Biology Test Questions
(Test Question complexity is given as EASY, MODERATE or HARD)
SC912.L.14.1
Which statement about organisms is true? (Moderate)
A. All organisms begin life as a single cell. (Answer)
B. All organisms are made up of a single cell.
C. All organisms have the same types of cells.
D. All organisms have cells that contain nuclei.
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What process occurs when molecules diffuse freely across cellular membranes without expending energy? (MODERATE)
A. Active transport
B. Endocytosis
C. Hitchhiking
D. Passive transport (ANSWER)
Chlorophyta are a phylum of singled-celled organisms that live in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Structures inside chlorophyta cells include nuclei, chloroplasts, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticuli, and vacuoles.
Which word best describes chlorophyta cells? (EASY)
A. Eukaryotic (ANSWER)
B. Inorganic
C. Prokaryotic
D. Synthetic
Look at the cell diagram.
Which organelle is responsible for releasing energy for cellular use? (Moderate)
A. Chloroplast
B. Golgi Apparatus
C. Mitochondrion (ANSWER)
D. Ribosome
Andre observed an amoeba under a microscope. He saw several membrane-bound organelles, including nuclei, and vacuoles.
What type of organism is the amoeba? (Easy)
A. Bacterium
B. Eukaryote (Answer)
C. Prokaryote
D. virus
SC912.L.14.7
A diagram of a cross-section of a flower is shown below. (Moderate)
What is the function of the structures in the stamen?
A. Deliver water to petals.
B. Produce and deliver pollen (ANSWER)
C. Produce food for the plant
D. Produce seeds from fertilized eggs
SC912.L.14.26
Use the diagram of the Human Brain below to answer questions 16 and 17.
Which letter labels the parietal lobe of the brain? (Moderate)
A. E
B. F
C. I
D. J (ANSWER)
What brain structure is labeled by the letter H?
A. Cerebellum (ANSWER)
B. Frontal lobe
C. Occipital lobe
D. Temporal lobe
SC912.L.14.36
Which factor often causes a decreased rate of blood flow through the human cardiovascular system? (Moderate)
A. Build up plaque in arteries (ANSWER)
B. Large number of white blood cells
C. Adequate levels of oxygen in the blood stream
D. Consumption of water during physical activity
SC912.L.14.7
A stoma is a tiny opening in the leaf or stem of a plant.
Which action is NOT a function of the stoma? (HARD)
A. Absorb gases
B. Release water
C. Release gases
D. Produce oxygen (ANSWER)
SC912.L.14.52
Which of the following describes the main role of the immune system in the human body? (Easy)
A. It transmits signals between organs, muscles, and the brain.
B. It breaks down food so its energy is easy for the body to extract.
C. It produces the immune cells and antibodies that fight infection. (ANSWER)
D. It removes waste products from the blood and expels them from the body.
Latrice received a vaccine from her doctor before traveling overseas.
How did the vaccine help Latrice? (Moderate)
A. The vaccine poisoned the bacteria in her body which caused most of the bacteria to die.
B. The vaccine traveled through her bloodstream capturing pathogens and delivering them to the excretory system.
C. The vaccine increased the ability of her red blood cells to carry oxygen to the organs that make up the immune system.
D. The vaccine introduced her immune system to a safe pathogen so her system could better respond if it met the harmful form later. (Answer)
SC912.L.15.1
Biologists believe that dolphins and whales share a common ancestor before they developed into many different marine mammal species.
Which of the following is NOT evidence that supports this theory? (Easy)
A. Whales and dolphins have a very similar sequence of nucleotides in their chromosomal DNA.
B. Whales and dolphins go through a very similar sequence of events during fetal development.
C. Whales and dolphins use a very similar sequence of actions to prey on small schools of fish. (ANSWER)
D. Whales and dolphins produce a very similar sequence of amino acids during protein synthesis.
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Look at the following chart.
