General Science
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
General Science provides a comprehensive overview of fundamental concepts across multiple scientific disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and environmental science. The course is designed to build a strong foundation in scientific principles, methods, and reasoning, encouraging critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Students explore key topics such as the structure of matter, energy and forces, life processes, ecosystems, and the interplay between science and society. Emphasizing practical applications and real-world examples, the course prepares students to understand scientific issues that impact daily life and empowers them to make informed decisions as citizens.
Recommended Textbook
Life in the Universe 4th Edition by Jeffrey O. Bennett
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13 Chapters
1172 Verified Questions
1172 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: A Universe of Life
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28 Verified Questions
28 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The portrayal of nearly all aliens in movies and on TV as being humanoid is
A) based on the fact that it would be impossible for us to understand anything that wasn't very similar to a human
B) realistic because the human form has several unique qualities that make it a good choice for any advanced civilization
C) based on the fact that the human form is the only possible form for an advanced civilization
D) probably unrealistic because the human form is most likely a result of the particular conditions and events that occurred on the Earth
Answer: D
Q2) Extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the universe
A) will be unrecognizable
B) could be similar to life on Earth or might be completely different
C) will be identical to life on Earth
D) will be completely different than life on Earth
Answer: B
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3
Chapter 2: The Science of Life in the Universe
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73 Verified Questions
73 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following was NOT a contribution made by the Greeks in the development of modern science?
A) The willingness to challenging new ideas
B) The use of mathematics to explore new ideas
C) The willingness to discard ideas if they didn't work
D) The willingness to prove preconceived ideas
Answer: D
Q2) Apparent retrograde motion occurs when a planet appears to
A) be stationary with respect to background stars
B) move eastward with respect to background stars
C) move due north with respect to background stars
D) move westward with respect to background stars
Answer: D
Q3) The semi-major axis, a, of an elliptical planetary orbit is equal to the A) width of the ellipse
B) distance between the planet and the Sun at perihelion
C) average distance between the planet and the Sun
D) distance between the planets and the Sun at aphelion
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The Universal Context of Life
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123 Verified Questions
123 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A pattern of dark lines on a continuous background is referred to as
A) an emission line spectrum
B) an absorption line spectrum
C) a continuous spectrum
D) a dark spectrum
Answer: B
Q2) High mass stars can fuse in their cores
A) all of the chemical elements
B) elements up to and including iron
C) elements up to and including carbon
D) only elements heavier than iron
Answer: B
Q3) Which of the following do the atoms ¹ C and ¹ N have in common?
A) total number of protons and neutrons
B) number of electrons
C) number of neutrons
D) number of protons
Answer: A
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5
Chapter 4: The Habitability of Earth
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149 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Radioactive decay is
A) deterministic
B) relativistic
C) atomistic
D) probabilistic
Q2) The Earth's tectonic plates move at a rate of
A) a few centimeters per year
B) several kilometers per year
C) a few centimeters per century
D) a few millimeters per century
Q3) If the entire history of the Earth was scaled to a time line the length of a football field, human civilization would occupy what proportion of the field?
A) a sliver no thicker than a piece of paper
B) a silver no thicker than an atom
C) about a quarter of the field
D) about a half of the field
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6
Chapter 5: The Nature of Life on Earth
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120 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Organisms whose cells lack a nucleus are called
A) prokaryotes
B) eukaryotes
C) non-nucleotes
D) karyokes
Q2) An amoeba is an example of a
A) multicellular prokaryote
B) multicellular eukaryote
C) unicellular prokaryote
D) unicellular eukaryote
Q3) Which is the MOST important property of the element carbon that makes it ideal as a fundamental building block of biological molecules?
A) it is a very stable element
B) it is the only element capable of bonding to itself
C) it is a common element
D) it readily forms chemical bonds with itself and other elements, allowing a wide variety of complex molecules to form
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Chapter 6: The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth
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Sample Questions
Q1) The fossil fuel deposits we use today are the remains of organisms from which period in Earth's history?
A) The Cretaceous Period
B) The Carboniferous Period
C) The Cambrian Period
D) The Archaean Eon
Q2) Stromatolites are
A) fossils of the first organisms to introduce oxygen into the atmosphere
B) fossils of the first multicellular organisms
C) layers of sediment that once contained colonies of ancient microbes
D) fossils of the first eukaryotes
Q3) Where did the asteroid that is believed responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs hit the surface of the Earth?
A) in Siberia in Russia
B) in the desert in Arizona
C) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
D) in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico
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8
Chapter 7: Searching for Life in Our Solar System
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Small bodies like asteroids and comets are unlikely to harbor life because they
A) are constantly colliding with each other, sterilizing any life that may be present
B) have not had liquid water inside them for extended periods now or in the past
C) do not contain any organic molecules
D) are so far from the Sun that any water would be permanently frozen
Q2) Which dwarf planet did the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flyby in 2015?
A) Pluto
B) Eris
C) Ceres
D) Haumea
Q3) Which of the following is NOT a basic requirement for chemically based life?
