If an ecosystem has a carrying capacity of 1,000 individuals for a given species and
2,000 individuals of that species are present, we can predict that the population
A) size will remain at equilibrium.
B) size will decrease.
C) will show a clumped dispersion pattern.
D) size will slowly increase.
In which of the following situations would plant reproduction be most likely to be
pollinator-limited?
A) a very large field of a single crop covering a large area
B) a field of wildflowers in a very cold region
C) a species of plant with a very long growing season
D) plants that produce large fruits
Which of the following features is unique to chordates?
A) bilateral symmetry
B) a coelom
C) a notochord
D) a complete digestive tract including an anus
Normal genes have a promoter followed by a start codon. In a mutant gene, the “A” in
the start codon has been deleted. Which of the following is not a possible outcome?
A) The normal protein will be produced.
B) A shorter protein will be produced.
C) A longer protein will be produced.
D) No protein will be produced.
Which of the following would violate the assumptions of the molecular clock?
A) comparison of genes of a species that lives deep in the ocean with relatives that live
on the surface and are exposed to strong mutation-inducing ultraviolet radiation
B) comparison of genes for homologous structures across many species
C) comparison of many genes in many species of insects that undergo metamorphosis
D) assuming that organisms in competitive environments have the same rate of
mutation as those in noncompetitive environments
Which of the following statements about deserts and the organisms that live there is
true?
A) Air temperatures in cold deserts, such as those west of the Rocky Mountains, may
never fall below 30C.
B) Growth and reproduction occur year-round in deserts.
C) Desert plants typically produce very few seeds.
D) Many desert animals are nocturnal.
After reading the paragraph below, answer the questions that follow.
Malnutrition can cause a variety of health problems, including being underweight, due
to unbalanced or insufficient diet. It is estimated that in 2015, approximately 14% of
preschool-age children globally will be underweight (WHO and UNICEF Joint Global
Nutrition Database, 2011). While this is a high percentage, it is a drop from
approximately 25% just 25 years earlier.
Consider the data table below and answer the questions that follow.
Which of the following regions has the greatest total percent decrease in estimated
prevalence (%) of underweight preschool children from 1990 to 2015?
A) Africa
B) Asia
C) Latin America and Caribbean
D) Oceania
Antibody molecules may function by causing the
A) destruction of complement proteins.
B) agglutination of viruses or bacteria.
C) solubilization of viruses or bacteria.
D) crystallization of antigenic particles.
Scientists interested in knowing the best way to restore an area after a temporary road
was built through it completed a study comparing two treatments: (1) restoring the
contour of an area so that there was no longer a depression or cut-through where the
road was previously and (2) simply abandoning the area to allow vegetation to return on
its own. They wanted to know whether either or both of these treatments would return
the aboveground vegetation and the belowground soil properties to their original state,
as seen in a similar area where there had never been a road.
Which of the following best describes the data that the scientists should collect and how
they should be compared?
A) comparison of plant species in the recontoured area, the abandoned area, and the
never-roaded area
B) comparison of properties of soil and plant species in the contoured area and
abandoned area
C) comparison of soil properties and species of plants present in the contoured area
with the never-roaded area and of the abandoned area with the never-roaded area.
D) comparison of soil properties only among all three areas since soil properties will
determine plant species
In a prokaryote, a group of genes with related functions, along with their associated
control sequences, defines
A) an allele.
B) an operon.
C) a locus.
D) a transposon.
In your backyard you overturn a large rock. In the damp soil underneath the rock, you
see various insects scurrying for cover: one black spider, five black ants, two brown
beetles, and three gray pillbugs. In this community of organisms, species richness is
represented by
A) the ants, since there are more of them than any other organism.
B) eleven total organisms.
C) four different species of organisms.
D) the ants and the spider equally, since they have the greatest number of organisms of
the same color.
Anaphylactic shock is an example of an
A) autoimmune disease.
B) immunodeficiency disease.
C) allergic response.
D) acquired autoimmune disease.
What type of behavior is illustrated by the bird in this figure?
A) territoriality
B) mating behavior
C) fixed action pattern
D) foraging
If it were determined that condor reproduction along the coast is being harmed by DDT
in the condors’ foods, which of the following actions would be most useful to improve
the situation?
A) Provide carcasses of animals without DDT that the condors can eat.
B) Move all condors away from the area where DDT exists.
C) Monitor DDT use in the area where reproduction is failing.
D) Remove all eggs from condor nests in the coastal population so that there will be no
hatchlings with DDT.
Cigarette smoke can affect the white blood cells that reside in our lungs, whose function
is to
A) prevent emphysema.
B) engulf foreign particles.
C) enhance oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange.
D) maintain appropriate pH and moisture levels within the lungs.
Which of the following options lists the sequence of events in the cell-signaling process
in the correct order?
A) reception, response, signal transduction
B) signal transduction, reception, response
C) signal transduction, response, reception
D) reception, signal transduction, response
Plant cells
A) lack mitochondria and chloroplasts.
