If a portion of the pancreas is surgically removed from a rat and the rat subsequently
loses its appetite, one explanation is that the removed portion contains cells that secrete
a chemical signal that somehow stimulates appetite. Given this scenario, what type of
chemical signaling is occurring?
A) autocrine
B) paracrine
C) endocrine
D) neuroendocrine
Which of the following were probably factors that permitted early plants to successfully
colonize land?
1. the relative number of potential predators (herbivores)
2. the relative number of competitors
3. the relative availability of symbiotic partners
4. air’s relative lack of support, compared to water’s support
A) 1 and 2
B) 2 and 3
C) 3 and 4
D) 1, 2, and 3
Which one of the following is LEAST likely to be a hotspot for birds?
A) Amazon River basin
B) East Africa
C) Southwest China
D) Greenland
If you experimentally increase the concentration of Na+ outside a cell while
maintaining other ion concentrations as they were, what would happen to the cell’s
membrane potential?
A) The membrane potential would decrease.
B) The membrane potential would increase.
C) The membrane potential would be unaffected.
D) The answer depends on the thermodynamic potential.
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.
Normal hemoglobin is a tetramer, consisting of two molecules of β hemoglobin and two
molecules of α hemoglobin. In sickle-cell disease, as a result of a single amino acid
change, the mutant hemoglobin tetramers associate with each other and assemble into
large fibers. Based on this information alone, we can conclude that sickle-cell
hemoglobin exhibits _____.
A) only altered primary structure
B) only altered tertiary structure
C) only altered quaternary structure
D) altered primary structure and altered quaternary structure; the secondary and tertiary
structures may or may not be altered
A lizard’s bobbing dewlap (a colorful flap of skin hanging from an Anolis lizard’s
throat) is an example of a(n) _____.
A) stimulus
B) reflex
C) signal
D) innate releasing mechanism
Hormones secreted by the posterior pituitary gland are made in the _____.
A) cerebellum
B) thalamus
C) hypothalamus
D) medulla oblongata
The questions below refer to the following description and figure.
The figure below represents a cross section of the sea floor through a mid-ocean rift
valley, with alternating patches of black and white indicating sea floor with reversed
magnetic polarities. At the arrow labeled “I” (the rift valley), the igneous rock of the sea
floor is so young that it can be accurately dated using carbon-14 dating. At the arrow
labeled “III,” however, the igneous rock is about one million years old, and
potassium-40 dating is typically used to date such rocks. Note: The horizontal arrows
indicate the direction of sea-floor spreading, away from the rift valley.
Which section of sea-floor crust should have the thickest layer of overlying sediment,
assuming a continuous rate of sediment deposition?
A) A
B) B
C) D
D) E
If a lung were to be found in a mollusc, where would it be located?
A) mantle cavity
B) incurrent siphon
C) visceral mass
D) excurrent siphon
Based on the diagrams in the figure above and on the large population of baby boomers
in the United States, which graph best reflects U.S. population in twenty years?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
For the following questions, match the labeled component of the cell membrane in
the figure with its description.
Which component is a microfilament (actin filament) of the cytoskeleton?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
One predicted aspect of climate change is that climates, including precipitation and
temperature, over most of the Earth will become more variable. Which of the following
is a good crop genetic engineering strategy if this is true?
A) Only plant crops that are genetically engineered.
B) Genetically engineer most crops to withstand very long droughts.
C) Genetically engineer several genotypes within single crop types.
D) Genetically engineer the fastest growing crops possible.
As a youngster, you drive a nail in the trunk of a young tree that is 3 meters tall. The
nail is about 1.5 meters from the ground. Fifteen years later, you return and discover
that the tree has grown to a height of 30 meters. About how many meters above the
ground is the nail?
A) 0.5
B) 1.5
C) 3.0
D) 15.0
Bouchard and Brooks studied the effect of insect flight on dispersal and speciation in
rain forest insects. They sampled all of the insects in the study area and found that 60
insect species are flightless and 19 are macropterous (able to fly). What can you
conclude so far about this study?
(P. Bouchard and D. R. Brooks. 2004. Effect of vagility potential on dispersal and
speciation in rainforest insects. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 17:994-1006.)
A) Flightless insects have a greater dispersal potential from this study area.
B) Flightless insects are more numerous in the study area.
