Which of the following results from stimulation by the sympathetic nervous system?
A) release of glucose from the liver
B) decreased heart rate
C) stimulation of the digestive organs
D) constriction of the bronchi
________ makes it possible to trace phylogenies among microbial groups for which
there is no fossil record.
A) Convergent evolution
B) Comparison to vertebrate outgroups
C) Horizontal gene transfer
D) Molecular systematics
Use the figure below to answer the questions that follow.
Which part of the figure above shows a complete organ system?
A) part A
B) part B
C) part C
D) part D
What is the metabolic abnormality that underlies the characteristic symptoms of
diabetes mellitus?
A) a failure of the kidney tubules to reabsorb enough glucose from the urine
B) an inability of the body’s cells to switch from glucose metabolism to fat metabolism
between meals
C) an inability of the body’s cells to retain glucose they have absorbed from the blood
D) an inability of the body’s cells to absorb enough glucose from the blood
Which of the following statements about ecosystems is false?
A) Bacteria and fungi recycle energy within an ecosystem.
B) Plants and other photosynthetic organisms are producers in ecosystems.
C) Chemical nutrients cycle within an ecosystem.
D) In the process of energy conversions within an ecosystem, some energy is converted
to heat.
After many hours of observation, Jennifer noticed that a squirrel in her backyard
retreated up a certain tree every time it was frightened. At the base of that tree was a
wheelbarrow. Jennifer wondered how the squirrel found the same tree each time. That
night, she moved the wheelbarrow to the base of another tree. The next day, the squirrel
retreated up the new tree. This experiment suggests that the squirrel was using
A) spatial learning.
B) imprinting.
C) habituation.
D) social learning.
What is meant by the statement that “male bees are fatherless”?
A) Male bees don’t play a role in the rearing of bee young.
B) Male bees are produced by budding.
C) Male bees develop from unfertilized eggs.
D) The queen bee’s mate dies before the male eggs hatch.
A mushroom
A) is composed of many threadlike filaments called mycorrhizae.
B) is specialized to obtain most of the nutrients for the fungal mycelium.
C) is an independent stage in the alternation of generations of the fungal life cycle.
D) is an aboveground reproductive structure connected to a mycelium.
Which of the following options correctly lists the varieties of life in the order that they
appear in the geologic record, from earliest to most recent?
A) reptiles, land arthropods, plants and fungi on land, flowering plants
B) land arthropods, plants and fungi on land, flowering plants, reptiles
C) plants and fungi on land, land arthropods, reptiles, flowering plants
D) plants and fungi on land, land arthropods, flowering plants, reptiles
How does inhibition of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction by a competitive inhibitor differ
from inhibition by a noncompetitive inhibitor?
A) Competitive inhibitors interfere with the enzyme; noncompetitive inhibitors interfere
with the reactants.
B) Competitive inhibitors bind to the enzyme reversibly; noncompetitive inhibitors bind
to it irreversibly.
C) Competitive inhibitors change the enzyme’s tertiary structure; noncompetitive
inhibitors cause polypeptide subunits to dissociate.
D) Competitive inhibitors bind to the active site of the enzyme; noncompetitive
inhibitors bind to a different site.
Which of the following statements regarding cells is false?
A) All cells are enclosed in a membrane that maintains internal conditions different
from the surroundings.
B) All cells have a cell wall.
C) All cells can interconvert forms of energy.
D) All cells have DNA as their genetic material.
Which of the following statements regarding the structure of DNA is false?
A) The DNA molecule has a uniform diameter.
B) In a DNA molecule, adenine bonds to thymine and guanine to cytosine.
C) Watson and Crick received a Nobel Prize for their description of the structure of
DNA.
D) The sequence of nucleotides along the length of a single DNA strand is restricted by
the base-pairing rules.
Which of the following descriptions best represents the gradual model of speciation?
A) Speciation occurs regularly as a result of the accumulation of many small changes.
B) An isolated population differentiates quickly from its parent stock as it adapts to its
local environment.
C) Speciation occurs under unusual circumstances and therefore transitional fossils are
hard to find.
D) Species undergo little change over long periods interrupted only by short periods of
rapid change.
You are a climate scientist who wants to investigate climate change. Which of the
following measurements would be the least useful?
A) rainfall in the southeastern United States from 20 years ago to the present day
B) a long-term (30-year) study of coral biodiversity in the Australian reef ecosystem
C) changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels in China from 25 years ago to the
present day
D) methane (CH4) levels from dairy farms in Iowa during the years 2011 and 2012
The event that triggers fruit formation is the growth of a pollen tube through the carpel
of a flower. Which of the following is a reasonable hypothesis about the basis of this
effect?
A) Pollen tubes grow in response to a cytokinin produced by the carpel.
B) Pollen tubes grow in response to abscisic acid.
C) The growing pollen tube produces ethylene.
D) The growing pollen tube produces auxins and/or gibberellins.
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.
Africa and the Latin America and Caribbean regions show a similar overall drop in
estimated prevalence (%) of underweight preschool children from 1990 to 2015: 5.9%
and 4.8%, respectively. In the year 2011, the population of Africa was close to 1 billion,
while the population of the Latin America and Caribbean regions was closer to 500
million. Based on this population data, which of these two regions’ drop in percentage is
more dramatic, and why?
A) Africa, because it has more a higher number of sub-regions
B) Since the two drop averages are so similar over the same time period, they are
equally significant.
