Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ efd8fba

Topic 37 — Life cycles of plants and animals — the PP100's question types, with their exemplars (v1, 2 October 2026)

In one line: 52 items, 46 four-option MCQs, 4 typed, 2 order; sixteen types; every item on exactly one atom; difficulty rises with the atom (LIF4-040 mostly easy; 044 medium and hard only). MCQ keys A 10 · B 12 · C 12 · D 12.

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/G4T37_pp100_bank.py); this sheet is the way in. Each type line says what the stem asks and what the options (or the accept list) are, and prints one exemplar in full below.

Rulings already applied. Four options on every bank MCQ (two fixed sets: the carrier set "the wind / water / an animal's fur / an animal that eats the fruit", word for word the lesson's four cards; the sister-term set for the two class words). The long coined words (pollination, fertilization, germination, complete change, gradual growth) are recalled by MCQ (RECALL_BY_MCQ); the typed keys are short closed words inside the lexicon (pollen, seeds, water, warmth). Claims are bare yes / no or "X is wrong … What is the correct reason?" with four single statements. Every lettered ring reads its letters from ONE list (figures.STAGE_SETS); every order key runs first → last, the stem's way.

The bar list (real things a generated item must never use): no flower part by its name (stamen, anther, stigma, ovary, ovule — grades 6-8); no "nectar" (the course says "sweet juice"); no "larva", "nymph", "pupa" or "metamorphosis" in an item; no self-pollinating plant as a no-pollen case; no dragonfly, mayfly or salamander in a sort (their young are debatable at this grade); no rattlesnake or other animal whose life-cycle claim a child could dispute; no animal from outside the US; no scene from the lessons, quizzes, intro or practice (the list is in the build record).

The sixteen types

Hard because — type 3 / 8 / 12: the word is produced, not picked. Type 7: the term from its whole definition among sisters. Type 13: a claim judged by its correct reason, which needs the lesson's idea held against the belief (the one-animal idea against "two animals"; the gradual-growth frame against "every insect"); the sea beans chain two ideas (an air-filled coat floats → water carries → lands along the coast). Type 15's hard ring: the wings come last, so the winged glyph must be found among three wingless ones. Type 16's toad: a half-changed stage placed between the tadpole and the toad.

One exemplar per type, in full

Type 1 (easy, LIF4-040). Inside a tulip, the little stalks around the middle end in knobs covered in yellow dust. What is the yellow dust called? — pollen / seeds / sap / soil. Why: The yellow dust on a flower's little stalks is called pollen. The tulip's knobs are covered in that yellow dust. So the dust is pollen. (nearest lesson-side instance: L01-q2, the cherry flower's part; here the name, on a tulip)

Type 2 (easy, LIF4-040). Which of these is pollination? — A moth carries pollen from one yucca flower into another. / Rain washes pollen off a flower onto the ground below it. / The wind blows a flower's petals into a garden pond. / A bee carries sweet juice from a flower back to its hive. (nearest: L01's y/n run, one scene per item; here four scenes in one item)

Type 3 (hard, LIF4-040, typed). A bee crawls out of a cotton plant's flower with yellow dust on its legs and carries the dust to the next flower. Type the name of the yellow dust. — accept pollen, the pollen, polen, pollin, pollon, pollen dust, polin, pollan. (nearest: PR-12, an orange tree; here cotton)

Type 4 (easy, LIF4-041). Pollen lands on the sticky top of a kiwi flower. What can that flower now do? — make more pollen / grow new petals / make seeds / grow a new root. (nearest: L02-q2, a pear flower)

Type 5 (medium, LIF4-041). A grower covers half the flowers on a pepper plant with small paper bags before any insect can reach them, and leaves the other half open. What happens by the end of summer? — Peppers grow only where the bagged flowers were. / Peppers grow where every flower was. / Peppers grow only where the open flowers were. / No peppers grow at all. (nearest: L02-q3, one netted bean flower; here half a plant, a comparison)

Type 6 (medium, LIF4-041). One cold, rainy spring, no bees fly for the two weeks the almond trees are in flower, and that fall the farm picks very few almonds. What is the reason? — The rain washed the flowers off the trees. / Cold stops almond trees from making any flowers. / The young almonds froze on the branches. / Hardly any pollen reached the almond flowers. (nearest: L02's FRQ, squash with no bees; here the reason is picked, on a tree crop)

Type 7 (hard, LIF4-044). Which words name the kind of life cycle in which the young looks nothing like the grown-up and its body changes completely? — gradual growth / complete change / pollination / germination. (nearest: L05's fixed-set items, which give a case; here the definition only)

Type 8 (hard, LIF4-041, typed). Pollen reaches a honeydew flower and joins with its inside part. Type what the flower can now make. — accept seeds, seed, a seed, its seeds, the seeds, new seeds, seads, seeeds, sedes, seedes. (nearest: L02-q2 picks "make seeds"; here produced)

Type 9 (easy, LIF4-042). A bear eats a bush full of blackberries and walks two miles into the woods before the seeds come out in its droppings. What carries the seeds away? — the wind / water / an animal's fur / an animal that eats the fruit. (nearest: L03-q5, a cardinal and holly berries)

