Birzeit University
Department of Biology and Biochemistry
General Biology Entry Exam (TEMPLATE)
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
1) Digestive secretions with a pH of 2 are characteristic of the
1) _______
A) liver.
B) small intestine.
C) stomach.
D) mouth.
E) pancreas.
2) A filamentous organism has been isolated from decomposing organic matter. This organism has
a cell wall but no chloroplasts. How would you classify this organism?
A) domain Bacteria, kingdom Prokaryota
B) domain Archaea, kingdom Bacteria
C) domain Eukarya, kingdom Fungi
D) domain Eukarya, kingdom Protista
E) domain Eukarya, kingdom Plantae
2) _______
3) Which of the following is true of a species that has a chromosome number of 2n = 16?
A) The species is diploid with 32 chromosomes per cell.
B) During the S phase of the cell cycle there will be 32 separate chromosomes.
C) Each cell has eight homologous pairs.
D) A gamete from this species has four chromosomes.
E) The species has 16 sets of chromosomes per cell.
3) _______
4) In any ecosystem, terrestrial or aquatic, what group(s) is (are) always necessary?
A) autotrophs
B) autotrophs and heterotrophs
C) green plants
D) photosynthesizers
E) producers and primary consumers
4) _______
5) Which bonds are created during the formation of the primary structure of a protein?
A) disulfide bonds
B) hydrogen bonds
C) peptide bonds, hydrogen bonds, and disulfide bonds
D) peptide bonds
E) phosphodiester bonds
5) _______
6) Upon activation by stomach acidity, the secretions of the parietal cells
A) initiate the digestion of protein in the stomach.
B) delay digestion until the food arrives in the small intestine.
C) initiate the mechanical digestion of lipids in the stomach.
D) include pepsinogen.
E) initiate the chemical digestion of lipids in the stomach.
6) _______
7) The main source of energy for producers in an ecosystem is
A) ATP.
7) _______
B) chemical energy.
C) thermal energy.
D) kinetic energy.
E) light energy.
8) Which of the following are directly associated with photosystem I?
A) harvesting of light energy by ATP
B) generation of molecular oxygen
C) extraction of hydrogen electrons from the splitting of water
D) receiving electrons from the thylakoid membrane electron transport chain
E) passing electrons to the thylakoid membrane electron transport chain
8) _______
9) The slight negative charge at one end of one water molecule is attracted to the slight positive
charge of another water molecule. What is this attraction called?
A) a hydrogen bond
B) an ionic bond
C) a hydrophilic bond
D) a covalent bond
E) a van der Waals interaction
9) _______
10) A human red blood cell in an artery of the left arm is on its way to deliver oxygen to a cell in the
thumb. To travel from the artery in the arm to the left ventricle, this red blood cell must pass
through
A) five capillary beds.
B) three capillary beds.
C) one capillary bed.
D) four capillary beds.
E) two capillary beds.
10) ______
11) Which organelle is the primary site of ATP synthesis in eukaryotic cells?
A) vacuole
B) mitochondrion
C) peroxisome
D) lysosome
E) Golgi apparatus
11) ______
12) The fluid that moves around in the circulatory system of a typical arthropod is
A) the interstitial fluid.
B) the intracellular fluid.
C) the cytosol.
D) the digestive juices.
E) the blood plasma.
12) ______
13) An "internal reservoir" of oxygen in rested muscle is found in oxygen molecules bound to
A) hemoglobin.
B) carbonic acid.
C) bicarbonate ions.
D) myoglobin.
E) actin and myosin.
13) ______
14) When electrons move closer to a more electronegative atom, what happens?
A) The more electronegative atom is oxidized, and energy is released.
14) ______
B) The more electronegative atom is reduced, and entropy decreases.
C) The more electronegative atom is oxidized, and energy is consumed.
D) The more electronegative atom is reduced, and energy is consumed.
E) The more electronegative atom is reduced, and energy is released.
15) Singer and Nicolson's fluid mosaic model of the membrane proposed that
A) membranes consist of a mosaic of polysaccharides and proteins.
B) membranes are a phospholipid bilayer between two layers of h ydrophilic proteins.
C) membranes consist of protein molecules embedded in a fluid bilayer of phospholipids.
D) membranes are a phospholipid bilayer.
E) membranes are a single layer of phospholipids and proteins.
15) ______
16) What is a cleavage furrow?
A) the metaphase plate where chromosomes attach to the spindle
B) a ring of vesicles forming a cell plate
C) a groove in the plasma membrane between daughter nuclei
D) the separation of divided prokaryotes
E) the space that is created between two chromatids during anaphase
16) ______
17) Movement of vesicles within the cell depends on what cellular structures?
