General Biology Practice Questions
Course Introduction
General Biology provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental principles of biological science. Topics covered include the structure and function of cells, genetics, evolution, ecology, and the diversity of life. Through an exploration of both plant and animal systems, students will develop an understanding of the processes that govern living organisms and the interrelationships within ecosystems. The course emphasizes scientific inquiry, critical thinking, and laboratory skills, preparing students for further studies in the biological sciences.
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Biology Science for Life with Physiology 4th Edition by Colleen M. Belk
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Chapter 1: Can Science Cure the Common Cold?
Introduction to the Scientific Method
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a standard probability that is accepted by most researchers as statistical significance?
A) 10%
B) 5%
C) 0.05%
D) 0.01%
Answer: B
Q2) A scientific hypothesis has which of the following features?
A) It is able to be proven true.
B) It is falsifiable.
C) It is a theory about something.
D) It is not based on observations.
Answer: B
Q3) A(n)________ is an intentionally ineffective treatment given to members of a control group in an experiment.
Answer: placebo
Q4) A(n)________ (two words)is an explanation of a set of related observations based on well-supported hypotheses from a number of different, independent lines of research.
Answer: scientific theory
3
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and Cells
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Q1) The ________ is the compartment in a eukaryotic cell that stores DNA in the form of chromatin.
Answer: nucleus
Q2) ________ are the smallest units into which an element can be broken down.
Answer: Atoms
Q3) The purported fossils in meteorite ALH84001 resemble modern prokaryotes called A) nanobacteria.
B) amoebas.
C) fungi.
D) nucleoids.
Answer: A
Q4) Cell membranes are ________, which means that they allow certain molecules to pass through while preventing the passage of other molecules.
Answer: semipermeable
Q5) Proteins in cells are assembled on workbench-like structures called ________. Answer: ribosomes
Q6) The ________ is the fundamental structural unit of life on Earth. Answer: cell
Q7) Proteins are composed of monomer subunits called ________ (two words). Answer: amino acids Page 4
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Chapter 3: Is It Possible to Supplement Your Way to Better
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these has not been tested by the Food and Drug Administration for safety and effectiveness?
A) aspirin
B) multivitamin
C) antibiotic
D) cough medicine
Answer: B
Q2) Plants store their excess carbohydrates in the form of ________.
Answer: starch
Q3) Which of these vitamins is also considered an antioxidant?
A) vitamin A
B) biotin
C) folic acid
D) niacin
Answer: A
Q4) The human body stores excess carbohydrates in the form of ________ in muscles and the liver.
Answer: glycogen
Q5) The movement of a substance out of a cell via a vesicle is called ________.
Answer: exocytosis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a true statement about the differences in fat and energy storage between average men and women?
A) Men have proportionally more energy stores (fat) than women.
B) Women store proportionally more fat in their breasts, hips, and thighs than men.
C) Women need less body fat than men in order to maintain normal menstruation and to become pregnant.
D) Women store less energy as fat and burn more energy, proportionally, than men.
Q2) Creatine phosphate (marketed as "creatine")is a popular supplement taken by weightlifters and other athletes. This supplement provides phosphates that
A) readily allow for the regeneration of ATP.
B) break down glucose during the citric acid cycle.
C) accept electrons at the end of the electron transport chain.
D) ensure ATP is never broken down into ADP.
Q3) The resting energy requirement of a person who is awake but not active is called ________ (three words).
Q4) The reactions of the citric acid cycle are catalyzed by a series of ________.
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Chapter 5: Life in the Greenhouse: Photosynthesis and Global Warming
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Sample Questions
Q1) Temperature is a measure of
A) the potential energy in a substance.
B) how fast the molecules in a substance are moving.
C) the energy lost from a substance to its surroundings.
D) how much heat is being absorbed by a substance.
Q2) Which of these human activities has directly contributed to global warming?
A) burning of coal
B) building of greenhouses
C) planting of trees
D) development of solar energy
Q3) Heat is a measure of
A) the rate that molecules are moving within a substance.
B) the resistance to temperature change within a substance.
C) the ability of a substance to transfer energy between its molecules.
D) the total amount of energy associated with the movement of molecules in a substance.
Q4) Fossil fuels form from the unconsumed ________ of dead organisms.
Q5) Cells that regulate gas exchange by opening and closing the stomata are called ________ cells.
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Q6) Glucose is a molecule that supplies ________ to cells.
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Chapter 6: Cancer: DNA Synthesis, Mitosis, and Meiosis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Free radicals remove ________ from other molecules.
A) protons
B) neutrons
C) electrons
D) photons
Q2) The multiple-hit model of cancer means that
A) most cancer-causing mutations are passed on to future generations.