B) lack mitochondria but have chloroplasts.
C) have mitochondria but do not have chloroplasts.
D) have mitochondria and chloroplasts.
Which of the following statements about blood clotting is true?
A) The first response to an injury is dilation of the damaged blood vessels.
B) During the clotting response, platelets rapidly congregate in the interstitial fluid.
C) Fibrin is enzymatically converted to fibrinogen.
D) Threads of fibrin form a fibrin clot.
Consider the following statement: “If all vertebrates have backbones, and turtles are
vertebrates, then turtles have backbones.” This statement is an example of
A) a hypothesis.
B) rationalization.
C) deductive reasoning.
D) inductive reasoning.
What is the main adaptive advantage of the C4 and CAM photosynthesis strategies over
the C3 strategy?
A) They help the plant synthesize glucose efficiently under dry conditions.
B) They allow the plant to fix carbon under conditions of low CO2.
C) They allow the plant to fix carbon in cool conditions.
D) They make it possible for the plant to use the Calvin cycle at night.
The chromosome theory of inheritance states that
A) chromosomes that exhibit mutations are the source of genetic variation.
B) the behavior of chromosomes during meiosis and fertilization accounts for patterns
of inheritance.
C) the behavior of chromosomes during mitosis accounts for inheritance patterns.
D) humans have 46 chromosomes.
Corn, rice, wheat, fleshy fruits such as apples and berries, and many spices are all
produced by
A) gymnosperms.
B) ferns.
C) angiosperms.
D) seedless plants.
The epiglottis is a
A) muscle that moves the esophagus into line with the pharynx during swallowing.
B) muscle that moves the trachea out of line with the pharynx during swallowing.
C) flap of cartilage that flips down to cover the entry to the trachea during swallowing.
D) muscle sphincter that closes off the entry to the trachea during swallowing.
Muscles that are constantly active, such as those maintaining our body posture, have a
high proportion of
A) fast, fatigue-resistant fibers.
B) fast, fatigue-susceptible fibers.
C) slow, fatigue-resistant fibers.
D) slow, fatigue-susceptible fibers.
The human spine acts like a weight-bearing column. Compare this to the spine of a
horse, which acts like an elastic suspension bridge. Which organism would you predict
to experience more back pain and why?
A) the horse, because its spine is less evolutionarily advanced
B) the horse, because its spine supports more organ systems than human spines
C) the human, because in order to walk upright, the spine is compressed
D) the human, because of longer neurons
A news article discussing the evolution of domestic dogs from wolves included this
statement: “On its way from pack-hunting carnivore to fireside companion, dogs
learned to loveor at least live onwheat, rice, barley, corn, and potatoes.” What is a more
scientifically accurate way to state what happened with dogs?
A) Dogs mutated to be able to eat wheat, rice, barley, corn, and potatoes.
B) Some wolves may have had variants in their digestion that allowed them to eat
wheat, rice, barley, corn, and potatoes and so were able to survive with humans.
C) Being around humans represented an advantage, so wolves were able to take
advantage of that by changing their digestion to be able to eat wheat, rice, barley, corn,
and potatoes.
D) Dogs were created at the same time as wolves.
When animal cells are grown in a petri dish, they typically stop dividing once they have
formed a single, unbroken layer on the bottom of the dish. This arrest of division is an
example of
A) cell constraint.
B) density-dependent inhibition.
C) cell division repression.
D) growth factor desensitization.
Imagine that beak color in a finch species is controlled by a single gene. You mate a
finch homozygous for orange (pigmented) beak with a finch homozygous for ivory
(unpigmented) beak and get numerous offspring, all of which have a pale, ivory-orange
beak. This pattern of color expression is most likely to be an example of
A) incomplete dominance.
B) codominance.
C) pleiotropy.
D) polygenic inheritance.
Which of the following is one adaptive advantage for deciduous plants that lose their
leaves during the winter?
A) It prevents water loss from leaves when soil water is unavailable due to freezing.
B) Production of new leaves each spring is more efficient than supporting old leaves all
winter.
C) If leaves are damaged by frost, the tree will die.
D) A layer of leaves on the ground helps keep plant roots warm.
What is the proper order of events in the expression of a eukaryotic protein?
A) DNA unpacking, mRNA transport through nucleus, mRNA splicing, protein
modification
B) DNA unpacking, mRNA splicing, translation, protein folding
C) transcription, translation, addition of cap and tail to mRNA, DNA unpacking
D) transcription, mRNA splicing, protein modification, translation
After glycolysis but before the citric acid cycle,
A) pyruvate is oxidized.
B) a carbon atom is added to pyruvate to make a four-carbon compound.
C) coenzyme A is cleaved off pyruvate.
D) glucose is split, producing two molecules of pyruvate.
Which of the following organisms has a dominant sporophyte generation and a
free-living gametophyte generation?
A) moss
B) fern
C) mushroom
D) conifer