Course Introduction
Biology for Non-Majors Solved
Exam Questions
Biology for Non-Majors introduces students to the fundamental concepts of biology, emphasizing the relevance of biological principles to everyday life and contemporary issues. This course covers essential topics such as cell structure and function, genetics, evolution, ecology, and the diversity of living organisms. Designed for students with little or no background in science, the course fosters scientific literacy through engaging lectures, practical activities, and discussions on the impact of biology on health, the environment, and society.
Recommended Textbook
Biology Now 1st Edition by Anne Houtman
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Nature of Science
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Sample Questions
Q1) New medications undergo extensive human testing before receiving FDA approval. These tests represent an experiment and variations in the dosage given to participants represents the
A)dependent variable.
B)independent variable.
C)correlation coefficient.
D)invariable.
Answer: B
Q2) Generate ________ to test your hypothesis.
A)tests
B)communicate
C)accept, reject, or modify
D)observe
E)analyze
F)hypothesis
G)predictions
Answer: G
Q3) A direct and repeatable observation of any aspect of the natural world can be considered a scientific ________.
Answer: fact
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Chapter 2: Chemistry of Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) The class of macromolecules that do NOT form true polymers are the ________. Answer: lipids
Q2) In making your morning tea, you drop a sugar cube into some hot water. You stir the mixture but no longer see the sugar cube at the bottom of your mug. Based on your observation of sugar dissolving in hot water, you properly conclude that the sugar is A)hydrophobic.
B)nonpolar.
C)hydrophilic.
D)inert.
Answer: C
Q3) How many different amino acids are used to build proteins?
A)90
B)20
C)19
D)4
Answer: B
Q4) An atom that becomes charged due to the gain or loss of an electron is called a(n)
Answer: ion
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Chapter 3: Life Is Cellular
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Sample Questions
Q1) Phospholipids are large organic molecules with a ________, polar phosphate head connected to ________, nonpolar fatty acid tails. How do these molecules arrange themselves to form a mostly impermeable barrier between a liposome and its environment?
A)hydrophilic; hydrophobic; They line up hydrophilic head to hydrophilic head with the tails all facing outward from the center line of the membrane.
B)hydrophilic; hydrophobic; They line up hydrophobic tails facing each other at the center line of the membrane with the hydrophilic heads facing outward, away from the center line of the membrane.
C)hydrophobic; hydrophilic; They line up hydrophobic tails facing each other with the hydrophilic heads facing outward, away from the center line of the membrane.
D)hydrophobic; hydrophilic; They line up hydrophilic head to hydrophilic head with the tails all facing outward from the center line of the membrane.
Answer: B
Q2) All cells have a ________ that acts as a barrier separating the cellular components from the external environment. Answer: plasma membrane
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Page 5
Chapter 4: How Cells Work
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a similarity between photosynthesis and respiration?
A)Neither is a metabolic process.
B)They are both metabolic processes.
C)Neither is an anabolic process.
D)They are both mainly anabolic processes.
Q2) A cell is found that is able to use sunlight to produce ATP, but it does not produce NADPH. The portion of the light reaction that is not functioning is ________.
Q3) The ________ of an enzyme is an area with a specialized shape and/or set of chemical properties that allows the enzyme to bind with a particular substrate.
Q4) A given enzyme
A)can be used for many different kinds of chemical reactions.
B)is permanently changed during a chemical reaction.
C)has a special site where the products bind before the reaction begins.
D)increases the rate of a particular reaction.
Q5) What best summarizes the events of the Calvin cycle?
A)The cycle uses ATP and NADPH to produce sugars.
B)The cycle moves electrons from Photosystem II to Photosystem I.
C)The cycle moves light-energized electrons to Photosystem II.
D)The cycle absorbs light from the light reactions.
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Chapter 5: Cell Division
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Q1) M phase
A)Duplicated chromosomes are separated during this phase.
B)Cells prepare to divide and check that the proper steps have occurred for division.
C)Phase in which cells duplicate the genetic material.
