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BI 171 - First Exam - 2007
Answer Key
Links connect to relevant
parts of the online book.
Multiple Choice.
Place the letter of the choice that best answers the question on the line to the
left.
Two Points Each. NOTE: "e" answers are never the correct answer.
___D___1.
Which is an allowable species name?
a. Hillaria Clintona
b. baraka obama
c. josephi Bideni
d.
Johnus mccainius
e. Those are some unfit species...
...2 words, italicized, first word capitalized, second not capitalized.
Binomial nomenclature rules.
___B___
2. Which best reflects on the hypotheses on why cells
are limited in size?
a. Volume and surface area increase at the same rate
b. Volume increases at a faster rate than surface area
c. Volume increases at a slower rate than surface area
d. All of the above
e. Cells are teeny - that's just the rule
...the workings get bigger faster than the exchange surface for input and
outgo.
___C___
3. Sectioning is often required for what type of
microscope?
a. Electron
b. Light
c. Transmission
d. Scanning
e. The one that needs sectioning
...you often need slices when the beam has to go through the specimen.
___A___
4. Which is an example of a direct observation?
a. Hearing an echo
b. Listening to someone's experiences
c. Reading an article
d. Using a radiation detector
e. Reading questions through the tears
...a direct sensory input. The others are indirect.
___B___
5. The bones of a human arm and a front dolphin flipper
have the same basic bones, different only in layout and use.
The arm and flipper are
a. Analogous only
b. Homologous only
c. Both analogous and homologous
d. Neither analogous nor homologous
e. Both tasty with the right sorts of seasonings
...homologous from the same basic inner structures; not doing similar
functions makes them not analogous.
___D___6.
One of Lamarck's ideas still has a great influence on how
people think about evolution, even though it's wrong.
What is the idea?
a. Evolution only happens gradually
b. Traits acquired during a lifetime can be passed as changed to offspring
c. Evolution is a totally random process
d. Evolution is progress, leading toward predictable goals
e. It never happened
...both of his major ideas are here, and although both were quickly shown
not to be how things work,
the idea that it's all part of a plan, and that evolved = better are harder
to lose.
___C___7.
The broadly-accepted current way to determine a species
involves
a. Doing breeding experiment
b. Running genetic tests
c. Observing behavior in nature
d. Comparing embryos
e. Guessing, mostly
...the members of a species select their breeding partners, and from that we
define the boundaries of the
species.
___B___
8. In modern science, peer review is most likely to
happen at which stage?
a. Hypothesizing
b. Publication of results
c. Experimental design
d. Collection of data
e. When it hits YouTube
...a specialized science journal brings peers together, but in many labs no
one else is doing the same sort of
work.
___C___
9. Which is not a way that DNA nucleotides connect
across strands?
a. Adenine - Thymine
b. Guanine - Cytosine
c. Adenine - Cytosine
d. Thymine - Adenine
e. I feel like a Geico caveman...but dumber...
... A with T (and vice versa) and C with G.
___D___
10. Which is most likely to leave a nice, continuous
fossil record?
a. A species of tree
b. A species of dinosaur
c. A species of desert tortoise
d. A species of clam
e. The one with the fossil recording contract
...which is most likely to become a fossil, when fossil beds most commonly
are ocean sediments with
animal hard parts in them?
___C___
11. "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is a concept
related to how
a. Layers of fossils are created
b. A sequence of lenses can both clarify and magnify
c. Development of embryos mirrors ancestral evolution
d. Metabolic pathways mimic genetic sequences
e. Big words can be really confusing
...although the idea itself was flawed, it led to understanding the value of
comparing embryos to detect
relationships between groups.
___D___
12. When taxonomic disagreements are raised, what
changes are usually made?
a. Both group names and taxonomic levels about equally
b. Nothing is allowed to be changed
c. Group names
d. Taxonomic levels
e. If it's a nice disagreement, folks might change their minds...
...you can shift groups up or down - say that a family should be considered
a suborder, for instance - but you
can't change the name everyone is used to a group having.
