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About This Quiz
So, did you? Did you pass your high school biology class? If you did, or you didn't, but you think you were robbed, take this quiz to see just how much you learned.
For some reason, biology is not most high school students' favorite subject. We're not sure why; we love the subject. And hey, Bill Nye the Science Guy loves it too. Whether you loved biology out of the gate or learned to love it because of a great teacher (or Bill Nye), you might know enough to pass this basic biology quiz.
Biology is the study of all things alive. From plants to animals, to cells, to genetics, biology encompasses a huge variety of subjects. In fact, because there are so many forms of living things to study, the topic of biology can be broken down into about 30 different areas of study. Â
These include anatomy, the study of the parts of living things; botany, the study of plants; genetics, the study of genes; mycology, the study of fungi (who knew?), zoology, the study of animals; and virology, the study of viruses. Many of these areas of study overlap, making biology an exciting and challenging field.
Did you ace high school biology? See if you can ace this quiz.
The green pigment in plant cells is called:
Chlorophyll
Plants use chlorophyll to trap light needed for photosynthesis. Recent research has studied the potential therapeutic effects of a semi-synthetic type of chlorophyll on cancer and obesity.
Verde
Formaldehyde
Alcohol
T-cells, B-cells, macrophages, and platelets are all part of the ___________ system
Circulatory
Digestive
Endocrine
Immune
The immune system must protect the body from harmful agents called pathogens, and also be able to tell the difference between pathogens and healthy tissues. Autoimmune disorders, like type I diabetes and systemic lupus erythematosus, occur when the immune system become hyperactive and begins to attack normal tissue.
Which organ breaks apart and grinds up food that enters it from the mouth via the esophagus?
liver
stomach
The stomach secretes some enzymes to facilitate the chemical digestion of food, and uses its musculature to churn up the food.
kidney
small intestine
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Which of the following connects two bones in a joint?
cartilage
ligament
Often confused, ligaments are fibrous connective tissues that stabilize joints by attaching bone to bone, and tendons connect muscle to bone.
muscle
tendon
Fish breathe through ________.
Ears
Gills
A fish takes water into its mouth and forces it out through the gills where the dissolved oxygen moves into the blood and can get to the other cells of the fish.
Nose
Heart
Which type of blood vessel carries oxygenated blood away from the heart to all of the body's tissues?
arteries
The aorta is the main artery of the body that supplies oxygenated blood to the circulatory system. In humans it arches over the heart from the left ventricle and continues down just in front of the backbone.
capillaries
podocytes
veins
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What type of behavior is exhibited by a plant when it bends towards the light?
positive phototropism
Positive phototropism is the directional movement of an organism towards the light.
negative phototropism
thirst
anger
What is the first stage of development after fertilization of an egg?
embryo
baby
blastula
zygote
After fertilization, the zygote will divide and further develop into a morula, then a blastula, then a gastrula!
What does a eukaryotic cell have that a prokaryotic cell is missing?
cytoplasm
mitochondria
nucleus
The nucleus of a human cell contains three parts: the nuclear envelope, the nucleolus and the chromosomes.
vacuoles
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Which of the following contains instructions for all living things?
Lipids
DNA
RNA
DNA and RNA
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) are nucleic acids that contain instructions for all the activities of the cell.
A person with type A blood can receive a transfusion from a person with which blood type(s)?
Type O only
Type A only
Type B only
Type A and O
A person with Type A blood can receive blood only from a person with type A or type O blood because it only has the antigens for type A, and type O does not express any antigens. Type O is often called the "universal donor".
Which list of homologous structures support the theory of evolution?
A human hand, a whale fin, and a bat's wing
These homologous structures are commonalities that look different but share a similar bone structure.
A human leg, a catfish spine, and a raccoon nose
A cow leg, a snake's spine, and a frog's skull
A human ear, a cat's mouth, and a dog's leg
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A sarcomere is the basic structural unit of which type of tissue?
Kleenex
Brain
Liver
Muscle
Sarcomeres occur as repeating units and are the segments of a myofibril (muscle fiber) in the contractile unit of a muscle fiber.
Compared to cells, viruses do NOT have:
a nucleus
organelles
cell membrane
all of the above
A virus does not have a cell structure and therefore needs a living host to survive. As a result, it makes its host sick, and results an immune response.
Which of the following is NOT a part of the anatomy of a flower?
anthers
liver
The filament and anther are considered 'male' parts of the flower, while the stigma, style, and ovary make up the 'female' parts of the flower.
filament
stigma
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Gregor Mendel is known as the founder of the modern science of genetics. What type of plants did he use to establish the rules of heredity?
Apples
Geraniums
Peas
Mendel studied the characteristics of pea plants and coined the terms “recessive†and “dominant†to describe certain traits. Using the pea plants, he demonstrated that green peas are recessive and yellow peas are dominant.