D)Resting stage assumed by cells that exit the cell cycle.
E)Two new daughter cells grow in preparation for division.
Q2) Which two processes work in conjunction to create genetic diversity and maintain chromosome number?
A)mitosis and meiosis
B)meiosis and independent assortment
C)binary fission and mitosis
D)fertilization and meiosis
Q3) Chromosomes are lined up at the middle of the cell during the ________ portion of cell division.
A)metaphase
B)anaphase
C)interphase
D)telophase
Q4) Sister chromatids are held together at a constriction point called a ________.
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Chapter 6: Patterns of Inheritance
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following does NOT represent a phenotype?
A)a person's susceptibility to Addison's disease
B)the height of a draft horse
C)the alleles in a mouse that control hair color
D)the extent to which an individual is shy
Q2) The leaf color of a certain plant is controlled by one gene. For that gene, the allele G = orange and g = green. You have a plant with orange leaves, but do not know whether that plant's genotype is GG or Gg. Which of the following would help you determine the plant's genotype?
A)Cross the plant to another plant with orange leaves.
B)Cross the plant to a plant with green leaves.
C)Cross two true-breeding, orange-leaved plants to each other and then cross one of their offspring to the plant with the unknown genotype.
D)Change the environment in which the plant grows to find the conditions that cause the leaves to produce the orange color.
Q3) The observable physical characteristics of an organism are known as its ________.
Q4) The genetic makeup of an organism, such as Gg, is its ________.
Q5) A Punnett square charts the separation of alleles into ________.
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Chapter 7: Chromosomes and Human Genetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) On chromosomes within an individual, there are ________ alleles for a given gene found on ________ chromosomes.
A)two; homologous
B)four; maternal
C)four; paternal
D)two; Y
Q2) What information in a pedigree would indicate a condition is likely dominant?
A)Twenty-five percent of the individuals in the pedigree have the condition.
B)Two-thirds of the affected individuals are females.
C)None of the affected individuals have unaffected parents.
D)Most of the affected individuals are males.
Q3) Which of the following must be true for a woman who is heterozygous for a given gene?
A)She must be heterozygous for all genes.
B)All of her eggs will contain both of the alleles for that gene.
C)All of her eggs will contain one allele or the other, but not both alleles.
D)She carries a rare mutation.
Q4) Except for the sex chromosomes, all the chromosomes shown in a karyotype are numbered and are called ________.
Q5) Why are dominant genetic disorders more rare than recessive disorders?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: What Genes Are
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Sample Questions
Q1) The sequence of DNA differs among individuals within a species. This is the basis for A)mutation.
B)protein structure.
C)base pairing.
D)variations in phenotypes.
Q2) How many phosphate groups are present in a single strand of DNA?
A)the same number as there are adenine bases
B)the same number as there are adenine + thymine bases
C)the same number as there are guanine + cytosine bases
D)the same number as there are adenine + thymine + guanine + cytosine bases
Q3) What part of a nucleotide accounts for the genetic variation between individuals?
A)sugar
B)phosphate
C)base
D)polymerase
Q4) A strand of DNA has the sequence GCAATTCG. The sequence of the complementary strand is ________.
Q5) The enzyme that copies DNA is called ________.
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Chapter 9: How Genes Work
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a codon?
A)U
B)UU
C)UUU
D)UUUU
Q2) Gene regulation is the ability to
A)cut out a certain region of DNA to save energy.
B)increase or decrease protein synthesis from a given gene.
C)change the sequence of a gene to produce a new protein.
D)share genetic information between different organisms.
Q3) Following transcription, the A)strands of DNA bond back to each other.
B)mRNA is digested.
C)DNA molecule is broken down.
D)ribosome is released from the tRNA molecule.
Q4) The bases present in an RNA molecule are
A)C, T, A, and G.
B)U, A, C, and G.
C)G, C ,U, and T.
D)U, C, T, and A.
11
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Chapter 10: Evidence for Evolution
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Q1) Two different species may have similar features because of
A)continental drift.