Type 10 (medium, LIF4-042). A persimmon tree stands alone in a field, yet young persimmon trees come up along a fox's path through the woods each year. How did the seeds get there? — The wind blew the whole fruit along the path. / Rain water floated the seeds along the path. / The seeds came out in a fox's droppings. / The seeds rolled there by themselves. (nearest: L03-q9, floating seeds along a river; here the carrier is inferred from where the young trees are)

Type 11 (medium, LIF4-043). Which of these seeds will germinate? — a wheat seed in a dry jar on a warm windowsill / a wheat seed on a damp cloth in a cold freezer / a wheat seed in a dry jar in a warm, dark box / a wheat seed on a damp cloth in a warm, dark box. (nearest: L04's three cups, one at a time; here four cases sorted in one item)

Type 12 (hard, LIF4-043, typed). Zinnia seeds on a damp cloth sit in a cold cellar all winter, and none of them germinate. Type the one thing the seeds were missing. — accept warmth, warm, heat, being warm, warmness, a warm place, warm air, warmpth, wormth, warmeth, warmnes. (nearest: L04-q3 picks "warmth"; here produced)

Type 13 (hard, LIF4-044). Tamara is wrong when she says a young walking stick insect must turn into something that looks nothing like a walking stick before it is grown. What is the correct reason? — A walking stick has no young at all. / Every insect's young looks like a small grown-up. / A walking stick is not an insect. / Its young looks like a small grown-up. (nearest: L05-q11, the bare yes / no on "every insect"; here the reason, on a new insect)

Type 14 (medium, LIF4-044). Which of these animals has a life cycle of complete change? — a katydid, whose young looks like a small katydid / a horse, whose foal looks like a small horse / a june bug, whose young is a fat white grub / a duck, whose duckling looks like a small duck. (nearest: L05's two-option sorts, one animal each; here one of four)

Type 15 (medium, LIF4-044, drawn ring pp_ring_klmn). This ring shows a frog's life cycle, with its stages marked K, L, M, N. Which letter marks the stage with a tail and no legs at all? — K / L / M / N. Blind text: a ring of 4 stages with arrows running round it; at K: a cluster of six small clear balls with a dark dot in each; at L: a round dark green body with a wavy tail and no legs; at M: a round dark green body with a wavy tail and two small back legs; at N: a squat dark green body with four legs. (nearest: L05-q8 and q9, the butterfly and grasshopper rings)

Type 16 (hard, LIF4-044, order). Put the stages of a toad's life in order, from first to last. — eggs in the pond → tadpole → tadpole with back legs → toad. (nearest: PR-3, the frog's three stages; here four, with the half-changed stage)

Draw constraints (⟂) for the test builder

• PP-6 (the dust came from the little stalks) ⟂ PP-1 (the dust is called pollen): PP-1's key word sits in PP-6's stem.
• PP-22 (the joining is called fertilization) ⟂ PP-40 (typed: what the flower can now make — "seeds"): PP-22's stem says "where a seed can form".
• PP-50 and PP-51 (the two class words from their definitions) ⟂ every type-14 item on the same draw, and ⟂ each other.
• PP-16 (the root comes out first) ⟂ PP-32 (the oat seed order).
• PP-36 (frog ring, the tadpole) ⟂ PP-47 (the toad order) ⟂ PP-48 (tadpole and frog, by reason).
• The two typed need items (PP-44 water, PP-45 warmth) ⟂ PP-29 (the cold garage pot: "warmth") and PP-15 (water and warmth).

Items changed at review (v2, 2 October 2026)

PP-9 key "the tiny parts deep inside, in the green cup" (distractors equalised) · PP-15 "spread" · PP-17 D "They hold a lot of sweet juice inside." (no purpose; distractors equalised) · PP-19 a gourd vine (peppers self-pollinate) · PP-20 "One rainy spring" (no "cold"; new distractors) · PP-27 "space and light" · PP-29 "planted" · PP-33 / PP-34 every option "whose young is a …" · PP-35 / PP-36 / PP-52 asked by name (the caterpillar; the tadpole; the grown grasshopper) — the frog ring's third stage is a young frog with a short tail, so "the tadpole" names one stage · PP-38 "a small brown cicada with no wings" · PP-40 "Type what the flower can now make inside it", accept list 19 forms · PP-43 "Those seeds would crowd under the parent." Bar list additions: no self-pollinating plant as a no-pollen case (beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes, wheat, oats). Simplification list: a seed also needs air (PP-46 says only water and warmth). Draw constraint added: the item rings' blind text states the convention "arrows running clockwise from the stage at the top". Zoey replaces Tatum as the third child.

Items changed at polish (v3, 2 October 2026)

PP-9 key "the tiny parts deep inside the green cup" (the comma cut; it was the only option with one; the distractors are within four characters of the key). Reader C's PR-02 and PP-36 notes are answered in the build record's v3 section and left as built. Key-tell checker after the change: KEY TELLS: 0 of 116 MCQs flagged.