Which of the following macromolecules leaves the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell through
pores in the nuclear membrane?
A) DNA
B) amino acids
C) mRNA
D) phospholipids
If gastrulation was blocked by an environmental toxin, then _____.
A) cleavage would not occur in the zygote
B) embryonic germ layers would not form
C) the blastula would not be formed
D) the blastopore would form above the gray crescent in the animal pole
The Golgi apparatus has a polarity, or sidedness, to its structure and function. Which of
the following statements correctly describes this polarity?
A) Transport vesicles fuse with one side of the Golgi and leave from the opposite side.
B) Proteins in the membrane of the Golgi may be sorted and modified as they move
from one side of the Golgi to the other.
C) Lipids in the membrane of the Golgi may be sorted and modified as they move from
one side of the Golgi to the other.
D) All of the listed responses correctly describe polarity characteristics of the Golgi
function.
Based on your knowledge of the polarity of water molecules, the solute molecule
depicted here is most likely _____.
A) positively charged
B) negatively charged
C) without charge
D) nonpolar
Living diatoms contain brownish plastids. If global warming causes blooms of diatoms
in the surface waters of Earth’s oceans, how might this be harmful to the animals that
build coral reefs?
A) The coral animals, which capture planktonic organisms, may be outcompeted by the
diatoms.
B) The coral animals’ endosymbiotic dinoflagellates may get ‘shaded out” by the
diatoms.
C) The coral animals may die from overeating the plentiful diatoms with their cases of
silica.
D) The diatoms’ photosynthetic output may over-oxygenate the water.
After the first replication was observed in their experiments testing the nature of DNA
replication, Meselson and Stahl could be confident of which of the following
conclusions?
A) Replication is semi-conservative.
B) Replication is not dispersive.
C) Replication is not conservative.
D) Replication is neither dispersive nor conservative.
What is the difference between the leading strand and the lagging strand in DNA
replication?
A) The leading strand is synthesized in the → direction in a discontinuous fashion,
while the lagging strand is synthesized in the → direction in a continuous fashion.
B) The leading strand is synthesized continuously in the → direction, while the
lagging strand is synthesized discontinuously in the → direction.
C) The leading strand requires an RNA primer, whereas the lagging strand does not.
D) There are different DNA polymerases involved in elongation of the leading strand
and the lagging strand.
Which of the following characteristics is (are) possessed in common by true mosses,
ferns, and spike mosses, and therefore becomes useless at helping to determine to which
of these groups “flower of stone” belongs?
1. a sporophyte generation that is dominant
2. true leaves and roots
3. flagellated sperm
4. strobili
5. alternation of generations
A) 5 only
B) 1 and 5
C) 2 and 3
D) 3 and 5
Why would gene duplication events, such as those seen in the Hox gene complex, set
the stage for adaptive radiation?
A) There are more copies of genes, meaning speciation had occurred by polyploidy.
B) The original gene copy is the outgroup, and the new gene copies are the adaptive
radiation.
C) Without duplicated genes, species would be vulnerable to extinction.
D) One copy of a gene can perform the original function, while other copies are
available to take on new functions.
Why is a pathogen generally more virulent in a new habitat?
A) Intermediate host species are more motile and transport pathogens to new areas.
B) Pathogens evolve more efficient forms of reproduction in new environments.
C) Hosts in new environments have not had a chance to become resistant to the
pathogen through natural selection.
D) New environments are almost always smaller in area so that transmission of
pathogens is easily accomplished between hosts.
What type of signal is fast and requires daylight with no obstructions?
A) olfactory
B) visual
C) auditory
D) tactile
The production of red blood cells is stimulated by _____.
A) low-density lipoproteins
B) immunoglobulins
C) erythropoietin
D) epinephrine
In the United States and Canada, bats use one of two strategies to survive winter: They
either migrate south, or they hibernate. Recently, those that hibernate seem to have
come under attack by a fungus, Geomyces destructans (Gd), an attack that is occurring
from Missouri to southern Canada. Many infected bats have a delicate, white
filamentous mat on their muzzles, which is referred to as white-nose syndrome (WNS).
The fungus invades the bat tissues, causes discomfort, and awakens the bat from its
hibernation. The bat fidgets and wastes calories, using up its stored fat. The bat then
behaves abnormally, leaving its cave during daytime in winter to search for food. Their
food, primarily insects, is scarce during the winter, and the bats ultimately starve to
death. Since 2007, it is estimated that up to one million bats have perished from WNS.
The Gd mat on the fur of the bats should be expected to consist of _____.
A) hyphae
B) haustoria
C) yeasts
D) basidia
Which of the following is a type of local signaling in which a cell secretes a signal
molecule that affects neighboring cells?
A) hormonal signaling
B) autocrine signaling
C) paracrine signaling
D) synaptic signaling
Based on electron configuration, which of the elements in the figure above would
exhibit a chemical behavior most like that of oxygen?
A) carbon
B) nitrogen
C) sulfur
D) phosphorus
Researchers tried to explain how vesicular transport occurs in cells by attempting to
assemble the transport components. They set up microtubular tracks along which
vesicles could be transported, and they added vesicles and ATP (because they knew the
transport process requires energy). Yet, when they put everything together, there was no
movement or transport of vesicles. What were they missing?
