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Biology for Non-Majors is an introductory course designed to provide students with a broad understanding of key biological concepts and principles, without requiring an extensive science background. Topics covered include the structure and function of cells, genetics and heredity, evolution, ecology, and the diversity of living organisms. Emphasis is placed on real-world applications and the relevance of biology to everyday life, health, and environmental issues, fostering scientific literacy and critical thinking for students in various fields of study.
Recommended Textbook
Biology Science for Life with Physiology Edition 5th Edition by Colleen M. Belk
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Q1) What does sampling error refer to?
A) the difficulty in accurately measuring results that are incalculable
B) the differences between a group of experimental subjects and the population as a whole
C) the experimental results that do not support the hypothesis being tested
D) the intentional biases on the part of researchers
Answer: B
Q2) What type of reasoning is used to make predictions based on a hypothesis?
Answer: Deductive
Q3) When would an experimental result be considered statistically significant?
A) The experiment is double blind.
B) Experimental and control subjects are randomly assigned.
C) The result is unlikely to be due to chance alone.
D) The result supports the hypothesis being tested.
Answer: C
Q4) What type of subject is treated as closely as possible to an experimental subject except that he or she does not get the experimental treatment?
Answer: control
Q5) What type of reasoning takes the form of "if/then" statements?
Answer: Deductive
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Q1) Why is the cohesion of water important for biological systems?
A) It helps to moderate the temperature of cold-blooded animals.
B) It helps transport water from the roots to the leaves of a plant.
C) It prevents chemical reactions from occurring in body systems.
D) It prevents salts from dissolving inside the plasma membrane.
Answer: B
Q2) What is the name for the ability of living things to maintain a relatively constant internal environment?
A) cellular respiration
B) homeostasis
C) metabolism
D) stimulus-response
Answer: B
Q3) Which element is the basis for the macromolecules found in living things?
A) carbon
B) hydrogen
C) nitrogen
D) oxygen
Answer: A
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Q1) If a drop of red food coloring is added to a glass of water, how will the red-colored molecules move?
A) from an area of high concentration of red-colored molecules to an area of low concentration
B) from an area of low concentration of red-colored molecules to an area of high concentration
C) from an area of high concentration of water molecules to an area of low concentration
D) toward an area of low concentration of water molecules
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following is a micronutrient?
A) water
B) carbohydrate
C) protein
D) vitamin C
Answer: D
Q3) What cell structure defines the outer boundary of all cells, separating the cell's contents from its environment? (two words)
Answer: plasma membrane
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Q1) Which molecule is a "metabolic taxicab" that shuttles electrons?
A) OAA
B) NADH
C) ATP
D) ADP
Q2) Why is oxygen needed in cellular respiration?
A) Oxygen combines with ADP to create ATP.
B) Oxygen is the final electron acceptor in the electron transport chain.
C) Oxygen carries electrons from the citric acid cycle to the electron transport chain.
D) Fermentation in muscle cells relies upon oxygen as an electron acceptor.
Q3) Which substance is most likely an enzyme?
A) proline
B) stearic acid
C) endopeptidase
D) acetylcholine
Q4) What is the resting energy requirement of a person who is awake but not active? (three words)
Q5) What 3-carbon molecules are produced when a 6-carbon glucose is broken down during glycolysis? (two words)
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Q1) How many membranes surround each chloroplast?
A) 1
B) 2
C) 3
D) 4
Q2) What is the initial carbon-containing starting product in the Calvin cycle?
A) glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate
B) glucose
C) ribulose bisphosphate
D) rubisco
Q3) Which item emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?
A) green plants
B) volcanoes
C) soil
D) water
Q4) What unconsumed macromolecule from dead organisms eventually formed fossil fuels?
Q5) What cells regulate gas exchange by opening and closing the stomata?
Q6) What does the glucose molecule supply to cells?
Q7) Inside which specialized organelle does photosynthesis occur? Page 7
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Q1) What observations would be made by a scientist viewing cancer cells under a microscope?
A) orderly rows of cells
B) cells that are much smaller than normal cells
C) large growths containing fluid
D) disorganized cells
Q2) During the metaphase checkpoint, what information is being checked by the cell?
A) if it is large enough to divide
B) if its DNA has been replicated correctly
C) if its chromosomes are properly attached to microtubules
D) if there are sufficient nutrients available
Q3) According to the diagram, what structures are connected to the centrioles by the microtubules during mitosis?
