Download Practice Exam 1 – ANSWERS

Practice Test: Multiple-Choice and Short Answer (37 Questions)
Winter - BIO 1030
Choose the correct answer.
1. Discovery science:
A. new research that will determine the direction of the field's future research.
B. is a way of doing science that is based on making observations, and discovering order,
in the natural world.
C. relies heavily on deductive reasoning, applying logic to solve scientific problems through
well-controlled, airtight scientific experiments.
D. A field of scientific research devoted to previously unexplored areas of science.
2. Which is the best description of “Inductive reasoning”?
A. When we hold one thing is true, we can logically derive constituent truths from it (general to
specific).
B. When we know that something is not true, we can deduce what else must be untrue (general
to specific).
C. Inductive reasoning is when we take specific observations about the world and build a
general description or idea about something (specific to general).
D. Inductive reasoning is used to describe any logical deductions used in science.
3. What is Science?
A. A large body of facts and knowledge.
B. A systematic way of observing, understanding and organizing the things that comprise our
natural world.
C. Science works – mostly – by proving things wrong. You can never completely “prove”
something in science with 100% certainty.
D. All of the above
4. What are the steps of the Scientific Method, in order?
A. Experiment, observation, hypothesis, results, peer review, publication.
B. Observation, experiment, hypothesis, results, peer review, publication.
C. Observation, hypothesis, experiment, retest, results, peer review, publication.
D. Observation, hypothesis, test, results, conclusion, peer review, publication.
5. Which of the following are scientific statements, and which ones are not?
A. Green plants will grow better in light.
B. Disturbing a mummy's tomb is bad luck.
C. Some plants eat meat.
D. Extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth.
E. Green plants convert sunlight into energy.
F. With a rod, Moses parted the sea so his people could cross to the other side.
G. Without sunlight, green plants will die.
H. If you are a Taurus, you are an Earth sign, and have a stubborn personality.
You and your friends want to determine if fertilizer helps a Barrel Cactus grow a flower (you have a
cactus at home, and you really want it to grow a flower). You suspect that fertilizer will help. You buy
two cacti. You plant Cactus A in normal soil with no fertilizer, and plant the other in a pot with
fertilizer. After summer comes and goes, no flower grows. In fact, the cactus with fertilizer died,
6. In this scenario, according to the scientific method, what was the “variable”?
A. The soil type
B. Barrel Cacti
C. The addition of fertilizer to Cactus B
D. Sunlight
E. The cactus with no fertilizer
7. What is the “control”?
A. The soil
B. Barrel Cacti
C. The addition of fertilizer to Cactus B
D. The cactus with no fertilizer
E. The fact that you had no control over the cactus's death.
8. What was the “hypothesis”?
A. The fertilizer caused the cactus to flower.
B. The fertilizer caused the cactus to die.
C. The fertilizer may have made the cactus die, but no generalizable conclusions can be drawn.
D. The fertilizer will help the cactus produce a flower.
9. In Science, what is the difference between a “theory” and a “law”?
A. A “theory” is a natural law (like gravity), while a “law” is a widely-accepted explanation that
is continually supported with evidence.
B. A “theory” is a widely accepted explanation of something in nature, while a law
describes something that is inherently true in nature (if you drop an object, it will always
fall towards the Earth).
C. A “theory” is a scientific law that was proven to be false.
D. “Law” and “theory” are interchangeable with one another, or depend on the scientist to
whom you are speaking. .
10. How is a research article's (or research author's) credibility determined?
A. Their research has been reviewed by friends and family (peers).
B. They are an expert in their field, so we can assume that their research is valid. Their
credibility can rest on their reputation alone.
C. Their work has been reviewed and critiqued by other experts in their field.
D. Their findings fit into the current understanding of the world, and since they do not
contradict the current paradigm, are trusted to be credible.
11. What is Consensus science?
A. Consensus science describes how most of the world understands things, which sometimes
includes things that are untrue, but believed by some cultures anyway.
B. Consensus science describes the current “best understanding” of the world: it consists
of up-to-date data, theories and laws widely accepted by most scientists.
C. Consensus science is the collection of facts, theories and ideas as understood by the general
population of people.
D. Consensus science describes the set of explanations that is not yet accepted by most people
in the world (the general population), but generally accepted by most scientists.
12. Why are there conflicting opinions in science?
A. Different scientists have different feelings about the way the world works.
B. The systems being studied are complicated; the studies are also complicated.
C. Different scientists may have different biases.
D. Complicated data can be interpreted in different ways.
E. All of the above
F. B, C, D
13. What categories are all cells classified into?
A. Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic
B. Animal & Plant
C. Eukaryotic, Prokaryotic, Archae
D. Type 1, Type 2, Type 3
E. Animal, Plant, Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoan
14. All Eukaryotic cells have:
A. Flagella
B. Organelles
C. A nucleus
D. Free-floating DNA (not inside a nucleus)
E. B and C
F. All of the above
15. In a cell, the plasma membrane:
A. Acts as a food source for the cell, which eventually digests it
B. Is made of a phospholipid bi-layer
C. Encloses the cytoplasm, and other contents of the cell
D. A and C
E. B and C
F. All of the above
16. Prokaryotic cells:
A. have organelles
B. have a nucleus
c. are larger than Eukaryotic cells
d. usually have a cell wall made of a sugar-protein base
17. According to the lecture, an insect carrier of a disease is described by a certain word. This would
be:
