is wrong. What is the correct reason? — A learned behavior stays with the animal that learned it. / Ponies cannot learn to bow. / The young pony is born knowing how to bow only if both its parents were taught it. / A young pony is born knowing every behavior its mother has. Why: The pony was taught to bow during its life, so bowing on command is a learned behavior. A learned behavior stays with the animal that learned it. So the young pony is born without it, and Tina is wrong. (nearest: L05-q8, Paula's claim about her dog's puppies, bare yes / no — here the reason is the target and the animal and trick are new)
H (hard, LIF4-032). Two fawns from the same mother and father are raised apart. One gets plenty of leaves and grass and grows into a big deer; the other gets little food and grows into a small deer. What is the correct reason they differ in size? — Size comes partly from the food a living thing got while it grew, and they got different food. / They had different parents. / Size never comes from the parents at all, so the only thing that can matter is the food each fawn eats. / One fawn learned to be big. Why: The fawns had the same parents, so the parents' part of their size is the same. Size comes from both the parents and the food a living thing got while it grew. So the one that got plenty of food grew bigger. (nearest: L04's both rule; no quiz item holds one cause fixed to isolate the other)
I (hard, LIF4-032, multi-select). A pony grew into a big, strong pony. Select the two things that played a part in its size. — its parents' size / the color of its halter / the hay and oats it got while it grew / the name the farmer gave it. Why: A living thing's size comes from its parents and from the food it got while it grew. The halter's color and the pony's name are things around it, not things that shaped it. So its parents' size and its hay and oats played a part. (nearest: L04-q1, the big puppy, three options with "from both" — here the set itself is picked)
Draw constraints (⟂: never in one twenty-item draw)
- PP-38 (lizard's tail, reason: "an acquired trait stays with the one that got it") ⟂ PP-40 (sheep's lamb) ⟂ PP-50 (bear's cubs) ⟂ PP-46 (circus pony): each states the stays-with-the-one rule that answers the others.
- PP-42 (piglets, same parents) ⟂ PP-44 (fawns, same parents): one move, two scene kinds; drawn one per test.
- PP-43 (bean seedlings, same care) ⟂ PP-45 (marigolds, same care): the same.
- PP-26 (giraffe) ⟂ PP-27 (watermelon) ⟂ PP-28 (card S, apple tree): "both inherited and acquired" keyed three times on size; one per test.
- PP-36 ⟂ PP-37 (the two typed "trait" items): one per test.
- PP-48 (minnow link) ⟂ PP-49 (pig's bell link): the language link run both ways; one per test.
Design-move inventory (move · scene kind · nearest earlier item)
Lesson-side moves the bank was read against: where did a born-with trait come from (L01 q3, q4, q6, VQ; PR-4); which thing is a trait (L01 q2); predict the young's trait (L01 q1, q7; PR-1); where did a life-event trait come from (L02 q1–q4, q7–q9, VQ; PR-5); claim: plants have no traits (L01 q5); claim: every trait from the parents (L02 q6); sort inherited / acquired with evidence (L03 q1–q8, VQ; PR-6, PR-7); claim: a scar inherited (L03 q9); three-way sort with evidence (L04 q1–q8, VQ; PR-8); claims on size (L04 q9, q10); FRQ both (L04); sort instinct / learned with evidence (L05 q1–q7, VQ; PR-9, PR-10); claims: trained dog's puppies, animals learn everything (L05 q8, q9); the link (L05 q10; PR-11); term items (L01 q8–q9; L03 q10–q11; L05 q11–q12; PR-12–PR-15).
Bank moves and their scene kinds, one line each: PP-1 born-with trait, a songbird's feathers; PP-2 born-with, a farm animal's spots; PP-3 born-with, a plant's flowers via runners; PP-4 which-is-a-trait, a wild rodent; PP-5 which-is-a-trait, a garden plant; PP-6 pick the parents' trait of three, a pet rodent; PP-7 the same, a farm animal; PP-8 predict the young, a wild mammal's tail; PP-9 life-event trait, a river mammal's injury; PP-10 life-event, a language learned; PP-11 life-event, a farm bird's injury; PP-12 life-event, a plant trained on a fence; PP-13 life-event, a worker's strength; PP-14 pick the life traits of three, a pet rodent; PP-15 the same, a farm animal; PP-16 the same, a tree; PP-17 which trait could come from life, a garden plant; PP-18 the same, a wild mammal; PP-19 sort I, a fish's spots; PP-20 sort A, a sea bird's habit; PP-21 sort I on a card, a wild mammal's mask; PP-22 sort A on a card, a farm animal's horn; PP-23 sort A near miss, a skill the parent shares; PP-24 pick the acquired trait of four, a wild mammal; PP-25 pick the inherited trait, a farm bird; PP-26 both, a zoo animal's height; PP-27 both, a giant fruit; PP-28 both on a card, a tree's height; PP-29 pick the both trait, a zoo animal; PP-30 the same, a crop; PP-31 sort instinct, an insect's building; PP-32 sort learned, a farm animal's gate; PP-33 instinct on a card, an insect's migration; PP-34 learned on a card, a wild rodent's feeder; PP-35 pick the learned behavior of three, a farm bird; PP-36 typed trait, a fish; PP-37 typed trait, a desert plant; PP-38 claim-reason injury inherited, a reptile; PP-39 claim-reason parent-has-it, a skill on horseback; PP-40 the young born without a learned skill, a farm animal; PP-41 multi-select size, a pony; PP-42 claim-reason size from parents alone, two piglets; PP-43 claim-reason plant size from care alone, two bean seedlings; PP-44 same parents → food, two fawns; PP-45 same care → parents, two kinds of marigold; PP-46 claim-reason trained young, a circus pony; PP-47 claim-reason everything learned, a reptile hatchling; PP-48 link born knowing → inherited, a fish; PP-49 link picked up → acquired, a pet pig; PP-50 the young born without a learned behavior, a wild bear.