Which of the following is a characteristic of all angiosperms?
A) double internal fertilization
B) free-living gametophytes
C) carpels that contain microsporangia
D) ovules that are not contained within ovaries
Asexual reproduction results in offspring that are genetically identical to their parent.
What type of cell process occurs to generate this type of offspring?
A) mitosis
B) meiosis
C) cell fusion
Which of the following DNA mutations is most likely to damage the protein it
specifies?
A) a base-pair deletion
B) an addition of three nucleotides
C) a substitution in the last base of a codon
D) a codon deletion
Several organisms, primarily protists, have what are called intermediate mitotic
organization.
These protists are intermediate in what sense?
A) They reproduce by binary fission in their early stages of development and by mitosis
when they are mature.
B) They use mitotic division but only have circular chromosomes.
C) They maintain a nuclear envelope during division.
D) None of them form spindles.
MPF is a dimer consisting of _____.
A) a growth factor and mitotic factor
B) ATP synthetase and a protease
C) cyclin and tubulin
D) cyclin and a cyclin-dependent kinase
In the phylogenetic trees above, numbers represent species and the same species are
shown in both trees. Which two species are represented as sister species in Tree 2 but
are not shown as sister species in Tree 1?
A) 1 and 2
B) 2 and 3
C) 3 and 4
D) 4 and 5
The accumulation of free oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere began with the origin of _____.
A) life and respiratory metabolism
B) cyanobacteria using photosystem II
C) chloroplasts in photosynthetic eukaryotic algae
D) land plants
Most of the dry mass of a plant is the result of uptake of_____.
A) water and minerals through root hairs
B) water and minerals through mycorrhizae
C) carbon dioxide through stoma
D) carbon dioxide and oxygen through stomata in leaves
The genome of modern chloroplasts is roughly 50% the size of the genome of the
cyanobacterium from which it is thought to have been derived. In comparison, the
genome of P. chromatophora‘s chromatophore is only slightly reduced relative to the
size of the genome of the cyanobacterium from which it is thought to have been
derived. What is a valid hypothesis that can be drawn from this comparison?
A) Lytic phage infections have targeted the chloroplast genome more often than the P.
chromatophora genome.
B) P. chromatophora‘s chromatophore is the result of an evolutionarily recent
endosymbiosis.
C) The genome of the chloroplast ancestor contained many more introns that could be
lost without harm, compared to the chromatophore’s genome.
D) The genome of the cyanobacteria was smaller than the genome of P.
chromatophora.
Which listing of geological periods is in the correct order, from oldest to most recent?
A) Cambrian, Devonian, Permian, Cretaceous
B) Devonian, Cambrian, Permian, Cretaceous
C) Cambrian, Permian, Devonian, Cretaceous
D) Permian, Cambrian, Cretaceous, Devonian
The most direct ancestors of land plants were probably _____.
A) kelp (brown alga) that formed large beds near the shorelines
B) green algae
C) photosynthesizing prokaryotes (cyanobacteria)
D) liverworts and mosses
A strong acid like HCl _____.
A) dissociates completely in an aqueous solution
B) increases the pH when added to an aqueous solution
C) reacts with strong bases to create a buffered solution
D) is a strong buffer at low pH
Suppose a researcher for a pest-control company developed a chemical that inhibited
the development of an embryonic mosquito’s endodermal cells. Which of the following
would be a likely mechanism by which this pesticide works?
A) The mosquito would develop a weakened exoskeleton that would make it vulnerable
to trauma.
B) The mosquito would have trouble digesting food, due to impaired gut function.
C) The mosquito would have trouble with respiration and circulation, due to impaired
muscle function.
D) The mosquito wouldn’t be affected at all.
The following questions refer to the evolutionary tree in the figure below.
The horizontal axis of the cladogram depicted below is a timeline that extends from
100,000 years ago to the present; the vertical axis represents nothing in particular. The
labeled branch points on the tree (V-Z) represent various common ancestors. Let’s say
that only since 50,000 years ago has there been enough variation between the lineages
depicted here to separate them into distinct species, and only the tips of the lineages on
this tree represent distinct species.
Which of the five common ancestors, labeled V-Z, is the common ancestor of the
greatest number of species, both living and extinct?
A) V
B) W
C) Y
D) Z
Which of the following is a scientific concern related to creating genetically modified
crops?
A) Herbicide resistance may spread to weedy species.
B) Genetically modified crops cannot survive without the addition of great amounts of
fertilizer to the soil.
C) The monetary costs of growing genetically modified plants are significantly greater
than traditional breeding techniques.
D) Genetically modified plants are less stable and may revert back to parental
genotypes.
