Are all the questions and answers given suitable according to the paragraph?

Hi teachers,
Grant and Flash build houses. Grant is a good builder and Flash is a bad builder. Grant builds houses slowly but well, and Flash builds houses quickly but badly. Grant is a much better builder than Flash. Flash once built a house which fell down three months later."

According to the paragraph above, are they suitable questions and answers?

a) What do they do? They build houses.
b) Who is a bad builder? Flash is.
c) How does Grant build houses? He builds them slowly but well.
d) How does Flash build houses? He builds them quickly but badly.
e) Is Flash a better builder than Grant? No, he isn't. He is a worse one.
f) What happened to Flash once? He built a house that fell down three months later.

Could you tell me better ones, please?

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Originally Posted by learning54

Hi teachers,
Grant and Flash build houses. Grant is a good builder and Flash is a bad builder. Grant builds houses slowly but well, and Flash builds houses quickly but badly. Grant is a much better builder than Flash. Flash once built a house which fell down three months later."

According to the paragraph above, are they suitable questions and answers?

a) What do they do? They build houses.
b) Who is a bad builder? Flash is.
c) How does Grant build houses? He builds them slowly but well.
d) How does Flash build houses? He builds them quickly but badly.
e) Is Flash a better builder than Grant? No, he isn't. He is a worse one.
f) What happened to Flash once? He built a house that fell down three months later.

Could you tell me better ones, please?

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a) OK, but I think for the very first question, it would be better to say "What do Grant and Flash do?" rather than "they".
b) Fine. You can also say "Which one of them is a bad builder?" or "Who is the bad builder (of the two)?"
c) Fine.
d) Fine.
e) Fine, but you should also expect the correct response "No. Grant is a better builder than Flash."
f) Fine, although of course many things have probably happened to Flash once. Only one is mentioned in the story. You could perhaps say "What does the story tell us once happened to Flash?"

As happens sometimes with your comprehension questions, they are a mixture of questions where the question and answer contain words which are found in, and can be taken directly from, the text, and questions where the students have to show that they really understand the wording of the question first.

a, b and f are all very easy to understand and to copy the answer.
c, d and e are better (in my opinion) because, for example, c) and d) use "How ...?" If the student doesn't understand that single word, they can't answer the question without just guessing.
Personally, I would make e) more challenging by changing the question to "Is Grant a worse builder than Flash?" The word "worse" does not appear in the text so you are testing whether your students understand the connection between "better" and "worse".

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Originally Posted by emsr2d2

a) OK, but I think for the very first question, it would be better to say "What do Grant and Flash do?" rather than "they". Thank you for your suggestion.
b) Fine. You can also say "Which one of them is a bad builder?" or "Who is the bad builder (of the two)?" I like yor version.
c) Fine.
d) Fine.
e) Fine, but you should also expect the correct response "No. Grant is a better builder than Flash." You've told about it in an earlier post, but thanks anyway.
f) Fine, although of course many things have probably happened to Flash once. Only one is mentioned in the story. You could perhaps say "What does the story tell us once happened to Flash?" Yes!! You are very right.
Could the answers to this one be:
a) He once built a house, which fell down three months later.
b) Once he built a house, which fell down three months later.

As happens sometimes with your comprehension questions, they are a mixture of questions where the question and answer contain words which are found in, and can be taken directly from, the text, and questions where the students have to show that they really understand the wording of the question first. That's the idea. A few are easy, they help them to feel good and then they have the challenge of the other ones. What do you think about it?

a, b and f are all very easy to understand and to copy the answer.
c, d and e are better (in my opinion) because, for example, c) and d) use "How ...?" If the student doesn't understand that single word, they can't answer the question without just guessing.
Personally, I would make e) more challenging by changing the question to "Is Grant a worse builder than Flash?" The word "worse" does not appear in the text so you are testing whether your students understand the connection between "better" and "worse". I will definitely take this one.

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Aside: According to this question, 'Is Grant a worse builder than Flash?'
Are both answers suitable?
a) No. He is better.
b) No. He is a better one.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Best,
Learning.

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Originally Posted by learning54

Aside: According to this question, 'Is Grant a worse builder than Flash?'
Are both answers suitable?
a) No. He is better.
b) No. He is a better one.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Best,
Learning.

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I would prefer "No, he is a better builder". I can't quite put my finger on why, but "one" sounds odd there. If your students are familiar with the "No + comma + next clause" then hopefully some of them will go for that instead of two separate sentences.

Since you joined the forum, L54, you have posted hundreds of questions, texts and definitions for our comments. You are welcome to do this, of course, but it does rather seem that you are spending a lot of time trying to re-invent the wheel.

Have you not considered using or adapting published course books, or some of the material, much of it very good, freely available on the internet? This would give you a lot more free time to concentrate on preparing your lessons, rather than spending hours on preparing materials, when there is good material prepared by native-speaking teachers (and experienced non-native speakers) available in seconds.

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Originally Posted by emsr2d2

I would prefer "No, he is a better builder". I can't quite put my finger on why, but "one" sounds odd there. If your students are familiar with the "No + comma + next clause" then hopefully some of them will go for that instead of two separate sentences. Yes, they are familiar with that structure.

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Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
Is there a difference between them?
a) No, he is a better builder.
b) No, he isn't. He is a better builder.

Best,
Learning

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Since you joined the forum, L54, you have posted hundreds of questions, texts and definitions for our comments. You are welcome to do this, of course, (thank you very much) but it does rather seem that you are spending a lot of time trying to re-invent the wheel. You are probably right. But I see no harm in that.

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Have you not considered using or adapting published course books, or some of the material, much of it very good, freely available on the internet? Yes, I have. In fact, many times. But I prefer to have mine.

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This would give you a lot more free time to concentrate on preparing your lessons, rather than spending hours on preparing materials, when there is good material prepared by native-speaking teachers (and experienced non-native speakers) available in seconds. You are right. I will have a lot more free time to concentrate on preparing my lessons, but if you don't mind I prefer to do it my way.

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Hi,
Thank you for your suggestions and comments, but I guess I'm too old to change these things.

Best,
Learning.