B)the fossil record.
C)artificial selection.
D)descent from a common ancestor.
Q2) Fossils found in deeper layers are ________ than fossils found in more shallow layers.
A)older
B)younger
C)more informative
D)less informative
Q3) Dolphins develop hind limb buds, but these structures disappear before adulthood.
A)comparative embryology
B)fossil evidence
C)comparative anatomy
D)comparative DNA
E)biogeographic evidence
Q4) The preserved remains of formerly living organisms are called ________.
Q5) Continental drift is the ________ of Earth's landmasses through geologic time.
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Chapter 11: Mechanisms of Evolution
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Q1) Several related bird species live in a desert. One species is much smaller than the other species. This species nests in holes in cacti. Because the bird is so small, it can easily squeeze between the spines of the cactus and create a well-protected nest. This is an example of A)genetic drift.
B)mutation.
C)natural selection.
D)gene flow.
Q2) For a population to evolve, there must be genetic differences between organisms in that population. These differences arise by A)mutation.
B)a change in an organism's behavior.
C)natural selection.
D)common descent.
Q3) Compare and contrast bottleneck and founder effect.
Q4) The only mechanism of evolutionary change that is not influenced by chance events is ________.
Q5) A chance evolutionary change occurring in small populations is referred to as ________.
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Chapter 12: Adaptation and Species
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Q1) Which of the following is NOT an example of speciation?
A)two populations of sea urchins in the same territory, which are physically unable to mate
B)two populations of small rodents that look similar but have genetic differences
C)two populations of morphologically distinct lizards that lack differences in DNA sequences
D)two populations of butterflies that live in the same area but breed in different seasons
Q2) Some freshwater snail eggs are accidentally introduced into a new habitat that is geographically isolated from the original population. Which of the following must occur before these snails are described as two separate species?
A)gene flow
B)sympatric speciation
C)adaptation
D)genetic divergence
Q3) The great diversity of life on Earth is caused by the formation of new species in a process known as ________.
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Chapter 13: The History of Life
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Q1) How was the distribution of humans (after they evolved) affected by continental drift?
A)The supercontinent of Pangaea had not yet split up before humans evolved. This made it very easy for humans to travel over the entire landmass of Earth.
B)The supercontinent of Pangaea had already begun to split up, but the continents were still very close together making it pretty easy for humans to travel from one continent to another.
C)The supercontinent of Pangaea had not yet split up before humans evolved. This had little impact on the distribution of humans because they did not travel until the 1400s.
D)The supercontinent of Pangaea split apart and the resulting continents were pretty much in their present day locations by the time modern humans evolved. This would have slowed the distribution of humans until they developed ways of easily traversing the oceans.
Q2) At the base of the evolutionary tree of all life is the A)universal ancestor.
B)convergent ancestor.
C)derived ancestor.
D)descended ancestor.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Human Evolution
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Q1) Would a hominin evolutionary tree look thin and spindly or full and bushy?
A)The hominin evolutionary tree would look full and bushy because it would have started about 6 mya with multiple branched branches throughout the millennia.
B)The hominin evolutionary tree would look thin and spindly because it started about 6 mya and followed a straight linear progression from Sahalenthropus tchadensis to Homo sapiens.
C)The hominin evolutionary tree would look full and bushy because is started only 2 mya and has many branches between Homo habilis to Homo sapiens.
D)The hominin evolutionary tree would look thin and spindly because it started only 2 mya and followed a straight linear progression from Homo rudolfensis to Homo sapiens.
Q2) Which of the following best describes the source of your nuclear DNA?
A)All of my nuclear DNA was inherited from my mother.
B)All of my nuclear DNA was inherited from my father.
C)Half of my nuclear DNA was inherited from my mother and half from my father.
D)Seventy-five percent of my nuclear DNA was inherited from my father and 25 percent from my mother.
Q3) All of your mitochondrial DNA was inherited from your ________.
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Chapter 15: General Principles of Ecology
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Q1) Which of the following would best be considered an aspect of climate?
