BIO 170  - First Exam  - 2021

 

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.

 

_______ 1.  The typical pathway of energy in a food chain:

                        a.   Consumers, decomposers, producers

                        b.   Producers, decomposers, consumers

                        c.   Producers, consumers, decomposers

                        d.   Decomposers, producers, consumers

                        e.   Red Bull, jittery student, you don’t want to know...

 

 

_______ 2.  Which confounding factor would be most associated with

                                    postmodernism?

                        a.  Experimenter bias                          b.  Statistical error

                        c.  Outside interference                       d.  Null hypothesis

                                    e.   One with a post in it (but a modern one)

 

 

 

_______ 3.  Hox genes are associated with

                        a.  Virus defense                        b.  Cancer initiation             c.  Basic layout

                        d.  DNA testing                                             e.  Hairballs

 

 

_______ 4.  In modern university science, peer review usually involves

                         a.  Research supervisors                     b.  Journal editors

                         c.  Laboratory colleagues                   d.  Fellow students

                                                e.  Bad habits

 

 

_______5.  ATP is

                        a.  An energy-carrying molecule        b.  A light-capturing molecule

c.  A genetic coding molecule             d. All of these

                                           e.  Something new from Charmin-?

 

 

_______6.  The main purpose of a control in an experiment is to

a.  Provide a comparison                     b.  Support statistical data processing

c.  Make it reproducible                      d.  Give enough repetition

                                                e.  It isn’t to control stuff-?

 

 

_______7.  Which would be a direct observation?

                        a.   You see a cell through a microscope

            b.   You hear a bird but can’t see it

            c.   You read about a bright light seen in the sky last night

            d.   You listen to a friend’s story about how a skunk smells

                        e.   You meet Quentin Tarantino?

 

 

_______8.  Uniformitarianism was developed as a way to

a.   Understand the past                                  b.  Compare DNA

c.   Establish relatedness of fossils                 d.   Study different cell types

e.   Get everybody into similar outfits

 

 

 

_______9.   A animal from which location is most likely to wind up a fossil?

a.   Near-shore ocean bottom              b.   Near-surface open ocean

c.   Rain forest                                     d.   Mountaintop

                                    e.   A low-cost fossil factory

 

 

_______10.    In a test of new drugs, all test groups get the same basic treatment

                                    in order to figure in the

                        a.  Double blind                                  b.  Treatment effect               

                        c.  Patient effect                                  d.  Placebo effect

                                    e.  Most ways to divert money

 

 

_______11.  An experimental variable is

a.   What changes during the experiment          b.   The opposite of the control

c.   What is being tested                                   d.   The results of the experiment

                                    e.   A very basic thing...that I have totally forgotten

 

 

_______12.   Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny connects

a.  Genetics and classification             b.  Genetics and chemistry

c.  Embryology and evolution             d.  Cells and multicelled systems

                                    e.  Me with horrifying memories of vocabulary tests

 

 

_______13.  Resolution or a system relates directly to

                        a.  Focus                      b.  Contrast                  c.  Orientation

                        d. Magnification                      e.  Doing…solutions…again

 

 

_______14.  Which term is applied as “your idea is wrong”?

                        a.   Negative proof                              b.  Confounding factor

                        c.   Null hypothesis                             d.  Anti-conclusion

                                                e.  A slap upside the head

 

_______15.   Darwin waited to publish his ideas until

a.   The rules of genetics were worked out

b.   Wallace tried to get his own ideas published

c.   He had built up enough evidence to satisfy himself

d.   He arrived back in England

                        e.   He could make gobs of money with them

 

 

_______16.  Convergent evolution can be used to explain

                        a.   Persistence of form in embryos

                        b.   “Living fossils”

                        c.   The same basic structure inside, very different  appearance outside

                        d.   The appearance of a “worm” shape in many different groups

                        e.   Why none of this really makes any sense

 

 

_______17.  Hybrid vigor can explain

                        a.  How dominance actually works

                        b.  What sets the basic rate of evolution

                        c.  How disease alleles become more common over time

                        d.  The epigenetic nature of certain heritable conditions

                        e.  Why labradoodles are adorable

 

 

_______18.   According to neodarwinian theory, what changes during evolution?

a.   Individuals                        b.   Species                              c.   DNA

                        d.   Gene pools                        e.   Socks - always good to change socks

 

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.

 

1.  Give two different reasons why a field test may be the best option -

 

2.  Which two types of reproductive isolation are basically different separations into different niches?

 

 

4.   How does a dominant allele “assert its dominance” over a recessive allele, exactly?

 

5.  The two main categories of microscopes according to the type of beam used:

 

6.  According to Malthus, what are the natural controls on overpopulation?

 

7a.  The most common molecular clock uses (be specific!) –

7b.  Why that particular source of the molecule?

 

8.  Two features that any hypothesis should have to be scientifically useful:
9.    What are two different discredited ideas that are associated with LaMarck?
10.  Pick one of Mendel’s Laws.  Give the name and a brief description of how it works.
11.  Each of these terms is a criticism.  Briefly explain what each is suggesting was done wrong -
POLYPHYLETIC		ANECDOTAL
12.  What defines a colonial organism (unicellular or otherwise)?
13.  What are two requirements of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium that apply specifically to the population?

15.  The two main categories of microscopes based upon the beam’s interaction with the specimen:
16. In an experiment, what is an artifact?

 

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.

1.  Briefly explain why, for COVID-19…
…having had a recent infection or vaccine (non-COVID) might be protective.	…why having COVID should be more immunologically protective than getting the current vaccines.

 

2.  Alternation of generations, a life cycle where asexual and sexual reproduction both regularly occur, happens in some animals as a way to get the evolutionary advantage of each.  What is that evolutionary advantage?  Explain why each is an advantage (that’s a bit more than just naming the advantage.
ASEXUAL –	SEXUAL -

 

 

4.  For four different discoveries in the history of genetics, give the people or model organisms involved and the discovery.

 

5.  What are six different basic features found in all living things on Earth?

 

 

Link to Answer Key

 

 

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.

 

What two things (3 Points Each) that should have been specified about the mRNA vaccines show up in exactly zero of their technical information sheets?

 

 

 

Why does it make sense that the “diseases evolve to be less virulent” “rule” does not seem to apply to COVID-19?  Three Points.

 

 

When can sexual reproduction basically duplicate the effect of asexual reproduction?  Three Points.

 

 

What is developing as the newest way to differentiate species from each other?  Three Points.

 

 

Who was Karl von Linne?  Three Points.

 

 

Why was Darwin taken on to the Beagle?  Three Points.

 

 

What fairly rare natural event has to happen to produce fossilized footprints?  Three Points.

 

 

How exactly does radiation produce mutations?  Three Points.

 

 

Other than the final product, what were the main immediate developments of the Human Genome Project?  Three Points.

 

 

What issue needed to be solved to develop high-resolution magnifying lenses?  Three Points.

 

 

What did Malpighi realize from his study of goldfish?  Three Points.