MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY (MLB) 133 SEMESTER TEST 1

(2021)
Good luck!

Section A
Question 1
[1]
Which phrase defines a scientific theory?
a) An educated guess
b) An accepted description
c) A well supported explanation idk
d) An untested idea

Question 2
[1]
Thembi did an experiment to find out whether lillies grow faster under fluorescent lighting or
incandescent lighting. Under flourescent lighting, Thembi's plants grew 1.5 cm taller in two
months. She gave her notes to Mpho, who did the same experiments with similar results. Which
term describes Mpho's experiment?
a) Replication
b) Plagiarism
c) Repetition
d) Pseudo-science

Question 3
[1] Which is the dependent (response) variable in this graph?

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 a) Sunflower
b) Time in days
c) Plant height
d) Daisy

Question 4
[1]
An important component of the scientific process is that the findings of science
are____________. a) Testable
b) True
c) Absolute
d) Uncertain

Question 5
[1]
Scientific inquiry begins with __________________.
a) Experiments
b) A problem to solve or a question to answer
c) An observation
d) A checklist of procedures

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Question 6
[1]
How do scientists draw conclusions?
a) By guessing what the results should be
b) By looking at their hypotheses and choosing one they like best
c) By running different experiments until they see what they want to see
d) By comparing the data from their experiments to the hypotheses tested

Question 7
[1]
Testing a hypothesis requires that scientists__i do not know___________.
a) Reason inductively
b) Reason deductively
c) Accurately predict the outcome of tests
d) Derive a test implication from the hypothesis

Question 8
[1]
Which of the following are NOT heterotrophs?
a) Corn
b) Birds
c) Mushrooms (fungi)
d) Both a and c

Question 9
[1]
The evolution of two or more species as a result of different populations becoming
reproductively isolated from each other is called _______________.

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 a) Creationism
b) Adaptation
c) Adaptive radiation
d) Panspermia

Question 10
[1]
The term that can be applied to any living this is ______________________. a)
Organelle
b) Organism
c) Organ
d) Cell

Question 11
[1]
Which of the following explains evolution?
a) Changes in individual organisms during the course of their lifetime
b) Changes in a population of organisms over a period of time
c) Organisms coming into existence at a defined moment in time and not changing d) None
of the above

Question 12
[1]
Darwin's theory of natural selection was influenced by observations
in______________________. a) Economics
b) Evolution
c) Geology
d) All of the above

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Question 13
[1]
What key point from Thomas Malthus did Darwin use in formulating his theory of evolution?
a) Too many individuals in a population may lead to economic disaster
b) Overproduction leads to a struggle for existence
c) Variation among individuals is only found in large populations
d) Both b and c

Question 14
[1]
Which of the following is NOT true for Lamarck's theory of evolution?
a) Organisms adapt to their environment through the use and disuse of organs
b) Organisms arise by spontaneous generation
c) Acquired characteristics are inherited
d , Evolutionary relationships among organisms can be depicted by groups based on
similarity.

Question 15
[1]
Which of the following characteristics of living things explains the migration of birds from the
North during winter? But why not B thou?????
a) Response to stimuli
b) Acquisition of energy
c) Organization
d) Maintenance of homeostasis

Question 16
[1]
Charles Darwin concluded that the 13 species of finches on the Galápagos Islands:
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 a) Were identical to 13 finch species in north western South America 600 miles to the east
b) Probably evolved from one ancestral South American species
c) Had all adapted to the same food sources
d) All of the above

Question 17
[1]
Rapid rates of evolution would be most expected among species that:
a) Live in extreme environments
b) Have large bodies
c) Mature very slowly and reproduce only after they are 20 years old
d) Mature in a few days or weeks and then reproduce

Question 18
[1]
Through careful observation, Charles Darwin came to understand that:_____________.
a) Populations of plants and animals in nature most often consist of individuals that are
clones of each other
b) Populations of a species that become isolated from others by adapting to different
environmental niches quickly become extinct

c) Individuals whose variation gives them an advantage in staying alive long enough to
reproduce are more likely to pass their traits on to the next generation
d) All of the above

Question 19
[6] Fill in the missing word:

a) Factors, objects or events that can change in an experiment are known as

__Dependent_variable______________...........................................................................(1)
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 b) An experiment in which the variables or conditions are controlled is known as
a(n)___controlled__ experiment………(1)
c) A(n) __hypothesis______________ is an "educated guess" based on experience, an
observation or reasoning…...(1)
d) The reactions through which an organism builds up or breaks down materials as it carries
out its life processes is called __Metabolism______..................(1)
e) The assemblage of populations of different species is called a ____________________.(1)
f) The cellular process in which glucose is broken down and ATP is produced is known as-
cellular respiration____..........................................(1)

Question 20 [5]
Please whether the following are true or false:
a) Science is a continually on-going process…true………………….(1)
b) A hypothesis must be correct………false………………….(1)
c) Humans who follow a vegetarian diet are autotrophs…false…(heterotrophs)………….(1)
d) All living things are made up of more than one cell…false (they made up of at least 1 cell
or more)…(1)
e) Tissues that work together towards a common function form an organ system…true….
(1)

Section B
Question 21 [2]
Use the figure below to answer the following questions.

