1. In science, a hypothesis must be
A) a known fact
B) testable
C) derived from a theory
D) able to be proven absolutely true
2. Which of the following includes all the others?
A) atom
B) cell
C) organism
D) ecosystem
3. A carbon atom of mass number 12 and a carbon atom of mass number 14 are
A) covalent B) compounds C) ions D) isotopes
4. A chlorine atom has 17 protons, 18 neutrons, and 17 electrons. The atomic number of
chlorine is A) 8 B) 17 C) 35 D) 52
5. If you place the probe of a pH meter in lye or sodium hydroxide (NaOH), it will read
pH 14. Sodium hydroxide is A) an acid B) neutral C) a base
6. This polysaccharide forms fibers that are a major component of plant cell walls:
A) glucose B) starch C) cellulose D) glycogen
7. Glycerol is a building block of A) starch B) enzymes C) vegetable oil D) DNA
8. Which of these types of molecules contain nitrogen?
A) polysaccharides B) proteins C) steroids
9. Prokaryotic cells, with no nucleus or membranous organelles, are found in
A) animals B) bacteria C) fungi D) plants
10. The main function of a ribosome is to A) extract energy from glucose
B) synthesize glucose C) store food in the form of fat
D) synthesize proteins
11. Mitochondria A) package proteins for secretion from cell B) contain chromosomes
C) are sites of oxidation of glucose to generate ATP D) synthesize proteins
12. The plasma membrane consists of A) a single layer of phospholipid molecules
B) a double layer of phospholipid molecules in which proteins are embedded
C) several layers of protein and carbohydrate molecules
D) a triple layer of phospholipids and carbohydrates
13. The movement of molecules from a region of low concentration across a membrane
to a region of high concentration by use of ATP energy is A) active transport
B) diffusion C) passive transport D) osmosis
14. The oxygen in our atmosphere is produced by A) greenhouse effect
B) cellular respiration C) photosynthesis D) volcanic eruptions
15. Yeast cells break down glucose anaerobically into
A) ethanol and CO2 B) lactic acid and CO2
C) lactic acid and H2O D) ethanol and H2O
16. The net energy gain from complete cellular respiration is
A) 2 ATP B) 4 ATP C) 8 ATP D) 36-38 ATP
17. Carbon dioxide is released in A) the light-dependent phase of photosynthesis
B) the Krebs cycle C) glycolysis D) the Calvin cycle
18. If the concentration of glucose in the water outside of a cell is higher than the
concentration inside, A) water will tend to enter the cell by osmosis B) water will
tend to leave the cell by osmosis C) glucose will tend to enter the cell by osmosis D) glucose will tend to leave the cell by osmosis
19. What happens if a red blood cell is placed in a hypertonic solution?
A) the cell will shrink B) the cell will swell and may burst
C) the cell will remain the same size
20. Which of the following is not a characteristic of enzymes? A) they are proteins
B) they are used up in each reaction, thus need to be produced in large quantities s C) they
act on specific substances called substrates D) they speed up the rate of chemical reaction