___A___
13. In DNA coding, the typical ratio is
a. Three DNA nucleotides for one protein amino acid
b. Two DNA nucleotides for one protein amino acid
c. Three protein amino acids for one DNA nucleotide
d. Two protein amino acids for one DNA nucleotide
e. A bit of this to a different bit of that
...that's how a codon works - 3 spots of one sequence translate into one bit
on another.
___B___
14. Uniformitarianism was developed as an approach to
a. Reproducible experiments
b. Understanding past processes
c. Genome comparisons
d. Development of cell theory
e. Getting a world's record for long words
...when trying to decide how the past worked, it's useful to assume that the
rules weren't all that different
from how they work now.
___D___
15. Artificial selection can be applied as a term to
which example?
a. Mendel's pea plants b.
Meatier cattle c. Pit bull breeding
d. Any of these
e. Surfing the internet for questionable sites
...when humans select the breeders to develop domestic forms, that's
artificial.
___D___
16. Which comes closest to being the same as a
microscope's resolution?
a. Imaging system b. Maximum
magnification c. Ease of use
d. Focusing capability
e. Microscopes make promises on New Year's Eve-?
...it's the ability to clearly see tiny things.
___C___
17. Evolutionary rates are most likely to be
a. Slow and gradual
b. Punctuated
c. Patterned after environmental changes
d. Dictated by what the ultimate goal of the changes are
e. As difficult to understand as changes in the stock market
...environmental changes are very strong drivers of evolutionary change.
___D___
18. Which slogan could be used for reductionism?
a. "Don't worry about the details"
b. "You have to know history to know the present"
c. "If it isn't numbers, it isn't useful"
d. "Understand the pieces, understand the whole"
e. "Save the cheerleader, make good ratings"
...this seems self-explanatory.
Short Answer.
Pick NINE questions to answer in the spaces
provided.
NOTE: if you answer MORE than nine, only the first nine will be corrected.
Four Points each. Partial credit is possible.
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1. What are
two conditions a Hardy-Weinberg population requires, that do NOT involve
a form of selection? |
| No mutation
Very large population |
No Migration |
| 2.
For an electron microscope, compared to
a light microscope, give one - |
| ADVANTAGE -
Better resolution.
|
DISADVANTAGE - More
expensive.
Harder to use.
Requires vacuum inside.
Very toxic stains. |
3. Briefly
explain how a founder effect works.
...a
small group leaves a much larger population - the descendants of the
migrant group only have the alleles from that group.
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4a. Give an
example of a type of data that is really qualitative.
...anything that has to be forced to have numbers.
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4b. Explain a way to make that data quantitative.
...anything that naturally comes in numbered form.
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5. What
features does a species need to be considered colonial?
...individuals band together and do different jobs for the group,
although they can live on their own if they have to.
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6. Basic scientific method (the approach, not
the details of experimental design) has several principal features. What
are two? |
| It follows logical
rules. Explanations are
subject to change as new information is found.
|
It is based upon
evidence. Tests should be
clearly designed so as to be reproducible, and someone else should be
able to get similar results. |
7. Explain
how sexual selection works.
...features that give individuals advantages toward reproductive success
(other that pure survival features) are more likely to be passed to
offspring and increase their reproductive success.
|
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8. Put the following groups in order from the
largest to the smallest: Class, Family, Genus, Kingdom, Order, Phylum,
Species, Subclass, Superfamily. |
| 1 Kingdom |
4 Subclass |
7 Family |
| 2 Phylum |
5 Order |
8 Genus |
| 3 Class |
6 Superfamily |
9 Species |
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9. Relatedness
can be measured comparing what different types of molecules? |
| Metabolic molecules
DNA |
Proteins |
|
10. Briefly explain the role that postmodernism
plays in science.
...a
good scientist should be aware of how his own prejudices affect his
scientific ideas.
|
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11. According
to Malthus, what are two natural limiting factors to growing
populations? |
| Disease.
Starvation. |
Conflict / War. |
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12. What are two sets of circumstances that have
led to the evolution of alternation of generations in different groups? |
| Complex lives
involving multiple hosts (parasites).