A) the nuclear envelope
B) uncondensed DNA
C) cytoplasm
D) centromeres
Q4) What are the two halves of a duplicated chromosome? (two words)
Q5) What are specialized cells (egg cells and sperm cells, for example) used for sexual reproduction?
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Q1) Which situation demonstrates only the genetic influence on a trait?
A) Hair dye turns Angela's brown hair to red.
B) Sandy's hair becomes blonder when she spends time out in the sun.
C) Jen has brown hair, just like her mother and father.
D) Identical twins Kiera and Tanya have different colored hair.
Q2) What conclusion can be made by the production of smarter than average children with doctorate-category sperm donations?
A) Because intelligence has no genetic basis, there's no real reason to expect children produced by this type of sperm to be smarter than average.
B) Children produced by this type of sperm have an approximately 72% chance of being more intelligent than average.
C) Children produced by this type of sperm will be smarter than average only if the mother has a high IQ.
D) There is currently no way to predict whether children produced by this type of sperm will be smarter than average.
Q3) What term refers to the genetic makeup of an organism?
Q4) What are the specialized cells used for sexual reproduction (for example, sperm cells)?
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Q1) What pattern of inheritance results in Type AB blood?
A) polygenic inheritance
B) simple dominance
C) codominance
D) sex-linked recessive inheritance
Q2) What pattern of inheritance includes the AB blood type, in which both A and B alleles are expressed?
A) incomplete dominance
B) codominance
C) independent assortment
D) sex linkage
Q3) Which characteristic applies to a normal individual who is a carrier for an X-linked trait such as hemophilia?
A) The carrier is always female.
B) The carrier is homozygous for the recessive condition.
C) The carrier shows the recessive phenotype.
D) The carrier cannot have daughters who have the allele.
Q4) In human ABO blood types, what description applies to the alleles for A and B because they're both expressed?
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Q1) According to the figure, what difference is shown between DNA and RNA?
A) the presence of a nitrogen-containing base
B) the presence of a phosphate group
C) the type of sugar present
D) the presence of guanine
Q2) Which polymer is made of nucleotides?
A) nuclease
B) mRNA
C) proline
D) RNA polymerase
Q3) How are proteins changed to become recombinant proteins?
A) from chemicals in the lab
B) by genetically modified bacteria
C) more potent or more highly concentrated before their use
D) directly from deoxyribonucleic acids, thus bypassing transcription and translation
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Q1) What type of evidence for the theory of common descent would include the presence of goose bumps in humans?
A) vestigial structures
B) homologous structures
C) shared developmental pathways
D) DNA similarity
Q2) True or false: DNA evidence has strongly supported the original groupings proposed by Carl Linnaeus to show relationships between organisms.
A)True
B)False
Q3) You're examining fossils from a variety of hominin species. Which fossils would show the greatest amount of radioactive material in relation to daughter products?
A) Paranthropus aethiopicus
B) Homo habilis
C) Ardepithecus ramidus
D) Australopithecus garhi
Q4) What type of trait includes the tailbone found in humans and other primates without tails?
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Q1) What type of selection would include the evolution of a long neck in giraffes?
A) stabilizing selection
B) directional selection
C) diversifying selection
D) disruptive selection
Q2) True or false: The goal of natural selection is to make extreme traits more common.
A)True
B)False
Q3) True or false: Natural selection occurs so an organism can become perfectly adapted to its environment.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which step in the theory of natural selection do humans impact the most to bring about artificial selection?
A) Individuals in a population vary.
B) Some variation can be passed on to offspring.
C) Populations produce more offspring than the environment can support.
D) There is differential survival and reproduction among individuals in a population.
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Q1) What prevents mules from having offspring?
A) They don't develop sex organs.
B) They are all males.
C) They can't produce eggs and sperm.
D) Each mule produced is a different species from other mules.
Q2) Why might traits such as skin color be fairly consistent within a racial group, but alleles for skin color aren't consistent?
A) There's no relationship between alleles and skin color.
B) Skin color is influenced by many genes, so several different gene pools can produce the same skin color.
C) Only one gene is important in skin color, and when analysis is limited to that gene, there's clear evidence of a long separation of groups.
D) Few allele variations between groups are just what you would expect if races were genealogical species.
Q3) True or false: Reproductive isolation is the only requirement for speciation.
A)True
B)False
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Q1) For what reason might scientists change the most current classification system?
A) if more species became extinct
B) if more types of vertebrates were discovered
C) if more information became available on the evolutionary history of existing species
D) if new species evolved
Q2) True or false: Mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotic cells are very similar to prokaryotes.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Why is adult anatomy sometimes a misleading way to construct a phylogeny that reflects evolutionary history?