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 a) What type of graph is shown in the figure?…Line graph……(1)
b) Based on the data presented in the figure, in which test did the students score the highest
marks? …Test #9……………………(1)

Question 22
[4]
a) If you increase the amount of spinach in your diet, you will increase the iron in your blood.
Which is the dependant (response) variable? …. Iron in the blood……(1)
b) If you are conducting an experiment to test which fruit is the sweetest (has the most sugar)
between an apple, a banana and a mango, what is your independent variable?....... Fruits...… (1)
c) Which type of reasoning is appropriate for the scientific enquiry? Explain your
answer……… Deductive reasoning because it is based on theory and not observations
unlike inductive reasoning. And it is appropriate because it is tested, verified and proven.
And it is appropriate for making conclusions of class of things in general using existing
theories (2)

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Question 23 [4]
The following two graphs show measurements from a data set on three species of closely related
plants growing together in the same field (black circles - species 1, red circles - species 2 and
blue circles - species 3). Graph A plots the sepal (protective flower parts) length against sepal
width, while Graph B plots sepal length against petal (colourful, pollinator attracting flower part)
length of the same flower.

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Use the graphs to answer the following questions.
a) What type of graphs are these? ……scatter plot………………..(1)
b) In Graph A, which plant species has the average longest sepal length…Species3/blue…
(1)
c) In Graph B, which species show a correlation between sepal and petal length? …
Species2…(1)
d) What type of correlation is observed in the species in c)? ……………..………………..
(1)

Question 24 [5]
A car requires petrol (fuel) and air in order to move. It also produces waste gases.
a) Which two characteristics of living things are similar to those of the car? …Nutrition,
Respiration and Excretion……(2)

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 b) Why is a car not a living organism? …It is not made up of cell and it cannot
reproduce……...(1)
c) Arrange the following levels of organization from the most complex to the simplest.
Organ, organelle, tissue, community, cell …community, organ, tissue , cell, Organelle
……….(2)

Question 25
[3]

The picture above shows two species of butterfly, the monarch and the viceroy butterflies. The
monarch butterfly is unpalatable and has a bitter taste, while the viceroy butterfly tastes okay i.e.,
is palatable
a) What type of adaptation is depicted by the viceroy butterfly? ……mimicry……………
(1)
b) Explain why predators are unlikely to prey on viceroy butterflies? ………predators will
think .…………(2) ………predators will think viceroy is the monarch as they look the same
and they will think it has a bitter taste and unpalatable…………(2)

Question 26
[4]
a) Spontaneous generations is a valid theory for the origin of life. True or false? Explain
your answer.
…………………………………………………………………………………..(2)

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 b) An athlete breaks her leg. Years later she has a child who walks with a limp. Is this an
example of evolution? Explain …NO it is not, because an organism cannot pass
characteristics acquired during the course of life to its offspring because acquired
characteristics are not heritable .… (2)

Question 27
[5]
Two American chemists conducted an experiment with the set-up shown in the picture below.

a) What was the name of the experiment? (1) milley-urey experiment

b) Name and explain the theory that was being tested in the experiment. The theory behind the
experiment is Abiogenesis that, Life arose step by step from simple inorganic molecules to
complex organic molecules through the process of gradual chemical evolution (2)
c) Did the results of the experiment support the theory? If so, how? Yes, they found out that
proteins were formed from small subunits of amino acids (2)

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Question 28
[3]
Cape rock sengis in the Namaqua Karoo tend to have different coloured coats (fur). The sengis
with the lighter coats have been found to be more efficient at thermoregulation than the
individuals with darker coats. With increasing air surface temperatures (due to global heating),
how do you think the survival of individuals and subsequent changes in the frequency of coat
colour will be
affected? ……There is a variation in the population of sengis with lighter coats and darker
coats .When the air surface temperatures increases due to global heating, the sengis with lighter
coats are more likely to survive the extreme conditions as selected by nature because they are
more efficient at regulating heat than darker coats sengis which are more likely to die .The sengis
with lighter coats with favourable traits will adapt to the environment, reproduce and pass on the
allele of being more efficient at thermoregulation and the subsequent generations will have a
higher proportion of individuals that more efficient at thermoregulation…………………… (3)

The End .

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