21. Which of these does not have to be present for photosynthesis to occur?
A) water B) carbon dioxide C) glucose D) chlorophyll
22. Each new cell produced by this process will have an identical copy of all
chromosomes and genes possessed by the parent cell: A) meiosis B) mitosis
23. During the first division of meiosis, A) chromosomes separate at the centromere
B) homologous chromosomes separate C) chromosomes become triploid
24. The number of chromosomes in a human egg cell is A) 4 B) 23 C) 46 D) 48
25. In the notation A = normal, a = albino, the genotype aa describes
A) heterozygous B) homozygous dominant C) homozygous recessive
26. If two normal parents have an albino child, the genotypes of the parents are
A) AA x Aa B) Aa x Aa C) Aa x aa D) aa x aa
27. A father with genotype IAIA and mother with phenotype ii would produce children
with blood type: A) A B) B C) AB D) O
28. A change in DNA base sequence from CATAC to CACAC would describe
A) mutation B) replication C) transcription D) translation
29. Which of these processes does not occur in the nucleus?
A) DNA replication B) transcription C) translation
30. tRNA molecules contain anticodons and carry amino acids to be used in this process:
A) mutation B) DNA replication C) transcription D) translation
31. Exchange of genes between maternal and paternal chromosomes before the first
division of meiosis is caused by
A) X-linkage B) crossing over C) replication D) cytokinesis
32. Which is not a subunit of DNA? A) adenine B) guanine C) uracil D) phosphate
33. A karyotype of an individual with Down syndrome has how many chromosomes?
A) 3 B) 23 C) 46 D) 47
34. If a heterozygous male mates with an albino female, what percentage of albino
children would be expected? A) 0% B) 25% C) 50% D) 75% E) 100%
35. A father with genotype IAIB and mother with phenotype O could produce children
with these blood types: A) AB only B) A and B only C) A, B, and AB only
D) A, B, AB, and O
36. During DNA replication, an old DNA strand with base sequence ATCTGAGTA
would serve as a template to form a new complementary strand with the base sequence:
A) TAGACTCAT B) ATCTGAGTA C) AUCUCUGUA
37. In peas, tall (T) is dominant to dwarf (t) and, on a separate chromosome set, purple
flower (P) is dominant to white flower (p). If Gregor Mendel crosses the genotypes TtPp
and ttPp, what is the expected ratio of phenotypes in the offspring?
A) 9/16 tall purple flowered, 3/16 tall white, 3/16 dwarf purple, 1/16 dwarf white
B) 3/8 tall purple flowered, 1/8 tall white, 3/8 dwarf purple, 1/8 dwarf white
C) 1/4 tall purple flowered, 1/4 tall white, 1/4 dwarf purple, 1/4 dwarf white
D) 3/4 tall purple flowered, 1/4 dwarf white
38. Queen Victoria's son Leopold had hemophilia, which is caused by a sex-linked
recessive gene (Xh). Leopold lived to be 31 years old and fathered a normal daughter.
What is the genotype of his daughter?
A) XHXH B) XHXh C) XhXh D) XHY
39. Microevolution by genetic drift is more likely in
A) large populations B) small populations
40. New alleles appear in a species by A) genetic drift B) mutation
C) gene flow D) natural selection
41. Speciation is most likely when a huge continental population of a snail species
A) undergoes genetic drift B) is forced north by global warming
C) is divided in two over the eons by the rise of a mountain range
42. The insect wing, bat wing, and bird wing are
A) analogous structures B) homologous structures
43. Groups of organisms that interbreed in nature and are reproductively isolated from
other such groups defines A) communities B) hybrids
C) families D) species
44. Certain species of ants protect, and receive food from, certain species of acacia trees
in the tropics. This exemplifies A) predation B) mutualism C) competition
45. The most important cause of species extinction due to humans in recent centuries is
A) disease B) global warming C) genetic engineering D) habitat loss
46. Logistic population growth will level off at a number of organisms that are
A) ten times the number in the original population B) the exponential line
C) equal to the number of niches D) the carrying capacity K of the environment
47. If the decomposers were removed from an ecosystem, the other organisms would
eventually die because A) green plants would run out of necessary minerals in the
soil B) green plants would lose their energy source C) herbivores must eat
decomposers D) decomposers release oxygen needed by the other organisms
48. The source of energy for an ecosystem is A) nutrients in the soil B) water
C) sunlight D) recycled energy from decomposers
49. Fungi are primarily A) producers B) herbivores C) carnivores D) decomposers
50. If deer are placed on an island with a constant, renewable food supply and a stable biological
community with predators, the growth curve after several decades would be described as a
A) J-curve [exponential] B) S-curve [logistic]
51. Fats contain more energy per gram than carbohydrates or proteins because
A) fat molecules contain a lower percentage of carbon atoms
B) fat molecules contain a lower percentage of hydrogen atoms
C) fat molecules contain a lower percentage of oxygen atoms
D) fat molecules contain a higher percentage of adipose atoms
52. John has type B blood. John's father has type O blood. Mary has type A blood. Mary's mother is type B. The possible blood types of John and Mary's daughters are
A) AB only B) A or AB only C) B or AB only D) A, B, AB or O
53. Colorblindness (Xb) is X-linked and recessive. Blondie is normal, and not a carrier,
but her husband Dagwood is colorblind. If their daughter Cookie marries a normal
man, what phenotypes can Cookie expect in her sons?
