Basic Knowledge Check #1 Test Bank

Below are all the possible questions that you could be asked for Basic Knowledge Check #1. You will take the Check on Moodle, which will randomly give you 20 of the following questions. Please note that the order of the answers might be variable, and in all cases there may be more than one right answer, so you should select all that are correct.

1. Which of these is an observational science?

   1. Anthropology

   2. Astronomy

   3. Geology

   4. Chemistry

2. A child born and raised at a high altitude developed larger-than-average lungs and heart. Although the child moved to a lower elevation as an adult, her heart and lungs continued to be relatively large throughout her life. This is an example of a/an:

• 1. Developmental adaptation

  2. Evolved adaptation

  3. Acclimatization

  4. Cultural adaptation

3. Among the many ______________ to living in cold climates are heavy coats, insulated buildings, and the use of fire/furnaces/heating devices.

• 1. Acclimatizations

  2. Developmental adaptations

  3. Evolved adaptations

  4. Cultural adaptations

4. Which of these are examples of acclimatization?

• 1. sweating in the heat

  2. shivering in the cold

  3. breathing heavily while working out

  4. larger lungs from living at high altitudes

5. DNA transcription is:

• 1. The process by which RNA binds together amino acids, the later step in creating a protein

  2. The process of "mapping" DNA, in order to determine which genes code for which proteins

  3. The process by which RNA copies a DNA strand, as the first step toward making a protein

  4. The expression of our genes through our phenotype

6. DNA translation is:

• 1. The process by which RNA binds together amino acids, the later step in creating a protein

  2. The process of "mapping" DNA, in order to determine which genes code for which proteins

  3. The process by which RNA copies a DNA strand, as the first step toward making a protein

  4. The expression of our genes through our phenotype

7. Not all segments of DNA code for an amino acid. Those segments that do are called:

• 1. Introns

  2. Exons

  3. Anti-codons

  4. Enzymes

8. Which of these is true of introns?

• 1. They are also called exons

  2. They do not code for amino acids

  3. They are removed during the process of translation

  4. Whether or not a segment is an "intron" or an "exon" can depend on the final protein being created

9. A gene codes for a/an:

• 1. Codon

  2. Behavior

  3. Trait or characteristic

  4. Protein

10. Which of these is an example of incomplete dominance?

• 1. If I have one A allele from my mother, and one B allele from my father, I would have type AB blood.

  2. If I cross a petunia that is homozygous for for red coloring with a petunia that is homozygous for white coloring, the result is a pink petunia

  3. Pea plants are short when they have two recessive alleles (tt), but tall when they have two dominant alleles (TT). If a pea plant is Tt, however, it will be just as tall as a plant that is TT.

  4. Although the R577X polymorphism on the ACTN3 gene is associated with elite athletic ability, not everyone who carries this gene is an elite athlete.

11. Which of these is an example of codominance?

• 1. If I had one A allele from my mother, and one B allele from my father, I would have type AB blood.

  2. If I cross a petunia that is homozygous for for red coloring with a petunia that is homozygous for white coloring, the result is a pink petunia

  3. Pea plants are short when they have two recessive alleles (tt), but tall when they have two dominant alleles (TT). If a pea plant is Tt, however, it will be just as tall as a plant that is TT.

  4. Although the R577X polymorphism on the ACTN3 gene is associated with elite athletic ability, not everyone who carries this gene is an elite athlete.

12. Which of these is an experimental science?

• 1. Chemistry

  2. Evolutionary biology

  3. Geology

  4. Ecology

13. What is the difference between an experimental science and an observational science?

• 1. Observational scientists are able to control variables and conditions that affect the research questions they are studying.

  2. Observational scientists are able to set up experiments and "re-run" them as often as necessary to see how the results vary with changing conditions.

  3. Experimental scientists are able to control variables and conditions that affect the research questions they are studying.

  4. Observational scientists are able to "re-run" the phenomenon they are studying, to see what would happen under different conditions.

