Demo: Themes in the Study of Life

What characterizes a prokaryotic cell?
1. The presences of mitochondria.
2. The lack of a membrane-enclosed nucleus.
3. The presence of a nucleus with no DNA.
4. The lack of ribosomes.
5. Having a cell wall without a cell membrane.
What is the primary reason for including a control within the design of an experiment?
1. To demonstrate in what way the experiment was performed incorrectly.
2. To insure that the results obtained are due to a difference in only on variable.
3. To provide more data so that one can perform a more sophisticated statistical analysis.
4. To test the effect of more than one variable.
5. To accumulate more facts that can be reported to other scientists.
Evolution is "the biological theme that ties together all the others." This is because the process of evolution
1. explains how organisms become adapted to their environment.
2. explains the diversity of organisms.
3. explains why all organisms have characteristics in common.
4. explains why distantly related organisms sometimes resemble one another.
5. All answers are appropriate.
Which of the following is a CORRECT statement about the scientific method?
1. It can only be done by someone with a Ph.D. degree or advanced training.
2. Its methods are substantially different from the way people normally process information from and about the environment.
3. It organizes evidence and helps us predict what will happen in our environment.
4. It distinguishes between good and bad.
5. It requires expensive laboratory equipment.
Which of the following does NOT comprise a logical hierarchy of organization?
1. molecules, atoms, organelles, tissues, systems
2. molecules, cells, tissues, organ systems, populations
3. cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, organisms
4. organisms, populations, communities, biomes, biosphere
5. family, order, class, phylum, kingdom
Which of the following statements is NOT true about all living things?
1. They are made of cells or cell products.
2. They are the products of evolution.
3. Their composition includes carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
4. They undergo growth and development.
5. They have a cell wall as an outer boundary.
The scientific method usually begins with
1. formulating a testable hyposthesis.
2. collecting data.
3. formulating a theory.
4. searching for relevant materials in the library.
5. conducting a controlled experiment.
Why did the popular press give Reznick and Endler's research on guppies a lot of attention?
1. Their research was an excellent example of how to use the hypothetico-deductive approach in science.
2. They were able to document evolution over a relatively short time period.
3. They were able to show that the physical environment caused variation in life histories of wild guppy populations.
4. They proved that water temperature can lead to genetic difference is populations.
5. They showed that pike-cichlides prey mainly on reproductively mature adults and, therefore, cause individual guppy populations to mature more quickly.
Which of the following are properties of ALL life forms?

1. heritable programs in the form of DNA.
2. photosynthesis
3. the ability to transform energy from one form to another.
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 1 and 3
5. 1, 2, and 3
Which of the following levels in the hierarchy of biological organization includes all of the other levels in the list?
1. organ system
2. organism
3. population
4. ecosystem
5. community
Which of the following levels in the hierarchy of biological organization includes all of the other levels in the list?
1. organelles
2. biological molecules
3. cells
4. atoms
5. tissues
With each step upward in the hierarchy of biological order, novel properties emerge that were not present at the simpler levels of organization. These emergent properties result from
1. vital forces that arise at each level.
2. the physical and chemical phenomena that operate only in living things.
3. the arrangement and interactions between components.
4. simple summation of the individual behavior of the component parts.
5. the emergence of supernatural forces.
Of the following, which discovered, described and named cells?

1. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
2. Robert Hooke
3. Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann
4. Barbara McClintock
5. Charles Darwin
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Of the following, which discovered single-celled organisms?

1. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
2. Robert Hooke
3. Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann
4. Barbara McClintock
5. Charles Darwin
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Of the following, which used observation of inheritance in corn to describe what turned out to be a novel molecular mechanism?

1. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
2. Robert Hooke
3. Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann
4. Barbara McClintock
5. Charles Darwin
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Of the following, which concluded that all living things consist of cells?

1. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
2. Robert Hooke
3. Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann
4. Barbara McClintock
5. Charles Darwin
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
The cell theory is an example of a conclusion based on _______________.
1. vitalistic inspiration
2. inductive reasoning
3. controlled experimentation
4. microscopic study of all organisms
5. appliation of evolutionary theory
Many different interactions between organisms and their environment form an ecosystem. The dynamics of an ecosystem must include which of the following?

1. cycling of nutrients.
2. flow of energy to producers.
3. biological magnification of pesticides
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 1 and 2 are correct
5. 1, 2, and 3 are correct
Bacteria are members of which kingdom?
1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Plantae
4. Fungi
5. Animalia
Of the following, which group is almost all photosynthetic?

1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Fungi
4. Plantae
5. Animalia
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Of the following, which consist mostly of unicellular eukaryotes?

1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Fungi
4. Plantae
5. Animalia
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Of the following, which group is comprised of eukaryotic decomposers?

1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Fungi
4. Plantae
5. Animalia
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
In which group do most members obtain their food by ingestion?

1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Fungi
4. Plantae
5. Animalia
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Of the following, which group are all prokaryotic?