A) all normal B) 1/2 colorblind, 1/2 normal C) all colorblind
54. Professor Hotsun is studying a desert ecosystem containing fig trees, fig-eating rats, rat-
eating snakes, and snake-eating lizards. Which organism in this food chain is considered the producer?
A) fig trees
B) rat-eating snakes
C) snake-eating lizards
D) fig-eating rats
55. If the fig trees in Question #54 produce one million kcal of energy, about how much energy would be contained in the population of snake-eating lizards?
A) 100,000 kcal
B) 50,000 kcal
C) 10,000 kcal
D) 1000 kcal
Here is a list of mRNA codons and their amino acids. Use this information to answer #56 and #57 :
AAU - asparagine AUC - isoleucine CAA - glutamine CAU - histidine
CGU - arginine CUU - leucine GAA - glutamate GAU - aspartate
GCA - alanine GGC - glycine UGU - cysteine
56. The sequence of amino acids of Arginine-Alanine-Glutamine would be coded by this
sequence of bases on mRNA : A) GAAGCAGGC B) CGUGCACAA
C) GCACGTGAA D) CGUGCACUU
57. A sequence of bases on a DNA strand of GAACTTGTA would code for this amino
acid sequence:
A) Leucine-Asparagine-Alanine B) Aspartate-Glutamate-Alanine
C) Glutamine-Cysteine- Histidine D) Leucine-Glutamate-Histidine
58. You are a writer for "Consumer Reports" magazine and you are asked to design an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of three brands of whitening strips for teeth. Describe how you would do this using the scientific method. Include all of the steps, control group, experimental groups, independent and dependent variables.
59. Describe three structures found in plant cells but not animal cells. Describe the function of each structure, and how each benefits plant cells but is not necessary for animal cells.
60. Your biology class is performing an osmosis experiment. You are given three identical stalks of celery and three salt solutions of varying solute amounts. The data table below compares the solute amount of the celery stalks to the solutions.
Solute Amount of the Solution Water Amount of the Solution
Solution A less than the celery stalk more water than the celery stalk
Solution B same as the celery stalk same water as the celery stalk
Solution C more than the celery stalk less water than the celery stalk
a). Identify which solution is isotonic, hypertonic, or hypotonic to the celery stalk cells
b). Describe what happens when the celery stalk is placed into each of the respective solution.
61. Dihybrid cross. The kernels (seeds) on an ear of corn are all offspring of one set of parents. There are 2 pairs of alleles on separate homologous chromosomes (purple or yellow kernels on one pair, plump or shrunken kernels on another). Yellow (Y) is dominant to purple (y) and plump (P) is dominant to shrunken (p). If the genotype of parent plants are YyPp and yyPp, what are the expected probabilities of the genotypes and phenotypes of the offspring kernels? Explain your reasoning.
62. A population of grasshoppers in the Kansas prairie has two color phenotypes, with 90% of the grasshoppers green and 10% brown. Typically in the last century, the prairie receives adequate rain to maintain healthy green grass, but for the last decade the prairie suffers a severe drought and is also invaded by a bird that eats grasshoppers.
Briefly explain in terms of the four parts of natural selection listed below how the population of grasshoppers would be expected to change during the drought years.
overproduction -
variation -
competition & survival -
differential reproduction -
63. Explain why top carnivores, such as eagles and tigers, have low population densities in nature. Include processes of the energy pyramid (trophic levels) in your answer.
64. Describe an environmental problem that you feel is the most urgent worldwide. Which areas of the world are suffering the most from the problem? Propose a solution to the problem.