A)a large thunderstorm
B)average rainfall
C)a shifting hurricane
D)a widespread blizzard
Q2) The term ________ describes the process of water released to the atmosphere from plants.
Q3) The hydrologic cycle includes
A)biotic factors only.
B)abiotic factors only.
C)both biotic and abiotic factors.
D)neither biotic nor abiotic factors.
Q4) Increasing carbon sinks will
A)increase global warming and decrease climate change.
B)increase global warming and increase climate change.
C)decrease global warming and increase climate change.
D)decrease global warming and decrease climate change.
Q5) During a debate on sustainability, a presenter states that humans do not need to protect the planet because our technology puts us outside of the biosphere. Evaluate the validity of this statement.
Page 17
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Chapter 16: Growth of Populations
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Q1) A population of 100 individuals has a doubling time of 25 years. What size will this population be in 100 years?
A)100
B)400
C)800
D)1,600
Q2) The top of the "S" in an S-shaped curve indicates that the population
A)is on the verge of collapse.
B)is experiencing abnormally heavy pressure from predators.
C)has reached its carrying capacity.
D)is poised for further exponential growth.
Q3) Which of the following populations would be most likely to experience a J-shaped growth pattern?
A)all of the animals in the San Diego Zoo
B)single-celled Paramecia without a constant food supply
C)a founding colony of rats on a small island with abundant resources
D)a beehive infected midsummer with a deadly bacterial disease
Q4) Weather is a density-________ factor that can affect the size of a population.
Q5) Explain why logistic growth curves have an "S" shape.
Q6) China's population ________ is 137 people per square kilometer.
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Communities of Organisms
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Q1) bears and wolves both consuming carcasses within the same area
A)mutualism
B)commensalism
C)exploitation
D)competition
Q2) Which of the following experiments would help to identify a keystone species?
A)Introduce more of the suspected species into the area and observe the effects on other community members.
B)Introduce an invasive species related to the suspected species into the area and observe the effects on the suspected species.
C)Remove the suspected species from the area and observe the effects on other community members.
D)Introduce additional individuals of the suspected species' food source into the area and observe the effects on community members.
Q3) Pathogens are considered a special type of parasite because they
A)invariably kill their prey.
B)affect specific portions of the host.
C)cause disease in their hosts.
D)live on or in the host organism.
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Chapter 18: Ecosystems
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Q1) When humans consume herbivores such as cattle, they occupy which trophic level of a food chain?
A)primary consumer
B)secondary consumer
C)tertiary consumer
D)primary producer
Q2) If there are 50 kcal of energy in the tertiary consumer trophic level, how many kcal would you expect to find in the primary consumer level?
A)50
B)100
C)500
D)5,000
Q3) A group of living communities interacting with one another and their shared physical environment is a(n) ________.
Q4) Explain why ecosystems do not always have sharply defined physical boundaries.
Q5) Producers capture energy from the ________ and transform it into fuel energy that passes up the food chain as one organism eats another.
Q6) Describe how chemical nutrients enter and are recycled through an ecosystem.
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Chapter 19: Homeostasis, Reproduction, and Development
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Q1) The number of chromosomes in secondary spermatocytes is fewer than in primary spermatocytes because
A)sister chromatids are separated during meiosis II.
B)sister chromatids are separated during meiosis I.
C)homologous pairs are separated during meiosis II.
D)homologous pairs are separated during meiosis I.
Q2) Which of the following statements about human sperm and eggs is correct?
A)Sperm are visible to the eye, whereas eggs are microscopic.
B)A woman's supply of eggs is limitless.
C)Eggs have twice as much genetic information as sperm have.
D)Sperm are much smaller than eggs.
Q3) In human males, spermatogenesis occurs in the ________.
Q4) Which structure in the male reproductive tract has a function similar to that of the female fallopian tubes?
A)the vas deferens
B)the seminiferous tubules
C)the penis
D)the testes
Q5) The ________ is the site of ovum fertilization in human females.