Organism / Ring-tailed Lemur / Sea Cucumber / Cape Elephant Shrew / MandrillPhylum / Chordata / Echinodermata / Chordata / Chordata
Subphylum / Vertebrata / Asterozo / Vertebrata / Vertebrata
Class / Mammalia / Halothuroidae / Mammalia / Mammalia
Order / Primates / Aspidochirotida / Macroscelidea / Primates
Family / Lemuridae / Stichopodidae / Macroscelididae / Cercopithecidae
Genus / Lemur / Holothuria / Elephantulus / Mandrillus
Species / catta / thomasi / edwardii / sphinx
Which two organisms are most closely related according to the classification key? (EASY)
A. Sea Cucumber and Mandrill
B. Mandrill and Ring-tailed Lemur (ANSWER)
C. Sea Cucumber and Cape Elephant Shrew
D. Cape Elephant Shrew and Ring-tailed Lemur
Which of the following is NOT used to classify organisms based on evolutionary relationships? (MODERATE)
A. Amino acid sequence
B. DNA sequences
C. Fossil records
D. Learned traits (ANSWER)
Macroinvertebrates are collected during water quality testing because many species are sensitive to pollution. Each macroinvertebrate species is assigned a point value. Sensitive species are assigned more points than species that are tolerant of pollution. After macroinvertebrates are collected from a stream, the points for each species are added up to produce a number that shows the level of organism diversity in the stream.
The graph below shows the results of macroinvertebrate studies in a stream in Maryland for 2 years. (Moderate)
What conclusion can be drawn about the stream based on the graph?
A. Macroinvertebrate diversity has increased, so it is not likely that pollution has affected the stream over the past two years.
B. Macroinvertebrate diversity has increased, so it is likely that pollution has affected the stream over the past two years.
C. Macroinvertebrate diversity has decreased, so it is not likely that pollution has affected the stream over the past two years.
D. Macroinvertebrate diversity has decreased, so it is likely that pollution has affected the stream over the past two years. (ANSWER)
The classification chart below shows how closely related four species are to each other based on physical characteristics.
According to the classification key, which two organisms should have the most similar nucleotide sequences in their DNA? (moderate)
A. 1 and 2
B. 1 and 3 (ANSWER)
C. 1 and 4
D. 3 and 4
All animals are classified as members of the Animal kingdom.
Animals with backbones are classified as members of which phylum? (Hard)
A. Arthropoda
B. Chordata (Answer)
C. Echinodermata
D. Mollusca
SC912.L.15.8
Biologists agree that the earliest forms of life must have been very simple organisms. They disagree about where these earliest organisms first appeared.
Which place is Not considered as a possibility for the first appearance of these simple organisms? (MODERATE)
A. In clouds of water vapor in the atmosphere
B. Inside the ice crystals that form permanent glaciers
C. In limestone cave systems deep within the lithosphere (ANSWER)
D. Near the hot water vents found on deep ocean volcanoes
Biologist’s hypothesis that the potential for life on Earth began when certain inorganic compounds combined to form more complex molecules, which later became the building blocks of protein. (Hard)
Which molecules introduced the potential for life on Earth?
A. Amino acid (Answer)
B. Carbohydrates
C. Lipids
D. Salts
SC912.L.15.13
Genetic drift occurs when one form of a gene is passed on to fewer and fewer individuals over several generations until the gene eventually disappears from the population’s gene pool.
What sentence about genetic drift is true? (HARD)
A. Genetic drift occurs most quickly in large populations.
B. Genetic drift occurs most quickly in small populations. (ANSWER)
C. Genetic drift cannot influence the physical characteristics of a population.
D. Genetic drift is activated when species need to become more fit for a particular environment.
Dr. Wells conducted a study to find out if parrots understand words they learn as opposed to just mimicking sounds made by humans. She selected four African Grey parrots of similar age and speaking ability and taught them to use words to identify colored shapes. All training sessions lasted 45 min. after five days of training, all of the parrots could repeat the color and shape names correctly when a shape was displayed. To test the parrots understanding of the words, the order and colors of the shapes were changed in a follow-up experiment. Researchers familiar to the parrots, but did not participate in their training sessions, each parrot separately from the other birds. One researcher play colored shapes for the parrots to see. The other researcher recorded the parrots’ responses without seeing the shape displayed. The researcher displayed six shapes in five colors for a total of 30 possible responses from each parrot. The number of correct responses for each parrot showing in the table below:
Parrot / Number Correct by Color / Number Correct by ShapeJosie / 10 / 8
Pepper / 22 / 20
Davy / 16 / 17
Kismo / 27 / 25
Based on that data above, Dr. Wells concluded that parrots probably understand the meaning of many of the words they speak.
