SC 139 - First Exam 2005


Links on Numbers go to relevant passages in the online textbook.

MULTIPLE CHOICE.

On the line to the left, place the letter of the choice that best answers the question.
Three Points Each. NOTE: "e" answers are never the correct answer.

 

1. The modern definition of a species depends upon

_______         a. Ability to produce offspring only
                      b. Ability to produce offspring that can then produce offspring
                      c. Reproductive behavior in Nature
                      d. Particular genetic differences
                      e. They just make this stuff up, really

 

2. Between single-celled and multi-celled, there are _______ organisms.

_______         a. No living                     b. Colonial                     c. Bipolar
                      d. Fungus                                     e. Indecisive

 

3. Specimens look the most three dimensional through

_______         a. A scanning microscope               b. A transmission microscope
                      c. A light microscope                     d. An electron microscope
                                            e. Those funny cardboard glasses

 

4. Traits that are analogous but not at all homologous often result from

_______         a. Sharing an ancestor             b. Divergent evolution             c. The same cells
                      d. Convergent evolution        e. Traits that should have stayed away from the dictionary

 

5. Selective breeding of domestic animals and plants is also called

_______         a. Ontogeny             b. Survival of the fittest             c. Artificial selection
                      d. Culling                                e. The lucky and the unlucky

 

6. The most common form of peer review happens at which stage?

                      a. Designing the experiment
                      b. Running the experiment
_______         c. Publishing the results
                      d. Drawing conclusions from the results
                      e. Whenever you least expect it - they’re like parents that way

 

7. In the phrase ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, the first word means

_______         a. Family history             b. Evolutionary background             c. A replay
                      d. Embryo development            e. That you can use your togeny to put stuff on

 

8. Fitness in evolution refers to

_______         a. Relative advantages             b. Perfection            c. Pure strength
                      d. Health                                        e. How snug the jeans are

 

9. Which is the proper species name?

_______         a. sillius questionus                               b. Choicea Annoying
                      c. Examus trickius                                 d. Murderus Instructorus
                                            e. Can we name them after pop stars?

 

10. Darwin’s ideas were based on uniformitarianism in that he thought that evolution

_______         a. Affected everything equally
                      b. Was a slow and gradual process
                      c. Had worked differently in the distant past
                      d. Would eventually make everything the same
                      e. Was a silly idea, but it would make him the Big Bucks

 

11. Which approach builds evolutionary "trees" where splits are tied to the appearance of new traits?

_______         a. Cladistics                     b. Systematics                     c. Genetics
                      d. Division                                             e. Traiteology

 

12. A structure plant cells have that animal cells don’t is the _________, which contribute to
      making plants __________.

_______         a. Cell membranes...less mobile                         b. Cell walls...photosynthetic
                      c. Cell membranes...photosynthetic                   d. Cell walls...less mobile
                                                e. Tiny planty things...more planty

 

SHORT ANSWER.

Answer any eight of the following questions for 4 Points Each.
Note: if you answer more than eight, only the first eight will be corrected.
You can get partial credit on these answers.

1.  In Redi’s experiments on spontaneous generation, he was challenging the idea that a particular unliving material generated particular living things. What was -
The
material?
 		 The living
things?
 
2. Darwin noticed that how much living things differed between an island and the mainland seemed connected to two relationships. What were they?
 

 
3. Some living things have very complete fossil records. What are two other things that such living things have in common?
 

 
4.  Put the following in order from smallest to largest: Class, Family, Genus, Kingdom, Order, Phylum, Species, Superfamily.
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
5.  What are the two different basic ways to test a hypothesis?
 

 
6. Briefly explain what a plasmid is.

 

 
7. What are homeogenes?

 

 

8. What is meant by the "resolution limit" for a microscope?

 

 
9.  The investigation of fossils almost immediately led to a concept that was, at the time, considered completely contrary to the Bible, although it isn’t today at all. What was the concept?
 

 
10.  Briefly explain how PostModernism is usually applied in science.

 

 
11.  What material / molecule, found in chromosomes, carries genetic information?

 

 
12.  When a biologist believes that a group needs to be classified differently,
What can
they easily
do?		 What are
they NOT
allowed to do?
13.  Briefly describe the theory that explains why cells seem to have a maximum natural size.

 

 
14.  Briefly explain what happens in a double-blind drug study.

 

 
15.  Why are specimens sectioned?

 

 

 

LONG ANSWER.

Answer any four of the following questions for Eight Points Each.
Note: if you answer more than four, only the first four will be corrected.
You can get partial credit on these answers.

1. According to Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, give the steps between a change in the environment and the appearance of a new species.

 

 

 

 

2. For four of the six basic Kingdoms of Life, name the Kingdom and list enough traits of the Kingdom’s members to make it clearly distinct from all of the others

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

3. According to Malthus, what are three different ways that Nature prevents overpopulation?

 

 

 

4. What are three different disadvantages that electron microscopes have particularly when compared to light microscopes?

 

 

 
5. What are the four rules of the Cell Theory?
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
6.  Lamarck left behind two different ideas that had a lot of influence. Briefly explain (don’t just give the "title"!) each of those ideas.
 

 
 

 
7. What are four materials likely to fossilize? Include, in the *starred* box, the most common material.
* *


 

Link to Answer Key

BONUS QUESTIONS.

Answer as many as you are able. Wrong answers will not result in points being lost from the main exam. You can get partial credit on these answers.

In ancient Greece, what was considered the third Kingdom? Three Points.

 

After the Renaissance, what were the next two Kingdoms to be made "separate"? Two Points each.

 

The basic definition of species doesn’t apply to organisms with what basic feature? Four Points.

 

Peer review can slow down the progress of science. How? Three Points.

 

What did Malpighi discover by magnifying goldfish tails? Three Points.

 

What was the major problem that had to be solved with lenses while microscopes were being developed? Three Points.

 

What is sometime that a typical prokaryote can do that a typical eukaryote can’t? Three Points.

 

Why did Darwin take every opportunity to get off the HMS Beagle? There are two reasons, for Three Points Each.

 

Where did Alfred Russel Wallace do his major research (Two Points), and why was that such a good place for it (Three Points)?

 

Why are there almost no dinosaur fossils in New York State? Three Points.


 
     

 

Michael McDarby.

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