14. Which of these are adaptations to a high altitude environment?

• 1. stocky body type, short limbs, fat layers

  2. enlarged heart and lungs, improved kidney functions

  3. tall and thin body type, sweating on the extremities

  4. heavy muscle attachments, high heat tolerance, increased metabolism

15. Which of these are adaptations to a cold environment?

• 1. shorter, stocky body type, with more mass relative to surface area

  2. short limbs or extremities

  3. tall and thin body type

  4. sweating on extremities

16. What is phenotypic plasticity?

• 1. The ability of our bodies to respond to environmental stress

  2. The ability of our genotype to change under selection

  3. Our unchangeable bodies, as determined by our DNA

  4. The reaction of our bodies to plastics, man-made materials, and other pollutants.

17. Which of these describes short-term, reversible changes that our bodies undergo when subjected to environmental stress?

• 1. Acclimatization

  2. Developmental adaptations

  3. Evolved adaptions

  4. Stress adaptability

18. Which of these changes to our bodies cannot be reversed by removing the environmental stress that caused it?

• 1. Acclimatization

  2. Developmental adaptations

  3. Evolved adaptations

  4. Cultural adaptations

19. Which is these is the most common way that humans deal with environmental stress?

• 1. Developmental adaptations

  2. Evolved adaptations

  3. Cultural adaptations

  4. Meditation

20. A person's genotype is:

• 1. simply the two alleles present at a locus

  2. the expression of a person's genes

  3. the same as their phenotype, if they have one dominant allele

  4. the same as their phenotype, if they have two recessive alleles

21. Coat color in cats is controlled by a gene on the X chromosome. The dominant allele will lead to black coat color, but the absence of the dominant allele will leave the cat's coat orange. Given this, which of the following is true?

• 1. a cat with two X chromosomes is more likely to be orange than a cat with only one

  2. color is not a sex-linked trait in cats

  3. more male cats are orange than female cats

  4. orange vs. black coat color is highly dependent on environmental stimuli

  5. a cat with XY chromosomes is more likely to be black than a cat with two X chromosomes

22. Culture is:

• 1. a uniting concept throughout the four fields of anthropology

  2. a term used by anthropologists to refer to many aspects of a society, including language, religion, social organization, dress, tradition, and art

  3. the most important way humans adapt to their environment

  4. one of our (relatively) unique traits as humans

23. Heritability is:

• 1. The amount of variation in a trait within a population that is controlled by genes

  2. The amount of variation in a trait within a population that reflects the influence of the environment

  3. The number of genes that you inherit from your grandparents

  4. The number of genes that you inherit from your parents

24. Identical twins are put up for adoption. One is adopted by a well-off family, while the other remains in an orphanage, where she gets little personal care and not enough food. When the two girls are adults, the one who was adopted is 5'8" in height. The one who remained in the orphanage is 5'2". From this we can conclude:

• 1. Height is a trait with low heritability

  2. Height is a trait with high heritability

  3. We cannot determine the heritability of height from this data

  4. Height is not heritable.

25. Evolution is:

• 1. improvement of the gene pool

  2. progress of a species

  3. change in gene frequencies in a population through time

  4. also known as natural selection

26. If there are two alleles for a particular trait, one dominant (R) and one recessive (r), then a person with a heterozygotic genotype must:

• 1. have at least one parent with at least one recessive allele

  2. have the genotype Rr

  3. have the phenotype expressing the dominant trait

  4. have at least one grandparent with one recessive allele

27. In order to be subject to natural selection, a trait must be:

• 1. heritable

  2. advantageous

  3. variable in the population

  4. mutational

28. Most human traits with a continuous distribution, such as stature, are:

• 1. Mendelian

  2. polygenic

  3. zygotic

  4. prone to frequent mutations

29. Polygenic traits:

• 1. account for little, if any, of the readily observable phenotypic variation seen in humans.

  2. include height, coloring, and other traits with continuous variation in humans

  3. are dominant over Mendelian traits.

  4. are rarely found in humans

30. The majority of sex-linked traits:

• 1. have loci on the X chromosome.

  2. are expressed more frequently in males than females

  3. have loci on the Y chromosome

  4. are dominant traits

31. The only source(s) of new genetic material in any species is/are

• 1. mutations

  2. genetic drift

  3. founder effect

  4. evolution

  5. natural selection

32. The role of chance in evolution is seen in:

• 1. gene flow

  2. differential fitness

  3. natural selection

  4. genetic drift

33. Transcription and translation

• 1. can produce different proteins, depending on the environment in which they take place

  2. are the means by which DNA reproduces itself and creates sex cells

  3. take place in the nucleus of a cell, when tRNA bonds with mRNA

  4. are types of mutations, where DNA no longer “reads” correctly

34. Which of these are adaptations to a hot, dry environment?

• 1. stocky body type, short limbs, fat layers

  2. enlarged heart and lungs, improved kidney functions

  3. tall and thin body type, sweating on the extremities

  4. heavy muscle attachments, high heat tolerance, increased metabolism

35. Which of these are possible ways that flexibility and variation can be added into the process of creating a protein from DNA?