Willows
The most common kind of color-blindeness involves the inability to distinguish between the colors _________ and _________.
yellow and orange
purple and blue
red and green
It is estimated that 8% of males in the United States are colorblind.
black and white
If a man who is colorblind marries a woman who is a carrier for color blindness, what is the chance of having a child that is NOT colorblind?
0%
12.5%
50%
A Punnett square analysis shows that the recessive gene from the mother could: 1) combine with the father's Y chromosome, resulting in a colorblind son; 2) combine with the fathers X chromosome containing a colorblind gene, resulting in a colorblind daughter. The other possibilities are a son or daughter who is not colorblind.
100%
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If a person has sickle-cell anemia, what shape do his or her red blood cells form?
circle
crescent
Sickle-cell anemia is a condition in which there are not enough healthy red blood cells to carry enough oxygen throughout your body. The crescent-shaped red blood cells can stick together and get stuck in small blood vessels which can lead to high blood pressure, organ damage, or even stroke.
oval
square
What is the process of cell division?
Cytokinesis
Meiosis
Mitosis
Mitosis and cytokinesis
Mitosis is nuclear division plus cytokinesis. It produces two identical daughter cells during prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
What are the stages of mitosis?
1st, 2nd, and 3rd base
breakfast, lunch, and dinner
prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
Mitosis is a method of cell division in which chromosomes divide into two identical sets of chromosomes, and producing identical copies of the original cell.
fetus, embryo, infant, puberty, adult
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What lines up in the middle of the cell during metaphase II of meiosis?
All the organelles
The chromosomes
Meiosis is the process in which the chromosomes are copied, paired up and separated to create eggs or sperm which are important for reproduction.
The cytoplasm
The mitochondria
What class of joint-legged invertebrate has eight legs?
Arachnid
Not all arachnids are spiders though! There are eleven orders of arachnids including scorpions, mites and ticks, and spiders, among others!
Coelenterates
Insects
Roundworms
The part of the neuron that carries messages away from the cell body is called a(n)
Axon
A long fiber extending from a neuron (nerve cell) is almost like a fiber-optic cable that carries messages in the form of electrical impulses to target cells, such as muscles.
Brain stem
Hose
Motor
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What gland makes, stores, and releases thyroxine and triiodothyronine to regulate metabolism?
Kidney
Liver
Stomach
Thyroid
The thyroid is located near the neck, and consists of two lobes, resulting in a butterfly-like shape.
What does using an oil immersion lens do on a microscope?
Nothing
Increases the magnification
Most microscope objectives in the magnification range between 60x and 100x (and higher) are designed to use with immersion oil. It increases the optical resolving power of the microscope, and gives you a sharp image with higher resolution!
Decreases the magnification
Makes it greasy
Lactic acid produced by bacteria is used to make all of the following EXCEPT:
Cottage cheese
Motor oil
These special bacteria are able to digest lactose in milk for energy, and excrete lactic acid, lowering the pH. Lactic acid-producing bacteria also help to ferment soy sauce!
Sauerkraut
Yogurt
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Anaerobic bacteria will not survive if exposed to:
Nitrogen
Hydrogen
Water
Oxygen
Anaerobic bacteria can be found living deep underwater, deep in the body, or deep underground. They are most commonly found in the intestine and can play a role in appendicitis and diverticulitis.
In which process does a liquid pass through a semi-permeable membrane to obtain equilibrium?
Exocytosis
Fermentation
Phagocytosis
Osmosis
Osmosis involves the movement of water or other liquids from a less concentrated to a more concentrated solution until both solutions are of the same concentration = equilibrium.
The theory of evolution was elegantly explained in the 1859 book "On the Origin of Species". Who wrote this book?
Charlie Sheen
Charles Darwin
This book by Charles Darwin discussed for the first time, the scientific theory that populations evolve through a process of natural selection - the "survival of the fittest".
Prince Charles
Charles Manson
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What is the process by which scientists use experimentation to explore observations and answer questions?
Theory
Hypothesis
Placebo
Scientific Method
The scientific method has characterized natural science since the 1600s. The steps of the scientific method include making observations, asking questions, construct a hypothesis, perform experiments, analyze the results, and form a conclusion.
The first antibiotic was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. What was the antibiotic named?
Penicillin
Antibiotics are able to fight infections caused by bacteria but not viruses.
Erythromycin
Doxycycline
Ciproflaxin
What is an autotroph?
An organism that can make its own food
Autotrophs, including plants, can produce their own food for energy whereas heterotrophs rely on other parts of the food chain to get protein and energy. The origin of the word autotroph is from the Greek autos = "self", and trophe = "nutrition".
An organism that eats animals
An organism that eats plants
An organism that eats automobiles
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The most basic classification of living things as described by Linnaeus​ in the 1700s is
Kingdom
From the largest group to the smallest, the descriptions are as follows: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. There are five kingdoms: animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and protoctists
Genus
Phylum
Species
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