The main function of muscle tissue is
A) sensation.
B) support.
C) contraction.
D) covering surfaces.
Which of the following is widely regarded as a healthy approach to losing weight?
A) gastric bypass surgery
B) regularly engaging in exercise in addition to monitoring food intake
C) substituting fatty acids for carbohydrates
D) trimming daily carbohydrates back to less than 80 grams per day
How do scientists calibrate a molecular clock for a group of organisms with known
nucleotide sequences?
A) They measure protein differences. Evolutionary rates in proteins are well-known and
can be used to check results obtained using nucleotide sequences.
B) They use radioactive isotopes to measure the age of DNA material directly.
C) They graph the number of nucleotide differences against the dates of evolutionary
branch points known from the fossil record.
D) They analyze fossilized DNA of known age and compare its nucleotide sequences to
modern DNA sequences.
Which of the following types of reproductive barriers separates two species of sea
cucumbers whose sperm and eggs often bump into each other but do not cross-fertilize
because of incompatible proteins on their surfaces?
A) temporal isolation
B) habitat isolation
C) mechanical isolation
D) gametic isolation
Which character of vertebrates is associated with colonization of land?
A) opposable thumbs
B) lungs
C) internal fertilization
D) gills
Which of the following animals has an exoskeleton?
A) human
B) trout
C) shark
D) clam
The phase of mitosis during which the mitotic spindle begins to form is
A) interphase.
B) prophase.
C) metaphase.
D) anaphase.
Scientists suspected that the condors eating marine mammals were ingesting DDT,
causing the kind of shell fragility found in the middle part of the last century before
DDT was banned. Which of the following actions would provide the best evidence that
poor egg quality rather than predation or some other factor was the cause of failed
condor reproduction?
A) Swap eggs from nests of reintroduced condors with eggs from successfully
reproducing condors in captivity.
B) Compare the number of eggs in nests of birds in captivity with the number of eggs in
the nests of birds in the wild.
C) Count the number of mating pairs in each area in the wild.
D) Monitor food eaten by condors in each of the areas where condors have been
reintroduced.
The lac operon ofE. coli is ________ when the repressor is bound to lactose.
A) active
B) inactive
C) cloned
D) unregulated
Fertilization in the female reproductive tract typically occurs in the
A) ovary.
B) upper part of the oviduct.
C) lower part of the oviduct.
D) uterus.
Which of the following classes of sensory receptors responds to stimuli such as touch,
pressure, stretching, and sound?
A) thermoreceptors
B) mechanoreceptors
C) electromagnetic receptors
D) chemoreceptors
Which of the following statements about human population growth is true?
A) Human population size on Earth today is at equilibrium.
B) Demographic transition is a transition from high birth rates and high death rates to
low birth rates and low death rates.
C) During a demographic transition, birth rates typically drop first due to the
availability of reliable contraception.
D) Human population size has increased faster and faster throughout human history.
During which of the following stages of food processing is undigested material
removed from the digestive tract?
A) absorption
B) elimination
C) digestion
D) ingestion
The two major anatomical divisions of the nervous system are the
A) sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system.
B) central nervous system and peripheral nervous system.
C) sensory nervous system and motor nervous system.
D) voluntary nervous system and involuntary nervous system.
Bioengineering does not involve
A) growing cells on a balloon-like scaffold.
B) transplanting unaltered organs.
C) seeding a scaffold of connective tissue matrix with stem cells.
D) using printers to build structures layer by layer.
Which of the following options lists taxonomic categories in the correct order from
most specific to most general?
A) genus, family, class, order, phylum
B) genus, family, order, class, phylum
C) family, genus, order, phylum, class
D) family, genus, class, order, phylum
Which of the following wavelengths of light would you expect to be reflected or
transmitted by chlorophyll a?
A) blue
B) green
C) yellow
D) red
In the plasma membrane, the phospholipid heads
A) are hydrophilic and face outward toward the aqueous solution on both sides of the
membrane.
B) are hydrophilic and face inward, shielded from water.
C) are hydrophobic and face outward toward the aqueous solution on both sides of the
membrane.
D) are hydrophobic and face inward, shielded from water.
You are dissecting a “mystery animal” in biology lab and discover that it has a series of
closed blood vessels, a pair of lungs, two atria, and a single ventricle. What animal are
you dissecting?
A) fish
B) frog
C) crocodile
D) bird
After reading the paragraphs below, answer the questions that follow.
