Answer Key

Extended Response interact with cells. The

1. Allow a maximum of 3 models allow scientists to
credits: study these interactions
• 1 credit for identifying an without exposing people
organism as any individual to potentially harmful
living thing, a species as chemicals.
a particular type of living
things that can interbreed to
reproduce, and biodiversity
as the variety of life across
the biosphere or within an
ecosystem
• 1 credit for listing at least
three characteristics that
organisms share: they are
made up of one or more
cells; they need energy for
metabolism; they respond
to their environment; and
they have the ability to
reproduce
• 1 credit for explaining
that Earth’s biodiversity
Copyright by McDougal Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company

tends to increase from the

poles to the equator because
more living things are able
to survive in consistently
warm areas, such as a
tropical forest, than in
areas where there are large
temperature changes over
time, as in northern U.S.
forests
2. • 1 credit for describing
electron microscopes as
able to show the detail
of very small specimens,
and magnetic resonance
imaging as able to give a
view of soft tissues
• 1 credit for describing
how computers can model
interactions within systems,
such as how molecules
of a medicine might

Answer Key 1
 CHAPTER BIOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
1 Extended Response

Biology in the 21st Century

CHAPTER 1
(5 Credits)
1. Living things are very diverse, yet there are many characteristics that organisms share.
Describe some of the types of similarities that form patterns within Earth’s biodiversity.
In your answer:

• compare the meanings of the terms organism, species, and biodiversity (1)
• name at least three characteristics that all organisms share (1)
• explain why a tropical forest has a much greater diversity of species than a forest in
the northern United States (1)

2. Many new tools and technologies have allowed biologists to answer questions they
could not even ask in the past. Describe how both imaging technologies and computer
Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.

modeling have increased our scientific knowledge. In your answer:

• describe the uses of electron microscopes and magnetic resonance imaging (1)
• evaluate the benefits of using computer models to study a new medicine before
giving the medicine to human patients (1)

Assessment Book Extended Response 19

McDougal Littell Biology