B) most cancers occur in many different tissues simultaneously.
C) multiple mutations are required to cause most forms of cancer.
D) a person gets cancer only if both of his or her parents had cancer.
Q3) The most common type of cancer that people in the United States die from is A) lung cancer.
B) breast cancer.
C) skin cancer.
D) prostate cancer.
Q4) A normal human cell containing 44 autosomes and two X chromosomes is a(n) A) egg cell.
B) somatic cell of a female.
C) somatic cell of a male.
D) sperm cell.
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Chapter
Mendelian and Quantitative Genetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Because of the law of independent assortment, A) an individual will get most of their alleles from one parent.
B) monozygotic twins will have about 50% of their alleles in common.
C) two typical siblings will have about 50% of their alleles in common.
D) dizygotic twins will have 100% of their alleles in common.
Q2) Fraternal twins are also referred to as A) dizygotic.
B) identical.
C) monozygotic.
D) heterozygous.
Q3) A typical gene contains the instructions for making a A) chromosome.
B) lipid.
C) polysaccharide.
D) protein.
Q4) The growth and reproduction of an individual is called its A) life cycle.
B) genotype.
C) phenotype.
D) normal distribution.
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Chapter 8: DNA Detective: Complex Patterns of Inheritance and
DNA Fingerprinting
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Sample Questions
Q1) Gel electrophoresis separates DNA segments on the basis of their A) weight.
B) length.
C) types of nucleotides.
D) complexity.
Q2) Type AB blood is a result of A) polygenic inheritance.
B) simple dominance.
C) codominance.
D) sex-linked recessive inheritance.
Q3) Queen Elizabeth II of England is a descendant of Edward VII of England, who was the son of Queen Victoria. Edward VII did not have hemophilia. Prince Philip, who is married to Queen Elizabeth II, is a descendant of Alice, the daughter of Queen Victoria. Alice was a carrier of hemophilia. However, Prince Philip does not have hemophilia. What can you assume about the children of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip?
A) None of the children could have the hemophilia allele.
B) Only the sons could have the hemophilia allele.
C) Only their daughter could have the hemophilia allele.
D) Any one of the children could have the hemophilia allele.
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Chapter 9: Genetically Modified Organisms: Gene
Expression, Mutation, and Cloning
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Sample Questions
Q1) RNA polymerase binds to the ________ to begin the process of transcription. A) promoter
B) structural gene
C) codon
D) anticodon
Q2) Which statement best describes how the FDA regulates the food industry?
A) All new foods developed by industry, whether they contain new products or old products, are put through a rigorous testing program by the FDA.
B) Newly developed foods or food additives must be certified safe by the FDA before they can be marketed to the public.
C) Foods must be clearly labeled in accordance with FDA guidelines to indicate whether they're naturally occurring or genetically modified food products.
D) New foods can be marketed without FDA approval until there is a clear health issue with the food.
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Chapter 10: Where Did We Come From?
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Q1) Why are fossils from older species found deeper in the earth than those from more recent species?
A) Layers of sediments accumulate every year, covering older fossils in more layers.
B) Older species were more likely to burrow underground.
C) Modern species can swim better than older species.
D) Older species were more likely to be trapped in sediments and form fossils than modern species.
Q2) Which of these species is most likely to share the greatest percentage of DNA with humans?
A) blue jay
B) beaver
C) leopard frog
D) dragonfly
Q3) Lizards on a dry, sandy island are most likely to be similar to
A) lizards in the rainforest on the mainland 20 miles away.
B) lizards on a rainforest island 200 miles farther out to sea.
C) lizards on a dry, sandy island 500 miles farther out to sea.
D) tortoises on the same dry, sandy island.
Q4) The mechanism that results in evolution is ________ (two words).
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Chapter 11: An Evolving Enemy: Natural Selection
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is an allele?
A) a gene that has been changed by natural selection
B) a trait that has been influence by artificial selection
C) a gene that hasn't changed over time
D) a particular version of a gene
Q2) Which of the following is the main reason widespread resistance to tuberculosis (TB)is not likely to evolve any time soon?
A) Only a small percentage of people who are nonresistant to the bacterium will become infected and die from TB, so the variant will stay in the population.
B) TB is highly fatal, so those who are nonresistant will die quickly.
C) Humans are no longer evolving, so the population cannot develop widespread resistance.
D) It would be too expensive to genetically engineer people to give them the resistance gene.
Q3) What is the primary body part affected by tuberculosis?
A) the liver
B) the muscles
C) the immune system
D) the lungs
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Chapter 12: Who Am I? Species and Races
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Q1) How can we explain the observation that traits such as skin color are 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.