Q6) Explain how the hormone oxytocin plays a role in the progression of labor.
Page 21
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Chapter 20: Digestive, Muscular, and Skeletal Systems
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Q1) The power that moves food along your esophagus comes from
A)skeletal muscle.
B)smooth muscle.
C)cardiac muscle.
D)voluntary muscle.
Q2) A child with adequate calcium in her diet has soft, weak, misshapen bones and is diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency. What vitamin is most likely deficient in her diet, and what foods could she eat to increase her levels of this vitamin?
Q3) Ligaments are connective tissue that connects ________ to bone.
Q4) The nutrients in food enter our body by crossing through the epithelial cells that line the ________ intestine.
Q5) The ________ supplies digestive enzymes and bicarbonate to the small intestine.
Q6) Pancreatic cancer is an especially dangerous disease in humans because the pancreas is
A)the organ that produces and stores bile.
B)the site of synthesis for all the essential amino acids.
C)one of the organs through which food must pass on its way to the large intestine.
D)an organ that manufactures many different kinds of digestive enzymes.
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Chapter 21: Circulatory, Respiratory, Urinary, and Nervous Systems
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Q1) Another name for the "pacemaker" of the heart is the A)atrioventricular (AV) node.
B)sinoatrial (SA) node.
C)atrium.
D)ventricle.
Q2) Which of the following structures has the smallest diameter?
A)the pharynx
B)the trachea
C)the bronchi
D)the bronchioles
Q3) List the path for blood flow through the heart, lungs, and body, beginning and ending in the heart chamber that receives oxygen-poor blood returning from the body. Your answer should include the specific heart chambers, the lungs, and the body.
Q4) The thalamus is part of the ________ nervous system.
Q5) The structures that carry signals away from the cell body of a neuron are called A)dendrites. B)axons.
C)nuclei. D)synapses.
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Chapter 22: Endocrine and Immune Systems
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Q1) sites where trapped pathogens initiate adaptive immune responses
A)macrophages
B)mucous membranes
C)cytokines
D)B cells
E)lymph nodes
F)platelets
Q2) By what mechanism do most hormones travel through the organism that produces them?
A)the circulatory system
B)diffusion
C)the nervous system
D)the urinary system
Q3) The hormone-producing tissues of animals make up the ________ system.
Q4) White blood cells of the adaptive immune response provide what advantage that is lacking in white blood cells of the innate immune response?
A)rapid response time
B)memory
C)decreased specificity
D)barriers
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Chapter 23: Plant Physiology
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Q1) In plants, the diploid stage of the life cycle produces ________ by ________.
A)spores; meiosis
B)spores; mitosis
C)gametes; meiosis
D)gametes; mitosis
Q2) Contrast how the growth patterns of plants and animals help each type of organism respond to predators.
Q3) After plant gametes fuse, they undergo mitosis to produce the A)spores.
B)sporophyte.
C)gametophyte.
D)flower.
Q4) The plant hormone auxin causes cells in the shoot to elongate (grow longer). Auxin is involved in the phototropic response because it moves from one side of the plant to the other in response to light. Discuss the direction in which auxin moves (toward light or away from light) and how this helps the phototropic response.
Q5) Plants are protected from herbivores by ________ tissue, which also controls gas exchange.
Q6) Compare and contrast the products of meiosis in plants and in animals.
Page 25
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Chapter 24: Applying the Science
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Q1) A scientific paper that combines results from several cohort studies and a case-control study would be considered a(n)
A)meta-analysis.
B)beta-analysis.
C)omega-analysis.
D)pseudo-analysis.
Q2) Announcing "scientific" findings in a press conference before they have been published in an established scientific journal is an example of A)primary literature.
B)secondary literature.
C)neither primary nor secondary literature because it has not yet undergone peer-review to be primary literature, and secondary literature follows primary literature.
D)both primary and secondary literature because it does not need to undergo peer-review to be either primary or secondary literature.
Q3) A statement about how the world works that can be supported, or not, by using the scientific method is a(n) ________ claim.
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