repetition of the variable in the function

I am writing a program which works as a mathematics tester. This program partially works fine when the user choose 1 as a difficulty and makes 3 mistakes it exit the loop and so on. But due to repetition of the variables, if statement in the loop and in the function making it not work properly. Like if the user doesn't make any mistake the function loop doesn't end it keeps going. Need some guidance on this. Thanks

import random
print ("Welcome to Maths Tester Pro. \nSelect a difficulty:\n1) Easy\n2) Medium\n3) hard")
while True:
    difficulty = input("> ") #input variable
    #repetition of the entire if statement
    if difficulty == '1': #this statement works only if the user difficulty = 1    
        lives = '3' #repetition
        maxNum = '10' #repetition
        print("\nIf “Easy” was chosen… lives = 3 and maxNum = 10\n")
        break
    elif difficulty == '2': #this statement works only if the user difficulty = 2   
        print("\nIf “Easy” was chosen… lives = 2 and maxNum = 25\n")
        lives = '2'#repetition
        maxNum = '25'#repetition
        break
    elif difficulty == '3': #this statement works only if the user difficulty = 3    
        print("\nIf “Easy” was chosen… lives = 1 and maxNum = 50\n")
        lives = '1'#repetition
        maxNum = '50'#repetition
        break


def Generatequestions(maxNum=50, lives=3): #repetition of maxNum and lives
    finish = False
    questioncounter = 1
    correctquestions = 0 #repetition
    operator = random.choice("+-")
    while not finish:
        for QuestionCounter in range(10):
            #repetition again of the if statements
            if difficulty == '1':
                number1 = random.randint(1,maxNum-40)
                number2 = random.randint(1,maxNum-40)
                pass
            elif difficulty == '2':
                number1 = random.randint(1,maxNum-25)
                number2 = random.randint(1,maxNum-25)
                pass
            elif difficulty == '3':
                number1 = random.randint(1,maxNum)
                number2 = random.randint(1,maxNum)
                pass
            print("Question", questioncounter, "of 10,", lives, "lives remaining.\n")
            questioncounter += 1
            userinput = input("What is " + (str(number2) + str(operator) + str(number1) + "?")) 
            answer = eval(str(number2)+ str(operator)+str(number1))
            if str(userinput) == str(answer):
                print("Correct.\n")
                correctquestions += 1
            else:
                lives -= 1
                print("incorect ",answer, "is the answer.\n")
                if lives == 0:
                    print("Out of lives, game over!")
                    return False
            break        
        else:
            finish=True 
Generatequestions()

correctquestions = 0 #repetition causing it not to work properly

print ("\nResults\nYou scored ",correctquestions,"/10." )
percentage = int((correctquestions/question)*100)
if correctquestions >= question/2:
    print (percentage,"% - you passed")
else:
    print (percentage,"% - you failed")