Q2) Which of the following occurs after the creation of a new allele?
A) The gene pool becomes more diverse.
B) The gene pool becomes less diverse.
C) The gene pool fragments into smaller groups.
D) Reproductive isolation always occurs in the group where the mutation occurred.
Q3) ________ shape of humans is correlated with the humidity in the air to which the group is adapted.
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Chapter 13: Prospecting for Biological Gold: Biodiversity and Classification
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Sample Questions
Q1) Bioprospectors who search for clues in the habitat for whether an organism will be useful are taking advantage of an organism's ________.
Q2) Which of the following animal traits would be of most interest to bioprospectors?
A) the ability to eat other organisms
B) the ability to survive in the ocean
C) the ability to produce venom
D) the ability to produce food
Q3) An organism that is multicellular and makes its own food would be classified in which kingdom?
A) kingdom Animalia
B) kingdom Fungi
C) kingdom Plantae
D) kingdom Protista
Q4) In what way are fungi similar to animals?
A) Both take in food from the outside.
B) Both produce hair-like hyphae.
C) Both form embryos when they reproduce.
D) Both produce antibiotics.
Q5) Both algae and plants have the ability to perform ________.
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Chapter 14: Is the Human Population Too Large? Population Ecology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following has dramatically decreased infant mortality in human populations?
A) a shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy
B) the use of pesticides to reduce mosquito populations
C) the choice made by educated women to have fewer children
D) an increase in poverty in developed countries
Q2) Human populations may surpass the carrying capacity of their environment due to A) temporary reliance on stored or nonrenewable resources.
B) sudden population crashes.
C) increases in death rates as the population growth approaches carrying capacity.
D) decreases in birth rates as resources are depleted.
Q3) In general, developed countries have lower population growth rates than less developed countries.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The average American uses as many resources in one day as 370 Ethiopians. A)True B)False
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Chapter 15: Conserving Biodiversity: Community and Ecosystem Ecology
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Sample Questions
Q1) An owl eating a seed-eating mouse is an example of a A) producer.
B) primary consumer.
C) secondary consumer.
D) tertiary consumer.
Q2) The "psychological need" that many humans have for nature is called A) mutualism.
B) commensalism.
C) community.
D) biophilia.
Q3) Global climate change is likely to increase the rate of extinction worldwide. The pollutant most implicated in this problem is A) nitrous oxides.
B) carbon dioxide.
C) sulfur dioxides.
D) chlorofluorocarbons.
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Chapter 16: Where Do You Live? Climate and Biomes
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Q1) By definition, fresh water contains ________ salt.
A) less than 0.0001%
B) less than 0.1%
C) about 1%
D) absolutely no
Q2) Rainfall in a desert is
A) negligible (essentially 0 inches per year).
B) less than 1 inch per year.
C) less than 20 inches per year.
D) more than 20 inches per year.
Q3) Introducing large numbers of grazing livestock to a savanna in the Sahel region of Africa has led to
A) an increase in the savanna.
B) the destruction of the biome.
C) more food in times of famine.
D) another form of sustainable agriculture.
Q4) In a general sense, ________ refers to short term environmental conditions, and ________ refers to long term environmental conditions.
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Chapter 17: Organ Donation: Tissues Organs and Organ Systems
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Q1) What function does the gallbladder serve?
A) nutrient absorption
B) bile storage and concentration
C) sugar digestion
D) fat storage
Q2) What type of tissues can be transplanted from one person to another to reconstruct damaged joints?
A) cartilage
B) epithelium
C) bone
D) blood
Q3) Besides structural support for the body, what function do bones serve?
A) They synthesize fat, a source of energy.
B) They provide sites for the storage of water.
C) They are compressible and flexible enough to act as shock absorbers.
D) They donate certain minerals when dietary levels are insufficient.
Q4) In a(n)________ digestive system, a single structure serves as both the mouth and the anus.
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Q5) The tissue type that protects the body from water loss is ________.
Q6) The enzyme in saliva that breaks down sugars is called ________ (two words).
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Chapter 18: Clearing the Air: Respiratory Cardiovascular and Excretory Systems
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Q1) During evolutionary refinements that led from fish to mammals, why was a shift from gills to lungs necessary?
A) Gills aren't as efficient as lungs in picking up oxygen.
B) Gills are too small to service a mammal's need for oxygen.
C) Gills work only in water; lungs work only on land.
D) Protecting gas-exchange surfaces from drying out is difficult in gills when on land.
Q2) Closed circulatory systems
A) have capillaries.
B) lack veins.
C) lack a heart.
D) lack blood.