A) an axon
B) contractile microfilaments
C) endoplasmic reticulum
D) motor proteins
The fruit of the mistletoe, a parasitic angiosperm, is a one-seeded berry. In members of
the genus Viscum, the outside of the seed is viscous (sticky), which permits the seed to
adhere to surfaces such as the branches of host plants or the beaks of birds. What should
be expected of the fruit if the viscosity of Viscum seeds is primarily an adaptation for
dispersal rather than an adaptation for infecting host plant tissues? It should ______.
A) be drab in color
B) be colored so as to provide it with camouflage
C) be nutritious to the dispersing organisms
D) secrete enzymes that can digest bark
The black dots that cover strawberries are actually individual fruits. The fleshy and
tasty portion of a strawberry derives from the receptacle of a flower with many separate
carpels. Therefore, a strawberry is_____.
A) both a multiple fruit and an aggregate fruit
B) both a multiple fruit and an accessory fruit
C) both an aggregate fruit and an accessory fruit
D) a simple fruit with many seeds
A controlled experiment _____.
A) is repeated many times to ensure that the results are accurate
B) includes at least two groups, one of which does not receive the experimental
treatment
C) includes at least two groups, one differing from the other by two or more variables
D) includes one group for which the scientist controls all variables
Which of the following is characteristic of K-selected populations?
A) offspring with good chances of survival
B) many offspring per reproductive episode
C) small offspring
D) a high intrinsic rate of increase
What is the difference between covalent bonds and ionic bonds?
A) Covalent bonds involve the sharing of pairs of electrons between atoms; ionic bonds
involve the sharing of single electrons between atoms.
B) Covalent bonds involve the sharing of electrons between atoms; ionic bonds involve
the electrical attraction between charged atoms.
C) Covalent bonds involve the sharing of electrons between atoms; ionic bonds involve
the sharing of protons between charged atoms.
D) Covalent bonds involve the transfer of electrons between charged atoms; ionic bonds
involve the sharing of electrons between atoms.
The solutions in the arms of a U-tube are separated at the bottom of the tube by a
selectively permeable membrane. The membrane is permeable to sodium chloride but
not to glucose. Side A is filled with a solution of 0.4 M glucose and 0.5 M sodium
chloride (NaCl), and side B is filled with a solution containing 0.8 M glucose and 0.4 M
sodium chloride. Initially, the volume in both arms is the same..
Refer to the figure. At the beginning of the experiment,
A) side A is hypertonic to side B.
B) side A is hypotonic to side B.
C) side A is hypertonic to side B with respect to glucose.
D) side A is hypotonic to side B with respect to NaCl.
Refer to the metabolic pathway illustrated above. If A, B, and C are all required for
growth, a strain mutant for the gene-encoding enzyme B would be able to grow on
medium supplemented with _____.
A) nutrient A only
B) nutrient B only
C) nutrient C only
D) nutrients A and C
Keystone predators can maintain species diversity in a community if they _____.
A) competitively exclude other predators
B) prey on the community’s dominant species
C) allow immigration of other predators
D) prey only on the least abundant species in the community
Which organelle often takes up much of the volume of a plant cell?
A) lysosome
B) vacuole
C) Golgi apparatus
D) peroxisome
Which of the groups above is a carboxyl functional group?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
In which of the following organisms does blood flow from the pulmocutaneous
circulation to the heart before circulating through the rest of the body?
A) annelids
B) fishes
C) frogs
D) insects
Patients with damage to Wernicke’s area have difficulty _____.
A) generating speech
B) recognizing faces
C) understanding language
D) experiencing emotion
Which of the following best describes siRNA?
A) a double-stranded RNA, one of whose strands can complement and inactivate a
sequence of mRNA
B) a single-stranded RNA that can, where it has internal complementary base pairs, fold
into cloverleaf patterns
C) a double-stranded RNA that is formed by cleavage of hairpin loops in a larger
precursor
D) a portion of rRNA that allows it to bind to several ribosomal proteins in forming
large or small subunits
A patient was involved a serious accident and lost a large quantity of blood. In an
attempt to replenish body fluids, distilled waterequal to the volume of blood lostis
added to the blood directly via one of his veins. What will be the most probable result
of this transfusion?
A) The patient’s red blood cells will shrivel up because the blood has become hypotonic
compared to the cells.
B) The patient’s red blood cells will swell and possibly burst because the blood has
become hypotonic compared to the cells.
C) The patient’s red blood cells will shrivel up because the blood has become
hypertonic compared to the cells.
D) The patient’s red blood cells will burst because the blood has become hypertonic
compared to the cells.
The product of the bicoid gene in Drosophila provides essential information about
_____.
A) the dorsal-ventral axis
B) the left-right axis
C) segmentation
D) the anterior-posterior axis
Which of the following represents the strongest evidence that two of the three middle
ear bones of mammals are homologous to certain reptilian jawbones?
A) They are similar in size to the reptilian jawbones.
B) They are similar in shape to the reptilian jawbones.
C) The mammalian jaw has fewer bones than does the reptilian jaw.
D) These bones can be observed to move from the evolving jaw to the evolving middle
ear in mammalian embryos.