A) actin filaments and ribosomes
B) actin filaments and microtubules
C) centrioles and motor proteins
D) microtubules and motor proteins
E) actin filaments and motor proteins
17) ______
18) During glycolysis, when each molecule of glucose is catabolized to two molecules of pyruvate,
most of the potential energy contained in glucose is
A) transferred to ADP, forming ATP.
B) used to phosphorylate fructose to form fructose 6-phosphate.
C) stored in the NADH produced.
D) transferred directly to ATP.
E) retained in the two pyruvates.
18) ______
19) Which of the following statements correctly describes the normal tonicity conditions for typical
plant and animal cells?
A) The animal cell is in an isotonic solution, and the plant cell is in a hypotonic solution.
B) The animal cell is in a hypotonic solution, and the plant cell is in an isotonic solution.
C) The animal cell is in a hypertonic solution, and the plant cell is in a hypotonic solution.
D) The animal cell is in an isotonic solution, and t he plant cell is in a hypertonic solution.
E) The animal cell is in a hypertonic solution, and the plant cell is in an isotonic solution.
19) ______
20) Besides the ability of some cancer cells to overproliferate, what else could logically result in a
tumor?
A) changes in the order of cell cycle stages
B) inability of chromosomes to meet at the metaphase plate
C) lack of appropriate cell death
D) inability to form spindles
E) metastasis
20) ______
21) Nitrous oxide gas molecules diffusing across a cell's plasma membrane is an example of
A) facilitated diffusion.
21) ______
B) active transport.
C) cotransport.
D) diffusion across the lipid bilayer.
E) osmosis.
22) Independent assortment of chromosomes occurs.
A) The statement is true for meiosis I only.
B) The statement is true for mitosis and meiosis I.
C) The statement is true for mitosis and meiosis II.
D) The statement is true for mitosis only.
E) The statement is true for meiosis II only.
22) ______
23) Which of the following defines a genome?
A) a karyotype
B) the complete set of a species' polypeptides
C) representation of a complete set of a cell's polypeptides
D) the complete set of an organism's polypeptides
E) the complete set of an organism's genes
23) ______
24) You have a freshly prepared 1 M solution of glucose in water. You carefully pour out a 100 mL
sample of that solution. How many glucose molecules are included in that 100 mL sample?
A) 12.04 × 10 23
24) ______
B) 6.02 × 10 22
C) 6.02 × 10 23
D) 3.01 × 10 23
E) 6.02 × 10 24
25) The direct energy source that drives ATP synthesis during respiratory oxidative
phosphorylation in eukaryotic cells is
A) the final transfer of electrons to oxygen.
B) the proton-motive force across the inner mitochondrial membrane.
C) the thermodynamically favorable transfer of phosphate from glycolysis and the citric acid
cycle intermediate molecules of ADP.
D) the thermodynamically favorable flow of electrons from NADH to the mitochondrial
electron transport carriers.
E) oxidation of glucose to CO2 and water.
25) ______
26) Countercurrent exchange is evident in
A) the flow of water across the gills of a fish and that of blood within those gills.
B) the flow of fluid out of the arterial end of a capillary and that of fluid back into the venous
end of the same capillary.
C) the flow of water across the skin of a frog and that of blood within the ventricle of its
heart.
D) the flow of blood in the dorsal vessel of an insect and that of air within its tracheae.
E) the flow of air within the primary bronchi of a human and that of blood within the
pulmonary veins.
26) ______
27) When a glucose molecule loses a hydrogen atom as the result of an oxidation -reduction reaction,
the molecule becomes
A) reduced.
B) an oxidizing agent.
27) ______
C) oxidized.
D) hydrolyzed.
E) hydrogenated.
28) If cells in the process of dividing are subjected to colchicine, a drug that interferes with the
formation of the spindle apparatus, at which stage will mitosis be arrested?
A) telophase
B) anaphase
C) interphase
D) metaphase
E) prophase
28) ______
29) Why did the F1 offspring of Mendel's classic pea cross always look like one of the two parental
29) ______
varieties?
A) One phenotype was completely dominant over another.
B) The traits blended together during fertilization.
C) No genes interacted to produce the parental phenotype.
D) Different genes interacted to produce the parental phenotype.
E) Each allele affected phenotypic expression.
30) The difference in lipid and protein composition between the membranes of the endomembrane
system is largely determined by
A) the transportation of membrane lipids among the endomembrane system by small
membrane vesicles.
B) the modification of the membrane components once they reach their final destination.
C) the function of the Golgi apparatus in sorting and directing membrane component s.
D) the synthesis of different lipids and proteins in each of the organelles of the endomembrane
system.
E) the physical separation of most membranes from each other.
