Download Self Assessment: Natural Selection

Name:__________________________ Class:_____ Date:__________
Self Assessment: Natural Selection
1. What is natural selection?
a. an active process guiding adaptations toward a specific goal
b. a passive process relying on environmental factors to drive change
c. a human-controlled process that we change every day
d. an active process depending on an organism's activity during its lifetime
2. Which of the following could cause an adaptation?
a. a finch with a wide, short beak deciding it wants its offspring to have long narrow beaks
b. a bear dying from starvation so that other offspring know not to go to that stream next season
c. a finch with a long, narrow beak living to reproduce offspring with similar beaks
d. a bear showing its offspring a stream so they know where the best salmon is
3. The pressure of finite resources refers to the fact that ____________________.
a. there is only so much food, water, and shelter in a community for all organisms
b. evolutionary processes have a final goal they are striving towards
c. organisms can always find the resources they need in some way or another
d. there are only so many natural resources and humans are under pressure to use them now
4. All individuals of a species that live in a defined area is called a _____________.
a. community
b. group
c. gang
d. population
5. Differential reproductive success is _________________.
a. some individuals in a population producing more viable offspring than other individuals
b. the amount of difference in how populations reproduce
c. the amount of successful reproductions that occur within a population
d. one individual organism's success at producing viable offspring
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Name:__________________________ Class:_____ Date:__________
Self Assessment: Natural Selection
6. The ultimate source of different traits in a population is ____________________.
a. the environment
b. genetic mutation
c. the organism's choice
d. sexual reproduction
7. The three main elements of natural selection are _______________.
a. the number of reproducing offspring in a population, environment, and genetic variation
b. individual fitness, learned behaviors, and the number of offspring in a population that reach old age
c. individual fitness, environment, and learned behaviors
d. learned behaviors, the number of reproducing offspring in a population, and genetic variation
8. Darwin's book On the Origin of Species was the first book to discuss ______________.
a. species variation
b. evolution
c. natural selection
d. finches
9. How are adaptations passed on to offspring?
a. genes
b. behavior training
c. parental selection
d. human intervention
10. One way evolution occurs is by ____________________.
a. striving to reach previously selected goals
b. the reactive processes of natural selection
c. genetic sequencing
d. the goals of human beings
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ANSWER KEY
1.b 2.c 3.a 4.d 5.a 6.b 7.a 8.c 9.a 10.b
ANSWER KEY - Page 1