You enjoy learning about history by studying gravestones throughout North America.
You notice that gravestones from 1900 and earlier usually host many types of lichens.
But in one cemetery, lichens are entirely absent, even from old gravestones. Given what
is known about lichens, the cemetery without lichens probably
A) has an unusually dry climate.
B) is subject to extremely cold winter temperatures.
C) gets a great deal of rain, which favors the growth of competing bacteria.
D) is close to a source of air pollution.
In ocean acidification, dissolving CO2 gas ________ the pH of the ocean.
A) lowers
B) does not affect
C) raises
D) triples
The receptor potential is the
A) membrane potential produced when a neurotransmitter molecule binds to its
receptor.
B) membrane potential produced in the receptor cell by sensory transduction.
C) electrical signal produced by an action potential.
D) membrane potential produced at a muscle cell.
You unsuccessfully search your room for your math book. Your friend points out that it
is on the table in front of you. You overlooked it because it is orange, and you thought it
was green. This demonstrates a flaw in your
A) early imprinting.
B) social learning.
C) innate behavior.
D) search image.
According to this figure, which of the following can directly use atmospheric N2
A) plant roots
B) nitrogen-fixing bacteria
C) ammonifying bacteria
D) nitrifying bacteria
A woman has been standing in one place without moving for a long time. You walk by
and notice that her ankles are swollen. What is a likely explanation for this observation?
A) Since the woman has not flexed her leg muscles, blood has not moved upward
through the veins so stays pooled at her ankles.
B) The woman’s blood pressure has likely increased because of inactivity, and thus the
blood has pooled at the her ankles.
C) Since the woman hasn’t flexed her leg muscles, blood has not moved upward
through the arteries so stays pooled at her ankles.
D) The woman’s heart rate has likely increased because of inactivity, and thus the blood
has pooled at her ankles.
Mass extinctions
A) remove many species, but they are usually replaced within a million years or less by
an even greater diversity of life.
B) mainly serve to “weed out” poorly adapted organisms and make room for new, better
adapted species.
C) remove well-adapted species and groups from the Earth, so that it may take millions
of years for species diversity to recover.
D) are caused by human activity and did not occur prior to the expansion of the Earth’s
human population.
Consider the following marine community: Sea otters prey on sea urchins and therefore
help maintain a healthy sea urchin population. Sea urchins prey on kelp. By helping to
maintain viable sea urchin populations, the sea otters are also allowing enough kelp to
grow and act as a habitat for other organisms.
In this marine community, the sea otter is
A) a primary consumer.
B) a producer.
C) a keystone species.
D) a scavenger.
An insectivorous bird has the choice of eating (1) meadow beetles, which are abundant
and large but expose the bird to hawk predation, (2) under-a-rock beetles, which are
large and fatty but hard to obtain, or (3) under-a-leaf beetles, which are easy to obtain
but small. The bird has nestlings to feed. As an optimal forager, it will
A) concentrate on under-a-leaf beetles because they are easy and safe.
B) concentrate on under-a-rock beetles because they are energy-rich.
C) eat one kind of beetle at a time (first under-a-leaf, then meadow, then under-a-rock),
switching to a new kind when the old kind becomes scarce.
D) eat all three kinds of beetles, balancing the energy spent and the risks incurred
against the energy gained.
Complete the analogy: The structure of dendrites is like that of ________, while the
structure of axons is like that of ________.
A) taproots; branched roots
B) myelin sheath; nodes of Ranvier
C) branched roots; taproots
D) nodes of Ranvier; myelin sheath
A karyotype is most like
A) a map showing the hidden location of buried treasure.
B) a movie showing the stages of the reproductive cycle of a beetle.
C) photographs of every couple at a high school prom.
D) the answer key to a multiple-choice exam.
Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID)inhibit inflammation
by inhibiting an enzyme in the prostaglandin pathway, but by inhibiting this enzyme
and this pathway they also inhibit pathways that protect the stomach from damage by
stomach acid and that prevent aggregation of blood platelets to form blood clots. What
can you conclude from this?
A) The enzyme inhibition is nonreversible.
B) The enzyme is found in many different types of cells.
C) Prostaglandins cause blood clotting.
D) Aspirin should not be given to people who people who need to synthesize enzymes.
A person with AB blood illustrates the principle of
A) incomplete dominance.
B) codominance.
C) pleiotropy.
D) polygenic inheritance.
A disaster such as a meltdown in a nuclear power plant requires close examination of
potential impacts on organisms. Which of the following would be useful to biologists in
such a situation?
A) Use a molecular clock to compare of genes of a species that lives near the nuclear
plant with those of the same species thousands of miles away.
B) Measure continental drift to determine if the disaster had accelerated movement of
continents.
C) Use radiometric dating to determine if new species are forming.
D) Examine the mutation rate of species in the area.
The majority of plant species today are
A) angiosperms.
B) bryophytes.
C) gymnosperms.