The loss of ventral spines by modern freshwater sticklebacks is due to natural selection
operating on the phenotypic effects of Pitx1 gene _____.
A) duplication (gain in number)
B) elimination (loss)
C) mutation (change)
D) silencing (loss of expression)
A porcupine eats 3000 J of plant material. Of this, 2100 J is indigestible and is
eliminated as feces, 800 J are used in cellular respiration, and 100 J are used for growth
and reproduction. What is the approximate production efficiency of this animal?
A) 0.03%
B) 3%
C) 10%
D) 33%
Which of the following can be said about light in aquatic environments?
A) Water selectively reflects and absorbs certain wavelengths of light.
B) Longer wavelengths penetrate to greater depths.
C) Light penetration seldom limits the distribution of photosynthetic species.
D) Most photosynthetic organisms avoid the surface where the light is too intense.
You need to represent a molecule to best illustrate the relative sizes of the atoms
involved and their interrelationships. Which representation would work best?
A) molecular formula
B) structural formula
C) ball-and-stick model
D) space-filling model
You are maintaining a small population of fruit flies in the laboratory by transferring the
flies to a new culture bottle after each generation. After several generations, you notice
that the viability of the flies has decreased greatly. Recognizing that small population
size is likely to be linked to decreased viability, the best way to reverse this trend is to
_____.
A) cross your flies with flies from another lab
B) reduce the number of flies that you transfer at each generation
C) transfer only the largest flies
D) change the temperature at which you rear the flies
In what sense are studies by nineteenth-century naturalists and those by early
twenty-first-century genomic biologists similar?
A) Both focused on cellular evolution.
B) Both worked to understand how genes evolved.
C) Both took a reductionist approach by studying only one small part of a complex
system.
D) Both focused on observing and describing what exists in their realms of
investigation.
Most cells cannot harness heat to perform work because _____.
A) heat is not a form of energy
B) temperature is usually uniform throughout a cell
C) heat can never be used to do work
D) heat must remain constant during work
Large proteins such as albumin remain in capillaries rather than diffusing out, resulting
in the _____.
A) loss of osmotic pressure in the capillaries
B) development of an osmotic pressure difference across capillary walls
C) loss of fluid from capillaries
D) increased diffusion of hemoglobin
In correct chronological order, the three phases of the human ovarian cycle are _____.
A) follicular → luteal → secretory
B) menstrual → proliferative → secretory
C) follicular → ovulation → luteal
D) proliferative → luteal → ovulation
Catastrophism was Cuvier’s attempt to explain the existence of _____.
A) evolution
B) the fossil record
C) uniformitarianism
D) the origin of new species
Exposing inner mitochondrial membranes to ultrasonic vibrations will disrupt the
membranes. However, the fragments will reseal “inside out.” The little vesicles that
result can still transfer electrons from NADH to oxygen and synthesize ATP.
Chemiosmotic ATP synthesis (oxidative phosphorylation) occurs in _____.
A) all cells, but only in the presence of oxygen
B) only eukaryotic cells, in the presence of oxygen
C) only in mitochondria, using either oxygen or other electron acceptors
D) all respiring cells, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, using either oxygen or other
electron acceptors
Which of the following have unevenly thickened primary walls that support young,
growing parts of the plant?
A) parenchyma cells
B) collenchyma cells
C) sclerenchyma cells
D) tracheids and vessel elements
A female with a paternal set of one orange and one long gene chromosome and a
maternal set comprised of one blue and one short gene chromosome is expected to
produce which of the following types of eggs after meiosis?
A) All eggs will have maternal types of gene combinations.
B) All eggs will have paternal types of gene combinations.
C) Half the eggs will have maternal and half will have paternal combinations.
D) Each egg has a one-fourth chance of having either blue long, blue short, orange
long, or orange short combinations.
Mammalian eyes sense light because the photoreceptor cells have molecules called
opsins, which change structure when exposed to light. Which of the following plant
molecules would be analogous to mammalian opsins in their light-sensing ability?
A) auxin and phytochrome
B) auxin and Pfr
C) Pfr and phytochrome
D) cytokinins and phototropins
Suppose an experimenter becomes proficient with a technique that allows her to move
DNA sequences within a prokaryotic genome.
If she moves the operator to the far end of the operon, past the transacetylase (lacA)
gene, which of the following would likely occur when the cell is exposed to lactose?
A) The inducer will no longer bind to the repressor.
B) The repressor will no longer bind to the operator.
C) The operon will never be transcribed.
D) The structural genes will be transcribed continuously.
Approximately how many kilograms (kg) of carnivore (secondary consumer) biomass
can be supported by a field plot containing 1000 kg of plant material?
A) 1000
B) 100
C) 10
D) 1