A) a liquid medium to transport biological molecules
B) a source of molecules from which to build living cells
C) oxygen from photosynthesis
D) a source of energy to fuel metabolism
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9
Chapter 8: Mars
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104 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is the claim of fossilized life in the Martian meteorite ALH84001 controversial?
A) it is doubtful that the rock actually came from Mars
B) the proposed fossilized organisms in no way resemble any kind of life found on Earth
C) the rock is too young to have fossilized life within it
D) there are many possible nonbiological explanations for the observed evidence
Q2) In the Tharsis region of Mars we find
A) a huge impact basin
B) heavily cratered highlands
C) smooth rolling plains
D) huge shield volcanoes like Olympus Mons
Q3) Which of the following is not a Mars rover?
A) Spirit
B) Sojourner
C) Curiosity
D) Viking
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Chapter 9: Life on Jovian Moons
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80 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Much of Europa's surface appears chaotic and clogged with huge iceberg-like blocks. This is consistent with
A) a thin icy crust that has been broken into pieces by tidal forces below which is a subsurface ocean of water
B) the surface thawing due to heat emitted by Jupiter
C) the breaking up of the surface due to plate tectonics
D) a giant impact that has recently shattered the crust into pieces
Q2) Which of the following is the most convincing observation that suggests that like Europa, Ganymede may also have a subsurface ocean?
A) the detection of salts on the surface that may have been brought up from below the crust
B) the presence of young grooved terrain that may be the result of cryovolcanism
C) the fact that it is the largest moon in the solar system and, hence, should have plenty of internal heat to maintain liquid water beneath its surface
D) in addition to its internal magnetic field, Ganymede has a magnetic field induced by Jupiter which is consistent with a salty ocean beneath its crust
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Chapter 10: The Nature and Evolution of Habitability
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the definition of a star's habitable zone?
A) the range of distances from the star where planets with life have been detected
B) the range of distances from the star where rocky planets can form
C) the range of distances from the star where organic molecules can be stable on the surface of a suitable planet
D) the range of distances from the star where liquid water can be stable on the surface of a suitable planet
Q2) A star less luminous than our Sun will have a habitable zone that is
A) narrower and closer to the star than the habitable zone of the Sun
B) wider and closer to the star than the habitable zone of the Sun
C) narrower and farther from the star than the habitable zone of the Sun
D) wider and farther from the star than the habitable zone of the Sun
Q3) Long-term data on global carbon dioxide levels can be obtained from analyzing air trapped in
A) rocks
B) ice cores drilled out of the Antarctic ice sheet
C) the upper atmosphere
D) deep ocean sediments
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Chapter 11: Extrasolar Planets: Their Nature and Potential
Habitability
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100 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The results of statistical studies of the exoplanet systems discovered to date suggests that what proportion of stars are likely to have a planet less than half the size of the Earth and in an orbit within a star's habitable zone?
A) 10 to 20%
B) 50%
C) much less than 10%
D) more than 90%
Q2) Which of the following methods allows us to determine the size of an extrasolar planet around another star?
A) detection of brightness changes in a star as a planet passes in front of it
B) detection of reflected starlight
C) regular changes in the positions of the parent stars with respect to more distant stars as they move across the sky
D) detection of Doppler shifts in the spectra of the parent stars
Q3) Approximately what proportion of stars have masses lower than the Sun?
A) 90%
B) 10%
C) 50%
D) 70%
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
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Sample Questions
Q1) The adoption of very similar streamlined body shapes by both sharks and dolphins provides evidence for
A) cross-breeding
B) convergent evolution
C) genetic mutations
D) life originating in the oceans
Q2) Which of the following factors in the simplified Drake equation is least well known?
A) Nhp, the number of habitable planets in our galaxy
B) fc , fraction of life-bearing planets where intelligent civilizations have arisen at any time
C) fn w, fraction of civilization-bearing planets that have intelligent civilizations on them now
D) fl f , fraction of life-bearing habitable planets
Q3) A Lagrange point in the Earth-Moon system is a position
A) directly between the Earth and Moon
B) on the surface of the Moon that points directly away from the Earth
C) on the Earth's surface that the Moon's gravity is concentrated
D) in space where the effects of the Earth's and Moon's gravity cancel each other out
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Chapter 13: Interstellar Travel and the Fermi Paradox
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Sample Questions
Q1) A wormhole is a
A) passageway to a parallel universe through a black hole
B) shortcut between two distant parts of the universe through hyperspace
C) shortcut between two distant parts of the universe through a black hole
D) way of traveling faster than the speed of light
Q2) The Luyten 726-8 binary system is approximately 9 light-years away. If we send a spacecraft to visit this system traveling at 90% of the speed of light, how long will a oneway trip take as measured from the Earth?
A) it's impossible to tell unless we know the spacecraft's method of propulsion
B) more than 10 years
C) 10 years
D) less than 10 years
Q3) The idea that other civilizations are aware of our existence but have deliberately chosen to hide from us is referred to as the
A) zoo hypothesis
B) conspiracy hypothesis
C) sentinel hypothesis
D) UFO hypothesis
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