30) ______
31) DNAase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of the covalent bonds that join nucleotides
together. What would first happen to DNA molecules treated with DNAase?
A) The phosphodiester bonds between deoxyribose sugars would b e broken.
B) All bases would be separated from the deoxyribose sugars.
C) The two strands of the double helix would separate.
D) The purines would be separated from the deoxyribose sugars.
E) The pyrimidines would be separated from the deoxyribose sugars.
31) ______
32) Certain nutrients are considered "essential" in the diets of some animals because
A) the nutrients are subunits of important polymers.
B) the nutrients are necessary coenzymes.
C) only certain foods contain them.
D) these animals are not able to synthesize these nutrients.
E) only those animals use those nutrients.
32) ______
33) Where does the Calvin cycle take place?
A) stroma of the chloroplast
B) outer membrane of the chloroplast
C) interior of the thylakoid (thylakoid space)
D) thylakoid membrane
E) cytoplasm surrounding the chloroplast
33) ______
34) Independent assortment of chromosomes is a result of
A) the relatively small degree of homology shared by the X and Y chromosomes.
B) the random distribution of the sister chromatids to the two daughter cells during anaphase
II.
C) the random and independent way in which each pair of homologous chromosomes lines
up at the metaphase plate during meiosis I.
D) the random nature of the fertilization of ova by sperm.
E) the random and independent way in which each pair of homologous chromosomes lines
up at the metaphase plate during meiosis I, the random nature of the fertilization of ova by
sperm, the random distribution of the sister chromatids to the two daughter cells during
anaphase II, and the relatively small degree of homology shared by the X and Y
chromosomes.
34) ______
35) In which of the following organisms does blood flow from the pulmocutaneous circulation to the
heart before circulating through the rest of the body?
A) insects
B) fishes
C) frogs
D) annelids
E) molluscs
35) ______
36) Which of the following statements concerning bacteria and archaea cells is correct?
A) Archaea cells contain small membrane-enclosed organelles; bacteria do not.
B) Archaea cells contain a membrane-bound nucleus; bacteria do not.
C) DNA is present in both archaea cells and bacteria cells.
D) DNA is present in the mitochondria of both bacteria and archaea cells.
36) ______
37) Which of the following is not a polymer?
A) cellulose
B) DNA
C) starch
37) ______
D) chitin
E) glucose
38) Which of the following statements is true for the class of biological molecules known as lipids?
A) They contain nitrogen.
B) They are made from glycerol, fatty acids, and phosphate.
C) They contain less energy than proteins and carbohydrates.
D) They are insoluble in water.
E) They are made by dehydration reactions.
38) ______
39) In the cross AaBbCc × AaBbCc, what is the probability of producing the genotype AABBCC?
A) 1/8
B) 1/64
C) 1/16
D) 1/4
E) 1/32
39) ______
40) Examine the digestive system structures in the figure above. Most of the digestion of fats occurs
in section(s)
A) 3 and 4.
B) 1 and 4.
C) 1, 3, and 4.
D) 3 only.
E) 4 only.
TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.
41) Peroxisomes are cellular organelles that contain their own DNA and ribosomes.
40) ______
41) ______
42) Microtubules are part of the cytoskeleton that are required for muscle contraction.
42) ______
43) In a single molecule of water, two hydrogen atoms are bonded to a single oxygen atom by polar
covalent bonds.
43) ______
44) In orange juice, the pH is around 9.5.
44) ______
45) The diaphragm is absolutely required for breathing in all organisms.
45) ______
46) Fermentation is a form of aerobic respiration.
46) ______
47) In the following reaction:
C6 H12 O6 + 6 O2 → 6 CO2 + 6 H2 O + Energy
47) ______
CO2 is reduced and O2 is oxidized.
48) Hemolymph to an insect is analogous to blood to humans.
48) ______
49) The evolution of eukaryotic cells most likely involved endosymbiosis of an aerobic bacterium in
a larger host cell–the endosymbiont evolved into mitochondria.
49) ______
50) Upon activation by stomach acidity, the secretions of the parietal cells initiate the digestion of
protein in the stomach.
50) ______
1) C
2) C
3) C
4) A
5) D
6) A
7) E
8) D
9) A
10) E
11) B
12) A
13) D
14) E
15) C
16) C
17) D
18) E
19) A
20) C
21) D
22) C
23) E
24) B
25) B
26) A
27) C
28) D
29) A
30) C
31) A
32) D
33) A
34) B
35) C
36) C
37) E
38) D
39) B
40) E
41) FALSE
42) FALSE
43) TRUE
44) FALSE
45) FALSE
46) FALSE
47) FALSE
48) TRUE
49) TRUE
50) FALSE