Q3) Blood stem cells originate in the
A) heart.
B) bloodstream.
C) bone marrow.
D) liver.
Q4) ________ is the most abundant gas in environmental tobacco smoke, and the effects of exposure to elevated levels of this gas along with other health problems can lead to serious consequences.
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Chapter 19: Vaccinations: Protection and Prevention or Peril? Immune
System
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Epstein-Barr virus causes
A) the common cold.
B) rabies.
C) tuberculosis.
D) mononucleosis.
Q2) A mother, father, and son live together in the same house. The mother passes a cold to her son. The son then passes the cold to his father. If the virus has not mutated, should the mother be worried about catching the cold again from her husband?
A) No, memory cells will help the mother's immune system to quickly eliminate the virus.
B) Yes, although the mother has produced some antibodies to the cold virus, it can still overwhelm her immune system.
C) No, the T cells that are left from the previous infection can kill off any virus.
D) Yes, the immune system will treat the cold virus like a new infectious agent.
Q3) Some RNA viruses, such as HIV, require the enzyme ________ (two words)to convert the viral RNA genome into a DNA version.
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Chapter 20: Sex Differences and Athleticism: Endocrine
Skeletal and Muscular Systems
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Q1) Studies have shown that a woman's athletic performance is diminished during menstruation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Beth has trained extensively to get ready for a big swimming event. She has developed her muscle mass to increase her strength so she can surpass those male competitors who have longer arms and legs than she does. To keep those muscles working in top form, she must supply them with enough oxygen to help them produce energy. Why does Beth have an additional physical obstacle to overcome before she can beat her male competitors?
A) Her heart and lungs are most likely smaller than her male competitors' and have to work harder.
B) Beth's athletic ability changes with her menstrual cycle.
C) No matter what Beth does, she will always be physically inferior to men.
D) If the swim event is an endurance race, her fat metabolism differences put her at a disadvantage.
Q3) While ________ are involved in bone deposition, ________ are involved in the breakdown of bone tissue.
Q4) A human's soft internal organs are protected by the ________ skeleton.
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Chapter 21: Is There Something in the Water? Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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Sample Questions
Q1) The process of sperm formation takes approximately A) 24 hours.
B) 20 days.
C) 60 days.
D) 6 months.
Q2) Which place should you choose to avoid living in if you were concerned about male infertility and low sperm count?
A) a farm in North Dakota
B) Los Angeles
C) Boston
D) Miami
Q3) The presence or absence of ________ is critical in determining the development of either male or female reproductive structures in an embryo.
A) androgens
B) estrogen
C) gonadotropin-releasing hormone
D) progesterone
Q4) The ________ system allows survival of different species.
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Chapter 22: Attention Deficit Disorder: Brain Structure and Function
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Q1) The part of the neuron that houses the nucleus is the A) axon.
B) cell body.
C) dendrite.
D) nerve.
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 of the following is the most likely reason for 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) The impulse that travels down a neuron's axon is called a(n) A) shock signal.
B) action potential.
C) currenter.
D) resistor.
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Chapter 23: Feeding the World: Plant Structure and Growth
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Q1) Plants need both macronutrients and micronutrients to grow. Which of the following is a plant micronutrient?
A) nitrogen
B) iron
C) magnesium
D) sulfur
Q2) The number of embryonic leaves, or ________, differentiate the two main classes of crop plants.
A) cotyledons
B) anthers
C) carpels
D) rhizomes
Q3) What is the staple crop of Asia?
A) wheat
B) rice
C) corn
D) yams
Q4) When farmers plant a single crop over a large area of land, it's called ________.
Q5) The emergence of a plant embryo from a seed is called ________.
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Chapter 24: Growing a Green Thumb: Plant Physiology
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Q1) Which of the following is most similar to the way in which water is moved through the xylem sap of a plant?
A) a person drinking through a straw
B) a vaccine being ejected out of a syringe
C) water gushing up from a fountain
D) a dart being blown out the end of a blowgun
Q2) Both C<sub>4</sub> and CAM pathways of photosynthesis allow plants to A) perform photosynthesis in the absence of carbon dioxide.
B) outcompete C<sub>3</sub> plants in cool, dry conditions.
C) keep stomata partially or completely closed during the hottest parts of the day.
D) take up carbon dioxide at night and then store it as an acid until the day.
Q3) The tendency for plants that live on other plants (epiphytes)to send shoots upward while sending roots down towards the ground is an example of ________, respectively.
A) positive and negative gravitropism
B) positive and negative thigmotropism
C) negative and positive gravitropism
D) negative and positive thigmotropism
Q4) The ancestors of land plants were green ________.
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