Predominant form does not move
(corals). |
Sexual form tied to
limited environment (early land plants). |
|
13. What are two different traits that viruses
don't have but "living" things do? |
| No metabolism
outside of host. No
growth or development. |
Not really
cellular. |
|
14. For
each, give a disadvantage - |
LOW
CHROMOSOME Less
variation in offspring.
NUMBER |
HIGH
CHROMOSOME Greater chance of
cell-division mistakes.
NUMBER |
Long Answer.
Select and answer completely any four of the
following questions.
Note: if you answer more than four, only the first four will be corrected.
Seven Points Each. Partial credit is possible.
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1. Define any four (don't do more than 4) of the
following terms as they apply to scientific method: |
Experimental
The thing that is actually being tested
Variable
|
Control
Comparison test -
usually, duplicates experiment, but with variable removed. |
Confounding
Can affect results but are not experimental variable.
Factors
|
Artifacts
Results produced by confounding factors. |
Placebo
A false treatment - matches regular treatment,
except
for variable. |
Anecdotal
Evidence from limited test - single case,
Evidence
or too few to minimize chance effects.
|
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2. Give the steps that, according to the Theory of Evolution
by Natural Selection, should happen between the steps given.
|
The environment around a population changes.
|
Individuals with features
better suited to the changed population tend to survive, while other
tend to die. |
The better-suited
individuals are more likely to reproduce, so many offspring will have
their environmentally-suited features.
|
Each generation,
the environment continues to select for individuals that better fit in
it.
|
Over time, the
"average" specimen has more features that work well in the new
environment and differs from the average of the starting population.
|
|
The new population is different enough to be considered a
new species.
|
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3. What are four different major discoveries that were
made in genetics before the Watson & Crick discovery about DNA
structure? |
| Mendel's rules of
inheritance. |
| Genetic linkage. |
| Mutations. |
| Genes code for
single proteins. |
| DNA is the only
thing needed for genetic transferrence. |
|
4. Give the
following for sexual reproduction -
|
BASIC DEFINITION
Offspring are
genetic blend from 2 sources
|
ADVANTAGE
compared to asexual Produces
lots of variation in offspring
|
DISADVANTAGE
compared to asexual Cannot
actually make copies.
|
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5. Give
four rules from the classic Cell Theory. |
| All living things
are at least a single cell. |
Cells only come
from other related cells. |
| A cell is the
smallest thing that can be considered alive. |
Cells are more
alike than different. |
|
6. What are four basic features that all living things
are supposed to have? |
| Genetic systems -
ability to pass features to offspring. |
Ability to
reproduce. |
| Show growth and
development. |
Have
energy-shifting internal chemistry. |
| Can interact with
the environment. |
Can evolve over
many generations |
| Have cells. |
|
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7. Name four of the Six "Basic" Kingdoms, and
for each list enough traits to make it clearly different from the other
five. |
| ARCHAEA |
Prokaryotes; tend to be found in "extreme"/unusual environments. |
| MONERA |
Prokaryotes; tend to be common in "normal" environments. |
|
PROTISTA |
Eukaryotes; single cells or small numbers of very similar cells. |
| PLANTAE |
Eukaryotes; multicelled; can do photosynthesis. |
|
ANIMALIA |
Eukaryotes; multicelled; absorb nutrients across inner
surfaces; often can move.
|
| FUNGI |
Eukaryotes; multicelled; absorb nutrients across outer
surfaces; usually made up of fibers.
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BONUS QUESTIONS.
Answer as many or as few as you wish. You can't
lose points on the rest of the exam by getting these wrong. Partial credit is
possible.
Supernatural explanations of the world are often considered unscientific. Give
one reason why. Three Points.
In what critical way are biology Laws different from physics Laws? Three Points.
What biology subfield was made a bit more bizarre
by Linnaeus? Two Points. Two more if you can explain why.
What limitation is found in multicellular systems
where cells have cell walls? Three Points.
Why exactly was the idea of extinction considered
heretical? Three Points.
In what way can a low chromosome number mimic asexual reproduction? Three
Points.
Which major group typically reproduces sexually,
but has no genders? Three Points
What sorts of events can cause a population bottleneck? Two Points each.
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium requires very unnatural conditions - so why is it
used in describing natural processes? Three Points.
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