C) Flightless insects have a higher richness in the study area.
D) Flightless insects are better suited for the tropics.
The following questions refer to the pedigree chart in the figure below for a family,
some of whose members exhibit the dominant trait, W. Affected individuals are
indicated by a dark square or circle.
What is the probability that individual III-1 is Ww?
A) 3/4
B) 1/4
C) 2/4
D) 1
Within a gymnosperm megasporangium, what is the correct sequence in which the
following should appear during development, assuming that fertilization occurs?
1. sporophyte embryo
2. female gametophyte
3. egg cell
4. megaspore
A) 4 → 2 → 3 → 1
B) 4 → 1 → 2 → 3
C) 1 → 4 → 3 → 2
D) 1 → 4 → 2 → 3
Which of the following events would be predicted by the Bohr shift effect as the
amount of carbon dioxide released from your tissues into the blood capillaries
increases? The amount of oxygen in _____.
A) arterial blood would increase
B) arterial blood would decrease
C) venous blood would increase
D) venous blood would decrease
Soon after the coelom begins to form, a researcher injects a dye into the coelom of a
deuterostome embryo. Initially, the dye should be able to flow directly into the _____.
A) blastopore
B) blastocoel
C) archenteron
D) pseudocoelom
In the figure above, which number would designate the biome with the highest variation
in annual precipitation?
A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4
In looking at the speciesarea plot in the figure above, what can be concluded?
A) Number of bird species increases linearly with island area.
B) Number of bird species remains the same on these various islands.
C) Diversity is independent from island area.
D) Number of bird species increases exponentially with island area.
Managing southeastern forests specifically for the red-cockaded woodpecker _____.
A) required the growth of a dense understory of trees and shrubs
B) contributed to greater abundance and diversity of other forest bird species
C) caused other species of songbird to decline
D) involved strict fire suppression measures
What event accompanies energy absorption by chlorophyll (or other pigment molecules
of the antenna complex)?
A) ATP is synthesized from the energy absorbed.
B) A carboxylation reaction of the Calvin cycle occurs.
C) Electrons are stripped from NADPH.
D) An electron is excited.
Epinephrine is an example of _____.
A) an androgen
B) an estrogen
C) a catecholamine
D) a glucocorticoid
Speciation _____.
A) occurs at such a slow pace that no one has ever observed the emergence of new
species
B) occurs only by the accumulation of small genetic changes over vast expanses of time
C) must begin with the geographic isolation of a small, frontier population
D) can involve changes to a single gene
In which combination of locations would one who is searching for the gametophytes of
“flower of stone” have the best chance of finding them?
1. moist soil
2. underground, nourished there by symbiotic fungi
3. south- or west-facing slopes
4. permanently shady places
5. far from any flower of stone sporophytes
A) 1 only
B) 1 and 2
C) 1, 2, and 4
D) 1, 2, and 5
A covalent chemical bond is one in which _____.
A) electrons are removed from one atom and transferred to another atom so that the two
atoms become oppositely charged
B) protons and neutrons are shared by two atoms so as to satisfy the requirements of
both atoms
C) outer-shell electrons of two atoms are shared so as to satisfactorily fill their
respective orbitals
D) outer-shell electrons of one atom are transferred to fill the inner electron shell of
another atom
Among the newly discovered small noncoding RNAs, one type reestablishes
methylation patterns during gamete formation and blocks expression of some
transposons. These are known as _____.
A) miRNA
B) piRNA
C) snRNA
D) siRNA
Suppose that the number of bird species is determined mainly by the number of vertical
strata found in the environment. If so, in which of the following biomes would you find
the greatest number of bird species?
A) tropical rain forest
B) savanna
C) temperate broadleaf forest
D) temperate grassland
One mole (mol) of glucose (molecular mass = 180 daltons) is _____.
A) 180 1023 molecules of glucose
B) 1 kilogram of glucose dissolved in 1 liter of solution
C) 180 kilograms of glucose
D) 180 grams of glucose
You find a plant unfamiliar to you and observe that it has vascular bundles scattered
throughout the stem cross section. What do you conclude about the plant?
A) It is probably an herbaceous eudicot.
B) It will probably get annual rings of wood.
C) It is probably a monocot.
D) It could be either a young eudicot or a monocot.