1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Fungi
4. Plantae
5. Animalia
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
Diversity is a hallmark of life. Biologist have so far identified and named how many different species.
1. 50,000
2. 1.5 million
3. 30 million
4. 300 million
5. 1.2 billion
Two species belonging to the same class must also belong to the same
1. Family
2. Genus
3. Order
4. Phylum
5. Species
Which of these taxonomic categories is the most inclusive?
1. Genus
2. Class
3. Phylum
4. Family
5. Order
Which kingdom consists of eukaryotes that nourish themselves mainly by decomposing organic material?
1. Monera
2. Protista
3. Plantae
4. Fungi
5. Animalia
Which of the following observations and ideas are incorporated into Darwin's concept of natural selection?
1. Individuals of a population do not vary.
2. Reproductive potential equals what the environment can support.
3. A change in the environment will create an appropriate, heritable adaptation during the lifetime of individuals coping with that environment.
4. Through natural selection, a population may adapt to the environment over many generations.
5. Members of a population in a particular environment are equal in their potential for leaing offspring.
What do a fungus, a tree, and a human have in common?
1. They are all members of the same kingdom?
2. They are all prokaryotic.
3. They are all members of the same class.
4. They all have cells walls.
5. They are all composed of cells with nuclei.
A biologist discovers an organism new to science that has numerous nuclei enclosed by a single cell membrane. Assuming she is a good scientist, what should she do next?
1. Hold a press conference to announce that the cell theory is no longer valid.
2. Destroy the organism so that the cell theory will not be challenged.
3. Determine how the organism is related to other organism with more typical cell structure.
4. Assume that the organism is a mutant life form, and thus is unimportant.
5. Hide the organism from other scientists so as to maximize the financial benefits from her discovery.
Maria and Bill go to a new restaurant and do not like the food they are served. Their hypothesis is that if they go to the restaurant again, they will not like the food. If they continue to follow the hypothetico-deductive method, what should they do next?
1. Never go near the restaurant again and tell all their friends no to try it.
2. Go back to the restaurant several times and order different items.
3. Survey customers to see if they like the food.
4. Call the city health inspectors and encourage them to inspect the restaurant.
5. Get some friends to go to the restaurant and order what Maria and Bill didn't like.
The unity and diversity of life is best explained by
1. examining the five-kingdom system of classification.
2. the cell theory.
3. studying the intereactions between organisms and their environments.
4. Darwin's theory of descent with modification.
5. the variance observed in growth and development of species.
The continuity of life is based on
1. heritable information in the form of DNA.
2. the continuous interactions of organisms with their environment.
3. the correlation of structure and function.
4. emergent properties.
5. adaptations.
The cell theory
1. includes the idea that skin cells come from preexisting skin cells.
2. explains how organisms have changed over time.
3. helps to identify the properties of life.
4. states that organisms are open systems that interact continuously with their environment.
5. explains how life evolves by natural selection.
Evolution best explains
1. how organism obtain energy.
2. the mechanism of growth and development.
3. the five-kingdom system of classification.
4. why organisms came into existence.
5. why all organisms have characteristics in common.
Most ecosystems are solar powered. This means that
1. plants and other photosynthetic organisms convert light energy to chemical energy, which is then available to animals.
2. animals require solar energy to break chemical bonds and release stored energy.
3. all energy comes from fission reactions occurring on the sun.
4. enzymes are needed to control the release of stored energy.
5. all of an organism's activities require solar energy.
The lowest structural level in which all of life's properties occur is _______.
1. molecular DNA
2. a cell's organelles
3. the cell
4. a tissue
5. an organism
Why is it difficult to define "life"?
1. The diversity of observed emergent properties complicates formulation of a simple definition.
2. Technological advances such as cloning hinder an understanding of life.
3. Disrupted living systems still demonstrate the attributes of life.
4. A definition is not necessary because it is easy to determine whether an object is living or nonliving.
5. It is impossible to isolate the evolutionary history of organisms.
How does DNA convey information?
1. By using a random but sophisticated mechanism involving thermodynamics.
2. In a manner similar to the way we arrange letters of the alphabet to create words.
3. By interacting with its environment.
4. By using a different genetic code for each species.
5. Through a complex and hierarchical organization of biochemcials.
Which of these is an example of a negative feedback system?
1. A bird's unique structure makes flight possible.
2. Mammals are able to reduce the amount of glucose in their blood following a meal by increased pancreatic secretion of insulin.
3. Plants use light energy to convert water and carbon dioxide to sugar and oxygen.
4. The transfer of the universal genetic code that is shared by all organisms.
5. Enzymes increase the rate of chemcial reactions.
Why have domains been added to the present system of classification?
1. Additional information has been gained from molecular studies.
2. There are so many differences among bacteria that it is necessary to divide them.
3. Distantly related organism have been found to resemble one another.
4. Fossils have been found that differ from organisms alive today.
Kingdoms are frequently grouped into a higher category known as _______.
1. epochs
2. phyla
3. archaea
4. domains
5. eukarya
Why can equally qualified taxonomists disagree about the classification of a particular organism?
1. Different inferences can be drawn from the same information.
2. Analogous structures may indicate untrue similarities.
3. Taxonomists do not use DNA comparisons.
4. Fossil evidence is often lacking and/or is frequently misinterpreted.
Which of these statements about classification systems is TRUE?
1. The five-kingdom system of classification is used by all biologists.
2. Similarities of structure that indicate related ancestry are not used in classification.
3. The addition of domains is advocated by only a few biologists and shouldn't be taken seriously.
4. Classification systems never change because of the confusion it would cause.
5. Classfication systems are open to modification on the basis of new information.
What evidence is commonly used to distinguish multicellular organisms from one another?
1. modes of nutrition.
2. means of reproduction.
3. defensive mechanisms.
4. form of locomotion.
5. type of immune system.