Biology and Building Blocks of Life Practice Test

Biology and Building Blocks of Life Practice Test

Directions: A good score is at least 18 (out of 25 questions) correct. It’s best to have a friend check your score the first time, so you won’t memorize the answers if you want to take the test again.

1. The water (H ₂ O) molecule:

(a) Is an example of a crystal

(b) Unequally shares outermost electrons between its O and H atoms

(c) Frequently breaks down its peptide bonds to release energy

(d) Equally shares outermost electrons between its O and H atoms

(e) Is one of the least common types of molecules within most organisms

2. Both H ₂ O and NaCl differ from CO ₂ in that they:

(a) Are important organic compounds

(b) Do not contain chemical bonds

(c) Represent key inorganic compounds

(d) Never react with other particles

(e) Are both mainly ionic in their bonding

3. The main reason you shouldn’t swim in salty water during a thunderstorm is:

(a) Lightning might strike and topple a nearby tree, hitting you on the head!

(b) Sodium chloride is very salty and irritating to the eyes and skin

(c) Your body contains only organic solutes, while salty water contains only inorganic ones

(d) Lightning might strike the water, and its electrons be carried to your body by ions

(e) The rain might wash organic solvents into the surrounding seawater

4. C–C bonds:

(a) Can create long chains, branching trees, or closed-ring molecules

(b) Always bond with hydrogen and oxygen at the same time

(c) Are especially abundant in CO ₂ molecules

(d) Create a highly orderly inorganic skeleton for many body molecules

(e) Seldom occur within the membranes of living cells

5. General name for the fats and fat-like hydrocarbons that cannot dissolve in water:

(a) Enzymes

(b) Lipids

(c) Carbohydrates

(d) Krebs cycle electron carriers

(e) Nucleic acids

6. Type of energy released by action of ATPase:

(a) Potential energy

(b) Motivational juice

(c) Kinetic energy

(d) Consumption of calories

(e) Cold stimulus

7. Adenosine diphosphate:

(a) Represents a reduced, lower-energy form of ATP

(b) Continuously degrades into free energy, electrons, and O ₂

(c) Has no connection whatsoever to the Cell Cycle

(d) Is regenerated whenever the cell has an excess of energy

(e) May be important in humans and animals, but not in plants

8. You chew up and swallow a hamburger. Within your stomach and small intestine, it is further digested into individual proteins and amino acids, which in turn are finally broken down to provide free energy. The overall name for this process is:

(a) Cannibalism

(b) Anabolism

(c) Tissue rehydration

(d) Metabolism

(e) Catabolism

9. After a portion of a tree trunk is gouged by a saw, the trunk slowly repairs itself, then continues growing. The general terms for these physiological operations are:

(a) Mitosis & anabolic processes

(b) Mitochondrial enzymatic action

(c) Mitosis & catabolic processes

(d) Stepwise decreases in Biological Order and pattern

(e) Random osmosis/diffusion

10. Plant cells consume carbon dioxide as part of their metabolism because:

(a) Cellular respiration always involves the net consumption of CO ₂

(b) The Calvin cycle starts with a group of C atoms coming from CO ₂

(c) Photosynthesis uses energy from sunlight

(d) CO ₂ molecules, not O ₂ molecules, have enough energy in their bonds to make ATP

(e) Most plants live in low-oxygen environments

11. All the greenish parts of a plant contain _______ with chlorophyll molecules:

(a) Rough ER

(b) Cell nuclei

(c) Golgi apparatuses

(d) Lysosomes

(e) Chloroplasts

12. Cellular respiration:

(a) Occurs right after glycolysis under anaerobic conditions

(b) Utilizes O ₂ to catabolize carbohydrates, lipids, or proteins

(c) Does not occur in the cells of heterotrophs

(d) Involves the production of lactic acid, under aerobic conditions

(e) Takes place within the cytoplasm

13. The Krebs cycle:

(a) Produces hydrogen-carrier molecules, which then move onto the cristae of the mitochondria

(b) Is named for the concert pianist Krebs Kuhdiddlehopper

(c) Includes enzymes that operate directly upon the glucose molecule

(d) Is much less efficient than glycolysis in producing ATP molecules

(e) Has carbon as its final electron acceptor

14. Schleiden & Schwann are especially noted for:

(a) Advancing the Modern Cell Theory

(b) Being the first to use the word, “cell”

(c) Showing that cells were really not very important

(d) Painting pictures of organisms upon cave walls

(e) Successfully disproving the conclusions of Robert Hooke

15. The word lysosome translates into Common English to mean:

(a) “Breakdown body”

(b) “Kernel-resembler”

(c) “Lice-cutter”

(d) “Tiny digester”

(e) “5-carbon sugar body”

16. A packager of proteins, lipids, hormones, and various cell products:

(a) Lysosome

(b) Golgi body

(c) Nucleoid region

(d) Rigid cell wall

(e) Nuclear membrane

17. A cytoskeleton:

(a) Often cracks into tiny particles

(b) Provides pores in the nuclear membrane

(c) Manufactures antibodies

(d) Consists of microtubules as well as microfilaments

(e) Makes each cell extremely weak and fragile

18. A single gene is important because:

(a) It provides a code or blueprint for the production of a certain protein

(b) Most cells contain no more than one gene

(c) It always acts to speed up a particular digestive process

(d) Each gene provides a specific code for some type of membrane transport

(e) No DNA is present without it

19. If all the tRNAs within a cell were suddenly destroyed, _______ would be directly and immediately affected:

(a) Osmosis

(b) Transcription

(c) Simple diffusion

(d) Intracellular transport

(e) Translation

20. A polypeptide gets its name from the fact that:

(a) It consists of a series of unattached amino acids

(b) The word mitosis also has the same meaning

(c) The molecule really has a lot of “pep”!

(d) The molecule contains peptide bonds between its amino acid subunits

(e) There is nothing else quite like it within the living plant/animal body

21. One of the main reasons that body tissues do not become clogged with millions of dead cells:

(a) Quick occurrence of autolysis

(b) Microscopic “vacuum-cleaners” within the cytoplasm

(c) Slow and reliable rates of structural protein synthesis

(d) Just enough mitochondria to provide the needed energy

(e) A massive allergic reaction to the dead cells

22. Active transport systems differ from passive transport systems by their:

(a) Lack of importance in protein synthesis

(b) Use of free energy from the splitting of ATP

(c) Frequent lack of potential energy supplies

(d) Stickiness and rubbery texture

(e) Participation in cellular movements

23. Like simple diffusion, osmosis:

(a) Proceeds from an area of higher to one of lower concentration

(b) Occurs from an area of lower to one of higher concentration

(c) Involves the random movement of H ₂ O molecules only

(d) Directly releases energy to support cell metabolism

(e) Interferes with normal cellular digestion

24. Facilitated diffusion shares a certain major feature with active transport:

(a) Energy-free scattering of particles

(b) “Thrusting” of particles from a region where their concentration is low, up to a region where their concentration is high

(c) No similarity to simple diffusion

(d) Dependence upon the action of protein carrier molecules

(e) Breaking down of glucose

25. Mitosis is:

(a) The orderly division of paired, duplicated chromosomes into single, unpaired chromosomes

(b) A complete destruction of 46 chromosomes

(c) A specific type of cellular transport process

(d) Removal of mitochondria from the cytoplasm

(e) The same thing as interphase

Answers:

1. B

2. C

3. D

4. A

5. B

6. C

7. A

8. E

9. A

10. B

11. E

12. B

13. A

14. A

15. A

16. B

17. D

18. A

19. E

20. D

21. A

22. B

23. A

24. D

25. A