D) seedless vascular plants.
In which of the following biomes would you expect to find the highest abundance of
large, grazing mammals?
A) chaparral
B) temperate grassland
C) desert
D) temperate forest
The growth that pushes a root down through the soil takes place through
A) cell elongation at the tip of the root cap.
B) cell division in the apical meristem.
C) cell elongation behind the root tip.
D) differentiation of xylem cells in the apical meristem.
Mehanoreceptors (touch) are not evenly spaced on your body. What is an advantage of
having mechanoreceptors located closer together?
A) allows for less sensitivity to potentially harmful stimuli
B) allows for a greater sensitivity to changes in temperature
C) allows for a greater sensitivity to potentially harmful stimuli
D) allows for less sensitivity to changes in temperature
When you cut yourself, the damaged cells immediately release chemical alarm signals,
such as
A) interferon.
B) complement.
C) histamine.
D) antihistamine.
Over a span of several thousand years, a number of species show adaptations to climate
change: Drier, warmer conditions select for succulent vegetation and deep taproots in
plants, burrowing in mammals and amphibians, and other similar adaptive changes.
What will happen if the climate shifts in the opposite direction and becomes
progressively wetter and cooler?
A) Ongoing processes of adaptation will continue because of evolutionary inertia.
B) Different adaptive trends will probably be favored in the new climatic environment.
C) Current adaptive trends will continue, but organisms will now also have to add on
adaptations to deal with cool, wet conditions.
D) Adaptation will cease because cool, wet conditions are generally favorable for life.
Which molecule in this figure portraying water-soluble hormone action is the receptor
protein?
A) molecule A
B) molecule B
C) molecule C
D) molecule D
During gas exchange, body cells
A) take up CO2 from red blood cells.
B) release O2 to red blood cells.
C) increase in size to accommodate the reuptake of O2.
D) release CO2 and take up O2.
In some areas, fluoride is added during the municipal water treatment process in order
to help
A) prevent goiter.
B) prevent the growth of bacteria.
C) prevent the development of mental retardation.
D) reduce tooth decay.
Which of the following statements regarding membrane function is false?
A) The plasma membrane forms a selective barrier around the cell.
B) The plasma membrane plays a role in transferring signals to the cell’s interior.
C) The plasma membrane has receptors for chemical messages.
D) The plasma membrane is the control center of the cell.
Which of the following possible uses of reproductive cloning is still considered by most
to be an unresolved ethical issue?
A) the production of genetically identical animals for experimentation
B) cloning mammals for the production of potentially valuable drugs
C) the production of organs in cloned pigs for transplant into humans
D) the reproductive cloning of humans
In 2011, scientists investigated whether the salts that are spread on icy roads to melt the
ice are diluted enough by spring rainfall so that they do not have negative effects on
amphibian species that breed in nearby areas. They exposed clutches (groups of eggs)
of salamanders to three test conditions with varying salt concentrations (road salts
mixed with dechlorinated tap water) to simulate salt concentrations of small pools of
water located near highways that are typically fed by rainareas where salamanders often
lay their eggs. After 9 days, the scientists placed the three groups in “normal” water and
measured how much body mass the salamanders lost every 3 days for 9 days. They
chose to measure change in mass because salamanders are able to take in water, which
helps lower the chances of salamander embryos dying from freezing, disease, or
predation. The table below provides partial results of this study.
This study is considering the salamander clutches’ ability to maintain the process of
A) osmoregulation.
B) thermoregulation.
C) concurrent heat exchange.
D) diffusion.
Which of these teeth is an incisor?
A) tooth A
B) tooth B
C) tooth C
D) tooth D
Which of the following can contribute to high blood pressure?
A) regular exercise
B) eating a heart-healthy diet
C) smoking
D) maintaining proper weight
After reading the paragraph below, answer the questions that follow.
Four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, the remains of an Air Force pilot were
discovered and returned to the United States. A search of Air Force records identified
three families to which the remains might possibly belong. Each family had a surviving
twin of a missing service member. The following STR profiles were obtained from the
remains of the pilot and the surviving twins from the three families.
Based on analysis of the STR sites shown, does the missing pilot belong to any of these
three families?
A) No, none of the families match.
B) Yes, family 1 matches.
C) Yes, family 2 matches.
D) Yes, family 3 matches.
What is the smallest number of cells needed to perform a successful DNA profile?
A) 1
B) 20
C) 200
D) 1,000
The electrons lost from the reaction center of photosystem I are replaced by electrons
from
A) CO2.
B) H2O.
C) ATP.
D) photosystem II.
One result of Costa Rica’s commitment to conservation is that
A) destructive practices such as massive logging and large-scale single-crop agriculture
have been nearly eliminated.
B) both protected park areas and the buffer zones around them have suffered only
negligible deforestation.
C) ecotourism generates many jobs and brings in a significant fraction of the country’s
revenue.
D) about 95% of the country’s land is protected in some way.