Download Midterm Practice Questions

Midterm Practice Questions
CHAPTER 4
1. Which of the following is an abiotic factor?
a. soil bacteria
c. grass
b. sunlight
d. earthworm.
2. Which of the following describes an adaptation?
a. Snow covering the entrance to a rabbit hole.
b. Sunscreen applied to prevent skin damage.
c. Coloration changes in a chameleon.
d. A lake forming behind a beaver’s dam.
3. Which is an example of predation?
a. Camels that have three eyelids to keep out sand and dust.
b. Humans hunting and eating white tailed deer.
c. Bacteria that live in our intestines and digest food for us.
d. Lice living in human hair and feeding off of human blood.
4. A true statement about parasitism is that parasites…
a. may cause their hosts to become more vulnerable to predators.
b. do not live in or on their hosts’ bodies.
c. are always animals and never plants.
d. immediately kill their hosts.
5. Which of the following statements explains why the growth of air plants on the high
branches of tropical trees is an example of commensalism?
a. The air plants draw nourishment from the trees.
b. The trees could live with or without the air plants.
c. The air plants keep parasites away.
d. The trees receive nutrients from the air plants.
6. A scientific theory…
a. can become a law if more evidence is found.
b. is a scientific guess that many people believe, but is not proven.
c. is an explanation that is supported by hypotheses, experiments, and observations.
d. None of the above
IDENTIFY: Identify which type of relationship is represented in the following situations. The
terms may be used more than once or not at all! Bubble your answer on your scantron sheet.
a. predation
d. commensalism
b. parasitism
e. mutualism
c. competition
7. _____ An owl snatching a mouse from a field to eat.
8. _____ Three lampreys attached to a fish and sucking its body fluids out.
9. _____ An owl using a tree for nesting.
10. _____ Two crows eating the same road kill.
11. _____ Hyenas often follow a lion and wait until the lion is finished eating its prey before
eating the remains.
12. _____ Plants depending on bees to pollinate them. Bees eating nectar from the flowers for
dinner.
CHAPTER 15
9. Farmland may become desertified if
a. Domestic animals are allowed to overgraze the land.
b. Too many crops are grown on the land and the land gradually loses its fertility.
c. There is no fertile soil left to grow plants due to erosion.
d. All of the above
10. Which of the following actions contributes to soil erosion?
a. Using compost as fertilizer
b. Practicing crop rotation
c. Traditional plowing
d. All of the above
11. DDT is harmful to the environment because
a. It is a persistent pollutant and doesn’t break down quickly into harmless chemicals.
b. It concentrates in the bodies of animals high in the food chain.
c. It causes some birds to lay eggs with shells so thin that they break when the birds sit on them.
d. All of the above
12. Which of the following best describes why many people in the world go hungry?
a. Food production has not been increasing as fast as the human population, and it is difficult to
distribute food to everyone who needs it.
b. There is plenty of food produced for everyone to have more than enough, but it is not distributed
equally.
c. In recent years, the human population has been growing, but food production has been falling.
d. Throughout human history, many people have not had enough to eat, but new farming methods
mean that this will not be a problem in the next century.
13. In what year did the total amount of grain
production equal the average amount of
grain per person?
a. 1987
b. 1983
c. 2003
d. The two amounts were never equal.
14. If the trend that was in place from 19901995 continued through 2000, what would
have been the average amount of grain
available per person in 2005?
a. 200kg
b. 250kg
c. 300kg
d. 350kg
CHAPTER 8/9
15. Which of the following is true of human demographic trends?
e. In preindustrial societies, birth rates are low and the population grows rapidly.
f. When the average number of children born to each woman falls, the total population always
increases
g. When birth rates and death rates are both high, the population grows slowly, if at all.
h. Death rates rise in the third stage of the demographic transistion.
16. Which of the following is a reason that wood is considered a limited resource in many developing
countries?
e. Wood is used in place of money to buy food.
f. Fuelwood allows people to purify their water by boiling it.
g. People cut down trees faster than they can grow.
h. Both b and c are correct.
17. A species of plant had exponential growth after it was introduced into an area where it has never been.
Which statement best describes exponential growth?
e. Each individual plant grows much larger than usual.
f. The population immediately decreases
g. Within a few years the population increases dramatically
h. The species' reproductive potential declines.
18. What always happens when a population exceeds its carrying capacity?
a. Another species replaces it
b. The environment provides extra resources.
c. The birth rate increases.
d. The population growth rate decreases.
19. Using the graph to the right, which
statement best explains why the population
stabilized at 225?
a. There weren’t enough resources to
support a greater population size.
b. The scientists killed all members of
the population that exceeded a total
of 225 members.
c. 225 is the carrying capacity and the
population knew it shouldn’t go
over that number.
d. The population got tired of
reproducing.
CHAPTER 2
9.
What essential characteristic does a good experiment have?
a. A control group is given the experimental treatment
b. A single variable is tested.
c. A control is used
d. Both b and c are correct
10. The model of a dinosaur in the Natural History Museum is an example of a __________ model.
a. Graphical
b. Mathematical
c. Physical (something you can touch)
d. Conceptual
11. You (or I) can change the ___________________ variable.
a. Independent
b. Constant
c. Dependant
d. Control
12. In a scientific investigation, it is important that the number of objects or events being sampled be:
a. Small, so it’s easy to count.
b. Large enough to give an accurate estimate for the whole population.
c. Include every single object or event in the whole world.
d. Equal to the mean.
13. By examining_______________ , scientists can test predictions in which it is impossible or unethical to use
experiments.
a. Correlations
b. Risk
c. Control groups
d. Logical concepts
14. When making a decision about whether or not to build a dam, you are considering an economic value when you
ask which of the following questions?
a. Will the dam provide new leisure activities?
b. How many jobs will building the dam generate?
c. Will building the dam destroy natural resources?
d. Is it right to build a dam here?
17. Coach Schmidt notices that the guys on his soccer team are very tired at half time and he has to sub a lot in the
second half. He wonders if he should try a new sports drink for the team. Currently, there is just water in the
coolers. He wants to test Gatorade to see if they make his players feel less tired in the second ½ of the game.
Being a science teacher, he will test scientifically.
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Control
Constants (2)