A) Adult anatomy isn't strongly influenced by natural selection.
B) Convergent evolution produces similar traits in unrelated species.
C) Adult anatomy is too variable within a species.
Q4) What process is performed by both algae and plants?
Q5) What was the first antibiotic, discovered as a result of a laboratory accident?
Q6) What organisms form mats of long, thin chains of cells and are important in decomposition?
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Q1) Which factor is a population-limiting, density-dependent factor?
A) a heavy flood that destroys a large area around a river
B) a heat wave in which some organisms can't survive
C) a drought that limits food availability
D) the rapid spread of tuberculosis in heavily populated areas
Q2) True or false: Nearly all developed countries in the world are beginning a demographic transition in the twenty-first century.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which factor is density-dependent?
A) decrease in temperature
B) increase in waste production
C) decrease in frequency of hurricanes
D) increase in rainfall
Q4) Over the past two centuries, how has the growth of human population changed?
A) It has leveled off slowly.
B) It has increased steadily.
C) It has exhibited "boom and bust" growth.
D) It has increased exponentially.
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Q1) According to this species-area curve for reptiles and amphibians on a West Indian archipelago, how will the number of species living in the area change if the original area was decreased by 50%?
A) +50%
B) 50%
C) 90%
D) 10%
Q2) Which chemical may be recycled from ammonia in the soil and then converted to organic proteins in plants?
A) nitrogen
B) glucose
C) water
D) ATP
Q3) In order to be considered extinct, a species can't be found
A) at all, in the wild or in captivity at the present time.
B) at all, presently or during the past 10 years.
C) at all, presently or during the past 50 years.
D) in the wild presently but may exist in captivity.
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Q1) Which biome includes plants that are adapted to frequent fires?
A) boreal forest
B) temperate forest
C) chaparral
D) desert
Q2) Which evolutionary adaptation is found in a typical desert plant?
A) shallow roots to quickly capture water
B) broad leaves to capture the bright sunlight
C) long-blooming flowers to attract pollinators
D) deep roots to capture all available moisture
Q3) What adaptation is found in the evergreen trees of boreal forests?
A) a thick waxy coat on leaves
B) lower levels of chlorophyll in leaves
C) the ability to shed leaves when water availability is low in winter
D) flower production in early spring
Q4) In New York, when would the warmest days of the year usually occur?
A) around the summer solstice
B) about one month after the summer solstice
C) about one month before the summer solstice
D) in mid-September

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Q1) Which connective tissue has a liquid matrix?
A) cartilage
B) blood
C) adipose tissue
D) fibrous connective tissue
Q2) What cells transmit signals to and from the brain?
A) hepatocytes
B) osteocytes
C) neurons
D) muscle fibers
Q3) Why does cigarette smoke cause a smoker's skin to wrinkle over time?
A) The fibroblast cells that secrete proteins to the skin are degraded.
B) The collagen and elastin matrix that holds skin to muscle is broken down.
C) The ground substance in skin is converted to protein fibers.
D) The nervous tissue that makes skin tighten is destroyed.
Q4) What is responsible for voluntary movement?
A) conscious thought and cardiac muscle
B) conscious thought and striated muscle
C) conscious thought and smooth muscle
D) unconscious thought and smooth muscle
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Q1) What activity of the liver makes it act as an accessory organ?
A) production of bile
B) synthesis of blood-clotting factors
C) destruction of old blood cells
D) detoxification
Q2) What is the duct within the kidney that collects urine?
A) ureter
B) renal vein
C) bladder
D) renal pelvis
Q3) What process releases urine from the bladder?
A) filtration
B) excretion
C) micturition
D) nephronation
Q4) What are the functional units of the kidneys?
Q5) True or False: Drinking any amount of alcohol always has negative effects on the body.
A)True
B)False
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Q1) What term describes the many components of tobacco smoke that are known to cause cancer?
Q2) What region of the heart acts as the heart's pacemaker?
A) sinoatrial (SA) node
B) atrioventricular (AV) node
C) semilunar valve
D) ventricle
Q3) What body signal, interpreted by the brain stem, will cause the diaphragm to contract?
A) levels of oxygen in the blood
B) levels of carbon dioxide in the blood
C) levels of carbon monoxide in the blood
D) levels of hemoglobin in the blood
Q4) A small mass of specialized muscle on the back wall of the right atrium, also known as the pacemaker, is medically known as what?