• 1. genes can be “turned on: or “turned off” through complex hormone loops

  2. regulator genes can affect when and if genes code for a protein

  3. some exons of a gene are translated under certain circumstances, but under other circumstances that exon may be excised from the mDNA

  4. DNA can be changed through mutations

36. Which of these is an example of gene flow?

• 1. turtle populations from the eastern-most island of the Galapagos interbreeding with turtle populations from the neighboring island

  2. an increase in the speed of jackrabbits because slow jackrabbits are easier for foxes to catch

  3. the only person in a small population who happened to carry an allele that coded for red hair was killed by a falling rock before he could reproduce.

  4. pollen from a lily population spread by wind and introduced a new trait to the lily population on the other side of a large canyon

37. Which of these is an example of genetic drift?

• 1. squirrel populations from the north rim of the Grand Canyon interbreeding with squirrel populations from the south rim of the Grand Canyon

  2. an increase in the numbers of dark-colored moths because pollution-stained trees make it easier for birds to find and eat light-colored moths

  3. on an isolated island in the South Pacific, the descendents of shipwrecked sailors have a high incidence of an unusual gene that causes six fingers on each hand

  4. the appearance of blue beaks in a species of sparrow, due to a mutation.

38. Which of these is an example of natural selection?

• 1. Genghis Khan is the ultimate great-grandfather of a large percentage of people from Eurasia, after his armies conquered much of the region in the 1200's

  2. Among early cattle-raising people of Europe, 6,000 years ago, people who were able to process milk into adulthood could more easily find adequate food. Therefore the genetic ability to process milk is now found in most of their descendants

  3. After the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789, a small group of British sailors and Tahitian women lived on Pitcairn Island for many generations. When later contacted by passing European ships, the descendants were found to have a number of unusual genetic traits, such as a high incidence of a gene that causes six fingers on each hand.

  4. A tiger's stripes evolved when "more stripey" tigers were harder to see in the forest and therefore were able to better sneak up on their prey, eat more, and reproduce more.

39. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 1), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are

1. individuals who express a particular genetic trait. What is the genotype of individual 1?

   1. homozygous dominant

   2. homozygous recessive

   3. heterozygous

   4. we do not have enough information to answer the question

2. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 2), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are individuals who express a particular genetic trait. What is the genotype of individual 4?

• 1. homozygous dominant

  2. homozygous recessive

  3. heterozygous

  4. we do not have enough information to answer the question

3. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 2), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are individuals who express a particular genetic trait. What is the genotype of individual 5?

• 1. homozygous dominant

  2. homozygous recessive

  3. heterozygous

  4. we do not have enough information to answer the question

4. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 2), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are individuals who express a particular genetic trait. What is the geontype of individual 6?

• 1. homozygous dominant

  2. homozygous recessive

  3. heterozygous

  4. we do not have enough information to answer the question

5. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 2), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are individuals who express a particular genetic trait. Which numbered individuals must be heterozygous for the trait?

• 1. 1

  2. 2

  3. 3

  4. 4

  5. 5

  6. 6

6. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 2), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are individuals who express a particular genetic trait. If 3 and 4 were to have a third child, what would the probability be that the child would be a carrier (only, not affected him or herself) of the disease?

• 1. 100%

  2. 75%

  3. 50%

  4. 25%

  5. It is not possible to know without more information

7. In the pedigree below (Pedigree 2), squares = males, circles = females, and filled-in shapes are individuals who express a particular genetic trait. If 3 and 4 were to have three more children, what is the probability that NONE of the children would express the disease (but they could be carriers)?

• 1. 75%

  2. 3/4x3/4=9/16

  3. 1/4x1/4x1/4=1/64

  4. 3/4x3/4x3/4=27/64

  5. 1/3x1/3x1/3=1/27