Which test data provides the best evidence in support of this conclusion?
A. All of the parrots responded with the correct shape less often than the correct color.
B. All of the parrots responded with the correct color more often than the correct shape.
C. Josie and Davy responded incorrectly about both color and shape more often than is likely to occur by chance.
D. Pepper and Kismo responded correctly about both color and shape more often than is likely to occur by chance. (ANSWER)
Pepper and Kismo were taught in sessions that included a human teacher, and a researcher who pretended to learn the words to describe the colored shapes alongside the parrots. Josie and Davy were taught sessions that only showed a video of the same human teacher. Both sets of parrots learned the same words in the same order from the teacher or the video.
After analyzing the data, Dr. Wells concluded that parrots or more likely to learn the meaning of words when a live human is present during training.
Which of the following is a different conclusion that also supported by the test data? (HARD)
A. Parrots are not likely to understand any of the words that they learn by watching television or movies.
B. Parrots have more difficulty learning the meaning of words that describe color than words that describe shape.
C. Parrots are more likely to understand the meaning of words that they learn from a human in a video presentation.
D. Parrots are more likely to understand the meaning of words that they learn when there are other learners present. (ANSWER)
The final experiment was conducted by researchers were not present during the parrots training sessions. Why did the researchers unfamiliar with the parrots training conduct the final experiment? (MODERATE)
A. This gave the trainers an opportunity to teach new parrots with the colored shapes.
B. This reduced the amount of data needed to find out why there are differences between the parrots.
C. This eliminated the possibility that the trainers would introduce bias by giving parrots cues. (ANSWER)
D. This allowed other researchers to offer their opinions about how well the parrots understand words.
Biologists fear that global warming could cause the extinction of some animal species because they will not be able to adapt to changing conditions.
Which species are most likely to survive the changing conditions brought about by global warming? (Moderate)
A. Species specially adapted to a narrow climate niche
B. Species specially adapted to consume one kind of food
C. Species with the least amount of diversity among the individuals that make up their populations
D. Species with the greatest amount of diversity amount of diversity among the individuals that make up their populations (ANSWER)
Dramatic changes to an environment can challenge a species’ ability to survive.
Which of these most helps a species to survive dramatic environment environmental changes? (Easy)
A. Adaptation to a single food source
B. Isolation in a small geographic region
C. Diversity in genetic and physical characteristics (Answer)
D. Uniformity in genetic and physical characteristics
Wolves face harsh environment conditions during the long, cold winters in northern forests.
Which statement describes a way that harsh winters can improve the long term survival of the wolf species?
A. Harsh winters often kill weaker wolves before they can reproduce. (ANSWER)
B. Harsh winters often cause wolves to hibernate in caves until spring arrives.
C. Harsh winters often require wolves to travel long distances to find fresh drinking water.
D. Harsh winters often mean that wolves must hunt for long periods of time without finding prey.
C912.L.1 6.1
In 1866, Gregor Mendel published the results of experiments involving pea plants. In one experiment, Mendel crossed plants that produce smooth, yellow peas plants that produced green, wrinkled peas. Every pea in the first generation from this cross was yellow and smooth.
What conclusion you Mendel draw from this experience? (Moderate)
A. Pea plants inherit traits from only one parent.
B. Pea plants not inherit traits from either parent.
C. Some inherited traits are dominant while other traits are recessive. (ANSWER)
D. Some traits are inherited, but a pea’s appearance is determined by the environment.
A mouse with black fur was crossed with a mouse with white fur. All of their offspring had black fur?
Based on the offspring produced by this cross, which statement appears true? (Easy)
A. Black fur is a dominant trait. (ANSWER)
B. Black fur is a recessive trait.
C. Black fur is a sex-linked trait.
D. Black fur and white fur are co-dominant traits.
Audrey has a widow’s peak in her hairline and is homozygous for the trait. Daniel also has a widow’s peak and is heterozygous for the trait. A widow’s peak is the dominant trait.
What is the probability that their child’s hairline will have a widow’s peak? (moderate)
A. 25%
B. 50%