A) atrioventricular node
B) cardiopulmonary node
C) bundle of His
D) sinoatrial node
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Q1) Mucus traps pathogens that are later coughed or sneezed away. What form of body defense applies to this example?
A) first line of defense
B) second line of defense
C) third line of defense
D) antibody-mediated immunity
Q2) Why aren't viruses classified as living organisms?
A) Viruses don't possess a nucleus.
B) Viruses aren't capable of replicating themselves without a host cell.
C) Viruses don't always contain DNA as their genetic material.
D) Viruses don't contain any proteins.
Q3) Which specific defense mechanism defends primarily against antigens in body fluids?
A) cell-mediated immune system
B) antibody-mediated immune system
C) inflammatory response
D) fever
Q4) Where are developing lymphocytes tested to determine whether they'll bind to self-proteins?
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Q1) Refer to the figure to answer the following question: Which component of bone is responsible for producing blood cells?
A) cartilage
B) marrow
C) spongy bone
D) compact bone
Q2) Into what units are the myofibrils of skeletal muscle organized?
A) A discs
B) sarcomeres
C) Z discs
D) antagonistic pairs
Q3) Marble bone disease is a disease in which bone increases in mass and becomes abnormally hard. This disorder is most likely caused by the inactivity of which part of the body?
A) bone marrow
B) osteoblasts
C) osteoclasts
D) vertebrae
Q4) Which type of skeleton protects a human's soft internal organs?
Q5) Which structure produces immune cells and is part of the lymphatic system?
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Q1) Which conception control method is most effective?
A) diaphragm
B) condom
C) minipill
D) vaginal ring
Q2) Which condition decreases the probability that fertilization will take place?
A) Cervical mucus is less viscous and thinner following ovulation.
B) The oviducts contract during ovulation.
C) Enzymes are present within the acrosome of sperm.
D) The upper vagina is an acidic environment.
Q3) A common practice during delivery of a baby is to induce labor by giving pregnant women what hormone?
A) estrogen
B) progesterone
C) oxytocin
D) prolactin
Q4) What body system allows the survival of different species?
Q5) What are the primary female reproductive organs that are responsible for producing egg cells?
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Q1) How would the movement of a nerve impulse be described?
A) the change in the magnetic field along a neuron
B) the passage of ions through the membrane of a neuron
C) the movement of tiny filaments inside a neuron
D) the change in a neuron so that the inside becomes more negatively charged
Q2) Scientists have known for centuries that we "speak" with the left hemisphere of the brain. You perform an experiment in which your subject was presented with an apple only to the left visual field. When asked to identify what he saw, the subject denied seeing anything. However, when asked to point to the correct object, he was able to see and identify the apple. Which reason would explain this deficit?
A) The subject has a brain lesion in the frontal lobes.
B) The subject suffered head trauma to the back of his head.
C) The subject has a tumor in the left parietal lobe.
D) The subject had his corpus callosum severed to control epileptic seizures.
Q3) What are sensory receptors?
A) cells that create action potentials and thresholds
B) localized areas of the CNS
C) chemicals that cross a synapse between two nerve cells
D) specialized neurons for detecting the world around you
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Q1) What modified plant part would include a white potato as an example?
A) stem
B) root
C) leaf
D) flower
Q2) What is the concentration of persistent toxic chemicals at higher levels within a food chain or food web?
Q3) Which of the following is a form of cultural control to minimize pest populations?
A) crop rotation
B) monoculture
C) irrigation
D) pesticide use
Q4) Through what route does pollination in corn occur?
A) wind
B) insects
C) birds
D) bats
Q5) What is the emergence of a plant embryo from a seed?
Q6) Pollination occurs when the pollen of a flower lands on which plant structure?
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Q1) Which adaptation is found in the leaves of cacti?
A) They store excess starch.
B) They are dropped during periods of drought.
C) They have been modified into spines.
D) They are very large to absorb plenty of sunlight.
Q2) What effect does pruning flowers have on a plant?
A) The plant will make more flowers than normal.
B) The new flowers that grow will be larger.
C) The plant will produce more leaves.
D) The plant will produce fruits instead of flowers.
Q3) Many garden plants that are grown for leaves or roots, such as parsley and carrots, produce vegetative growth the first year and reproductive structure growth the second year. Thus, what type of plants are parsley and carrots?
A) annuals
B) biennials
C) perennials
D) woody plants
Q4) What are the narrow, tapering cells found in the xylem tubes of drought-adapted plant species?
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