C) Africa, because it started at a much higher % rate than the Latin America and
Caribbean regions
D) Africa, because approximately two times as many individuals were removed from
the malnourished designation
The four most common elements in living organisms are
A) C, H, O, Fe.
B) C, H, O, Na.
C) C, H, O, N.
D) C, N, O, Na.
A carrier of a genetic disorder who does not show symptoms is most likely to be
________ to transmit it to offspring.
A) heterozygous for the trait and able
B) heterozygous for the trait and unable
C) homozygous for the trait and able
D) homozygous for the trait and unable
In angiosperms, pollen grains develop in the ________ and land on the ________.
A) anther; stigma
B) stigma; anther
C) anther; ovary
D) carpel; stamen
Upon which of the following is passive immunity dependent?
A) a person’s own immune system producing antibodies
B) antibodies made by another organism
C) antibody-producing cells from another organism
D) antigens from a person’s own body
Which arrow in this schematic view of the nephron shows reabsorption?
A) arrow A
B) arrow B
C) arrow C
D) arrow D
The ancestors of land plants were probably ________ that lived in ________.
A) green algae similar to charophytes; the open ocean
B) green algae similar to charophytes; coastal marshes or lake fringes
C) cyanobacteria; coastal marshes or lake fringes
D) cyanobacteria; moist soil crust communities
If independent assortment did not occur, which of the following would be true?
A) Genes for two different traits would be inherited together as a pair.
B) Meiosis II would not be required to produce gametes, as meiosis I would be
sufficient.
C) A dihybrid cross of heterozygous individuals would yield four different phenotypes.
D) Each sperm and egg would carry more than one allele for a specific gene.
Imagine an invertebrate that lives in an estuary where salinity varies cyclically with the
tides. If this individual is able to adjust the salt concentration of its body fluids, its salt
concentration will have
A) slight fluctuations that are kept within a narrow range.
B) regular variations that range from large to small.
C) a cyclic variation opposite that of the surrounding water.
D) a cyclic variation depending upon when the animal drinks.
Which of the following organisms best illustrates K-selection?
A) the production of thousands of eggs every spring by frogs
B) mice that produce three litters of 10-15 babies in the course of a summer
C) a polar bear producing one or two cubs every three years
D) a species of weed that quickly spreads into a region of cleared trees
If a plant is kept in the dark,
A) the stomata continue their daily rhythm of opening and closing.
B) the stomata will remain closed the entire time that the plant is in the dark.
C) the stomata will remain open the entire time that the plant is in the dark.
D) the guard cells will open as water is added.
Which of the following organisms are common soil decomposers that grow in colonies
of branched chains of cells that superficially resemble a fungus?
A) actinomycetes
B) yeasts
C) halobacteria
D) cocci
In photophosphorylation, energy from electron flow is used to transport ________ from
the ________ to the thylakoid compartment, generating a concentration gradient of
________.
A) electrons; grana; H+
B) H+; grana; electrons
C) H+; stroma; H+
D) H+; stroma; ATP
Hermaphrodites are animals that
A) possess both male and female reproductive systems.
B) have the gonads of one sex but the external appearance of the other.
C) develop from unfertilized eggs.
D) must fertilize themselves.
In chloroplasts, ATP synthase
A) catalyzes the Calvin cycle.
B) phosphorylates ADP to ATP.
C) is found in the stroma.
D) helps produce the concentration gradient of H+.
Which of the following statements regarding the differences between mitosis and
meiosis is false?
A) In meiosis four daughter cells are produced, whereas in mitosis two daughter cells
are produced.
B) Cells produced by mitosis are diploid, whereas cells produced by meiosis are
haploid.
C) In mitosis cytokinesis occurs once, whereas in meiosis cytokinesis occurs twice.
D) Crossing over is a phenomenon that creates genetic diversity during mitosis.
The basis of cellular differentiation is
A) the operon.
B) selective gene expression.
C) cloning.
D) mutation.
Biologists are studying two species whose DNA is known to differ by 10%. Knowledge
of which of the following would be least important in calibrating a molecular clock to
determine how rapidly evolution has proceeded with these two species?
A) the fossil record of these two species
B) a geological event that separated the species at a particular time.
C) the function of each of these regions of DNA
D) the time of divergence of closely related species
Which of the following statements best describes the true nature of natural selection?
A) Only the strongest survive.
B) The strong eliminate the weak in the race for survival.
C) Organisms change by random chance.
D) Heritable traits that promote reproduction become more frequent in a population
from one generation to the next.
Offering nutritious lunches in public schools is a popular health topic. School lunches
have had to meet new nutrition standards since the fall of 2012. In 2013, the USDA
(United States Department of Agriculture) reviewed data from the 2005 School
Nutrition and Dietary Assessment to investigate whether students in schools that were
already following the new standards (school group A) and that therefore offered more
fruits and vegetables than other schools (school group B) actually ate more of them.
You will be presented with some of the overall findings of the review and will then be
asked questions related to these conclusions.
Finding #3: Of all of the schools surveyed in 2005:
75% offered lunches that met new weekly standards for amounts of dark, green leafy
vegetables
85% offered lunches that met new weekly standards for amounts for red/orange
vegetables
21% offered lunches that met new weekly standards for legumes
97% offered lunches that met new weekly standards for amounts for “other” vegetables
This suggests that
A) a majority of schools are offering adequate servings of grains.
B) only 15% of schools need to serve more green vegetables.
C) a majority of schools need to serve more legumes in their lunches.
D) about 25% of schools need to serve more citrus fruits.