A. Pathogen
B. Carrier
C. Vector
D. Mosquito
E. Vehicle
18. A virus:
A. is alive.
B. is non-living.
C. will respond to antibiotics.
D. will not respond to antibiotics.
E. A and C
F. B and D
19. Most viruses:
A. can infect any tissue they enter.
B. enter a cell and immediately kill it.
C. enter the cell and turn it into a virus-producing factory.
D. are highly tissue-specific.
E. A and B
F. C and D
20. Choose the best answer.
Parasites:
A. will always respond to antibiotics.
B. are always deadly.
C. usually require some sort of medical intervention, usually extreme.
D. do not need a host to survive.
21. Which is not classified as an Emerging Infectious Disease?
A. Diseases formerly not reported in humans
B. Diseases that have been mostly eradicated but still threaten certain populations
C. Diseases previously reported, but causes were undetermined or unexplained
D. Diseases formerly not reported in humans
E. Increasingly common genetic disorders such as sickle-cell disease or Tay –Sach’s disease
F. All of the above
22. If somebody has a dangerous and infectious virus, what treatment would a doctor probably advise?
A. Viruses can only be destroyed by your immune system, which is capable of adapting to the
virus and attacking it.
B. You would destroy the cells that have been affected by the virus to prevent it from spreading
further.
C. Give antibiotics immediately to prevent DNA replication.
D. Give the patient an antiviral drug to attack the virus, designed to prevent it from
replicating.
23. Why are viral diseases harder to treat than bacterial?
A. Since they are prokaryotic, they are much smaller than bacterial pathogens.
B. Their DNA replication occurs much faster than bacteria (due to their smaller size), so can
reproduce and spread more rapidly.
C. The enzyme responsible for its replication, DNA polymerase, is more prone to error during
the replication process. As a result, there exist a wider variety of viruses.
D. The enzyme responsible for its replication, RNA polymerase, is more prone to error
during the replication process. As a result, there exist a wider variety of viruses which constantly
require new treatments.
24. What is the best way to prevent against viral infection?
A. Vaccination
B. Antibiotics
C. Gene therapy
D. DNA Polymerase shot
25. Antibiotics were once highly effective ways to treat bacterial diseases, but are becoming less and
less effective. What is the main reason for this?
A. Old treatments are no longer effective against pathogens that have evolved into new strains.
B. Antibiotics were never shown to be an effective treatment against bacterial diseases.
C. Antibiotics are ubiquitous in our world now (in our meat, in our water supply), so a lot of
disease-causing organisms have become resistant.
D. A and C
E. All of the above
26. Unique adaptations can be passed from one microbe to another.
TRUE
FALSE
27. Microbes typically take a long time to reproduce.
TRUE
FALSE
28. SARS is an example of a disease spread through international travel.
TRUE
FALSE
29. E. Coli is viral infection.
TRUE
FALSE
30. “West Nile” is a viral disease.
TRUE
FALSE
31.What is the “reservoir” of the flu virus?
A. Warm, standing water where mosquitoes breed
B. Dirty water
C. Animal populations (pigs and chickens)
D. The cause is unknown.
32. Malaria comes from which type of reservoir?
A. Warm, standing water where mosquitoes breed
B. Dirty water
C. Animal populations (pigs and chickens)
D. The cause is unknown.
33. Malaria is an infectious disease caused by:
A. the Plasmodium virus, carried by a vector (Mosquito).
B. the Plasmodium bacteria, carried by a vector (Mosquito).
C. Protozoan parasites called Plasmodia which enter the red blood cells of humans, and
cause them to burst.
34. An example of a protozoan includes:
A. Bacteria
B. Worms
C. Plasmodium
D. Amoeba
E. A, C, and D
F. C and D
SHORT ANSWER
Detailed answers to the following questions can be found in the lecture notes
35. What is a pathogen?
Lecture 5 (1-26-2009)
36. What are some different types?
A)
B)
C)
D)
37. Explain how each factor results in the spreading of an infectious disease. Try to explain from
YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING, without looking at the book.
A, B, and C are found in Lecture 6 (1-28-2009)
“Emerging Infectious Disease Factors– How do they keep popping up?”
A. Disturbances in natural habitat (for example, deforestation)
B. Changes in human demographics (for example, a poor, dense population in the city)
C. International commerce/travel
D, E, and F are found in Lecture 7 (1-30-2009)
D. Public health failures (Give 1) An example of a public health failure, and 2) how it can
result in the spreading of an EID)
E. Adaptation of microbes/bacteria/virus
What does it mean when a pathogen “adapts”?
How does its adaptation result in the spreading of an infectious disease?
Why is it hard to “fight” strains that change often?
F. Mutations and evolution
What is a mutation?
How is evolution (of a strain of bacteria, for example) affected by antibiotics?