53) During exercise, your heart rate can increase dramatically in order to meet the metabolic
demands of your tissues. If your heart rate increased to 144 beats per minute, approximately how
long would diastole last?
A) 0.2 second
B) 0.6 second
C) 0.8 second
D) 1.6 seconds
54) During exercise, your cardiac output can increase dramatically in order to meet the metabolic
demands of your tissues. If your heart rate increased to 150 beats per minute and the volume of
blood pumped per beat is 75 mL, what is your cardiac output?
A) 5 L/min
B) 11.25 L/min
C) 11,250 L/min
D) 50,000 L/min
55) Sometimes when a person in a movie is stabbed or cut, blood forcefully sprays out of the
wound. This is realistic only if the severed vessel is under a high degree of pressure. Which of
the following vessels, if severed, would result in the most forceful spray of blood?
A) pulmonary artery
B) inferior vena cava
C) capillaries in the body
D) aorta
56) You conduct a study with mice to determine whether giving them air with a higher than
normal oxygen level results in their having a higher than normal oxygen content in their blood.
What vessel should you draw blood from if you want to measure the highest potential level of
oxygen content in the blood?
A) superior vena cava
B) pulmonary vein
C) pulmonary artery
D) aorta
57) Which of the following molecules is least likely to be able to pass through a capillary wall?
A) an enzyme
B) a sodium ion
C) glucose
D) oxygen
58) Imagine that blood did not contain any dissolved proteins. What would likely happen when
this abnormal blood flows through a capillary bed?
A) Nearly all of the fluid in the blood would move out of the capillaries.
B) None of the fluid in the blood would move out of the capillaries.
C) Some of the proteins in the interstitial fluid would flow into the capillaries.
D) The blood would flow normally through the capillaries.
59) Hematocrit is the percentage of red blood cells in the blood. In adult humans, hematocrit is
roughly 40-45%, but it can be much higher or lower in other animals. Consider the Weddell seal,
a mammal that can dive and hold its breath underwater for upwards of 80 minutes. What is the
hematocrit level of a Weddell seal, and why?
A) It is likely lower than that of an adult human because the seal needs access to less oxygen
when diving.
B) It is likely lower than that of an adult human because the seal needs access to more oxygen
when diving.
C) It is likely higher than that of an adult human because the seal needs access to less oxygen
when diving.
D) It is likely higher than that of an adult human because the seal needs access to more oxygen
when diving.
60) 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.
61) To view the path of blood flow through the heart and body, scientists and physicians perform
an angiogram by injecting a dye into the blood and monitoring its movement. Imagine that this
dye was injected into the pulmonary vein. Which of the following is the correct order of
structures that the dye will flow through?
A) lungs, pulmonary artery, left atrium, left ventricle
B) left atrium, left ventricle, aorta, body arteries
C) right atrium, right ventricle, aorta, body arteries
D) lungs, pulmonary artery, right atrium, right ventricle
62) A red blood cell is in an artery in the right leg. How many capillary beds will it pass through
before it returns to the left atrium of the heart?
A) none
B) one
C) two
D) three
63) Ventricular contraction normally begins at the apex (bottom of the heart). What would likely
happen if ventricular contraction originated at the intersection of the atria and the ventricles
instead?
A) Blood would be pumped through the semilunar valves.
B) Blood would be pumped through the AV valves.
C) Blood would be pumped back into the atria.
D) Blood would be pumped down to the apex of the heart.
64) 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
23.2 Art Questions
1) Which part of this figure depicts a pulmonary artery?
A) part A
B) part B
C) part C
D) part D
2) Which of the following describes the stage of the cardiac cycle shown?
A) AV and SL valves both open, ventricles contracting
B) AV valves open, SL valves closed, ventricles contracting
C) AV valves closed, SL valves open, ventricles contracting
D) AV valves closed, SL valves open, ventricles relaxed
3) Which part of this figure depicts an arteriole?
A) part A
B) part B
C) part C
D) part D
4) In which part of this figure would blood have the lowest oxygen content?
A) part A
B) part B
C) part C
D) part D
23.3 Scenario Questions
After reading the paragraph below, answer the questions that follow.
Ron and Tiffany are studying circulatory system function. They designed an experiment to test
whether the diameter of a tube affects the rate of flow through the tube. In their experiment, they
ran water from a large container through five tubes with different diameters for exactly 30
seconds for each tube. They measured the volume of liquid that passed through the tube during
the 30-second period, testing each tube three times and pouring the water back into the container
after each test. The results of the experiment are shown in the following table.
Diameter of
Tube (cm)
Average
Volume Fluid
(ml)
Tube A
0.5
210
Tube B
0.6
350
Tube C
0.7
480
Tube D
0.8
600
Tube E
0.9
975
1) Which statement best summarizes the results of the experiment?
A) The larger the tube diameter, the greater the flow volume.
B) The larger the tube diameter, the smaller the flow volume.
C) The tube diameter shows no clear relationship to flow volume.
D) The flow rate through the largest tube is approximately twice that through the smallest tube.
2) The results suggest that the smallest flow volume would be found in the ________ of the
human body.
A) arteries
B) veins
C) capillaries
D) arterioles
3) Ron and Tiffany modified the experiment to see how long it would take to pass 1,000 mL of
fluid through each tube. Based on these results shown in the table, which tube would it take the
longest for 1,000 mL of fluid to flow through?
A) tube A
B) tube B
C) tube C
D) tube E
After reading the paragraphs below, answer the questions that follow.
To evaluate cardiac function, scientists and physicians measure both the pressure and the volume
inside the heart. When both pressure and volume data are plotted on the same graph, the resulting
graph is called a pressure-volume loop. To create a pressure-volume loop, a catheter (a thin tube)
is inserted into the vessels of the heart, and measurements of both left ventricular pressure and
left ventricular volume are taken. The data are plotted on a graph, and cardiac function can then
be evaluated from the distribution of the data and the shape of the loop.
The figure below shows a typical left ventricle pressure-volume loop for a healthy young adult.
The cardiac cycle proceeds counterclockwise. Each complete turn around the loop (for example,
starting at point A and ending back at point A) represents one complete cardiac cycle.
4) What part of the diagram represents diastole?
A) point B
B) point C
C) the line between points A and B
D) the line between points C and D
25
5) At what point of the diagram is the left ventricle filled with the least amount of blood and at
the highest pressure?
A) point A
B) point B
C) point C
D) point D
6) At what point on the diagram does the aortic valve (the semilunar valve that separates the left
ventricle and the aorta) open?
A) point A
B) point B
C) point C
D) point D
7) How much blood is ejected from the left ventricle during one contraction?
A) 35 mL
B) 65 mL
C) 70 mL
D) 135 mL
8) If the time it takes to go around the loop is 1 second, what is the cardiac output in units of
liters per minute?
A) 3.9 L/min
B) 4.2 L/min
C) 7.0 L/min
D) 8.1 L/min
9) Aortic stenosis is a disease in which the aortic valve (the semilunar valve between the left
ventricle and the aorta) narrows, resulting in increased left ventricular pressure and reduced
ejection volume (the amount of blood that the left ventricle ejects). What would the pressure–
volume graph for a patient with aortic stenosis look like compared to the graph shown above for
a healthy young adult?
A) taller and wider
B) taller and narrower
C) shorter and narrower
D) shorter and wide