Cystic fibrosis is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder that most severely affects the
lungs and respiratory tract. Cystic fibrosis is caused by a mutation in the gene for the
protein cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR), which regulates the movement
of chloride and sodium ions across epithelial cell membranes. When the CFTR gene is
mutated in cystic fibrosis, the defective CFTR protein cannot transport ions properly,
which results in too little water drawn across the membrane and the buildup of thick
and sticky (viscous) mucus, especially in the airways. This leads to difficulty of
breathing and frequent lung infections.
Research has shown that some of the increased thickness and viscosity of the mucus in
the respiratory tract is due to the presence of human DNA. If DNA is present in high
concentrations in solution, the DNA molecules can get entangled and lead to a thick,
viscous solution. To combat this, pharmaceutical companies have developed
recombinant forms of the human deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) protein. DNase I, after
being translated and modified with sugar groups, is normally produced in human cells
and possibly plays a role in DNA breakdown during apoptosis (programmed cell death).
If you wanted to produce a recombinant form of DNase I, what cell type should you
use?
A) E. coli
B) yeast
C) mammalian
D) plant
A child is brought to the hospital with a fever of 107F. Doctors immediately order an
ice bath to lower the child’s temperature. Which of the following statements offers the
most logical explanation for this action?
A) Elevated body temperature will increase reaction rates in the child’s cells and
overload the limited number of enzymes found in the cell.
B) Elevated body temperatures may denature enzymes. This would interfere with the
cell’s abilities to catalyze various reactions.
C) Elevated body temperatures will increase the energy of activation needed to start
various chemical reactions in the body. This will interfere with the ability of enzymes to
catalyze vital chemical reactions.
D) Elevated body temperatures cause molecules to vibrate more quickly and prevent
enzymes from easily attaching to reactants. This would slow vital body reactions.
Which line on the graph corresponds to an amniote?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) could be A or B
Most of the functions of a cell membrane, including transport and enzymatic function,
are performed by
A) glycolipids.
B) proteins.
C) phospholipids.
D) cholesterol.
Plants are sometimes used for phytoremediation in areas where the soil has been
contaminated with heavy metals. Suppose the Acme Remediation Company is
proposing to remediate a contaminated area that you wish to restore. Acme presents you
with the following data as evidence of their company’s ability to remediate soil.
Which of the following is a question you should ask Acme about conclusions to be
drawn from these data?
A) What unit of measurement was used to determine how much metal was in the soil?
B) What species of plants did you use for your remediation?
C) Since even the control plots lost metals, do I really need to remediate?
D) Since lead (Pb) is not a micronutrient for plants, how do the plants remove it?
________ spend almost all of their time on the ground, instead of in trees.
A) Gorillas
B) Orangutans
C) Gibbons
D) Chimpanzees
Which of the following statements is false?
A) Gametes are haploid cells.
B) Two haploid cells fuse during fertilization.
C) An X chromosome is an autosome.
D) A zygote is a fertilized egg.
You are taking someone’s blood pressure and are listening to sounds of blood flow just
under the blood pressure cuff. If this person is hypertensive and has a blood pressure of
140/90, what would be the blood pressure associated with the first sound you hear?
A) above 140 mm Hg
B) between 90 and 140 mm Hg
C) below 90 mm Hg
D) between 70 and 120 mm Hg
Some herbivore-plant interactions evolved through a series of reciprocal evolutionary
adaptations in both species. This process is called
A) herbivory.
B) coevolution.
C) selection.
D) trophism.
The African country of Nigeria had a 4.55% population growth rate from 2005 to 2010,
the highest in the world. Which of the following statements is consistent with this fact?
A) Nigeria’s age structure likely looks like a pyramid with a broad base.
B) Nigerian birth rates are likely to be slightly lower than death rates.
C) Nigeria is likely in the first phase of the demographic transition.
D) Nigerian emigration rates are likely higher than immigration rates.
As the climate warms, organisms will shift their population ranges to different areas
that are cooler. However, as humans continue to fragment large tracts of land, species
will face increasing challenges in adapting their ranges to new climates. For example,
movement corridors may not be able to be built if the amount of land needed for a
species’ range is fragmented due to cities and roads. One alternative to creating
movement corridors is called managed relocation. This requires physically moving
species to cooler climates.
Which of the following is an advantage of using managed relocation?
A) Scientists will be able to accurately predict how many members of a species will
survive the relocation because they can start the process with a definite number of
members being moved.
B) Purposefully moving species will allow scientists to put specific numbers of
organisms in different areas so that the species population always maintains an even
distribution of organisms across the area.
C) All species moved will be saved from extinction.
D) Governments will not face the large costs of maintaining conserved areas for
corridors.