Practice Exam: Introductory Biology &
Inorganic Chemistry
Honors Biology
1. What is the current definition of life?
2. What are some benefits and drawbacks of asexual and sexual reproduction?
3. Elementary school students are often taught that the source of all energy on the Earth is
ultimately the sun, because phototrophs use the sun as an energy source, and heterotrophs use
plants as an energy source. This concept is completely wrong. Explain.
4. Differentiate between a prokaryote and eukaryote.
5. Below is the description of an experiment:
A team of researchers is studying the effectiveness of a drug to treat heart attacks. Patients that
arrive at the hospital emergency department on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday get the new
drug. Patients that arrive on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday get the old drug. [Don’t ask about
Sunday—this day usually screws up studies like this.] The physicians then look at how well the
patients survive from the two different treatments.
a. What is the hypothesis being tested?
b. What is the variable?
c. What is the control the variable is being tested against?
d. What are some of the factors that must be standardized?
e. Why the complicated system of different weekdays being used to assign patients into the
different group?
6. List the SI units for the following.
Length __________ Mass __________ Volume __________ Temperature __________
7. Perform the following conversions:
137 mm → μm
29 L → kL
813 μg → cg
8. Show the structure of the magnesium atom, including all particles in the nucleus and the electron
cloud. Give the valence electrons.
a. What charge would the ion have?
9. Complete this chart.
Element
Symbol
Protons
Neutrons
Electrons
10
S
48
10. Oxygen comes in two forms: Oxygen-16 and Oxygen-18. These two atoms are examples of what?
11. Ions are very important to biology. What is an ion?
12. Hydrogen-1 and hydrogen-2 are isotopes, but hydrogen-1 is stable whereas hydrogen-2 is
radioactive. Define radioactivity. Why is radioactivity important to biology?
13. Water tends to climb up a paper towel when you dip a corner into a puddle. Pure ethanol, the
alcohol you drink, does not. What must be the difference between the two?
14. If water didn’t behave the unusual way it does, life would have died as soon as it formed, and we
would not be here. Explain.
15. Define pH. Describe an acid and a base. Draw the pH scale, labeling neutral, acidic, and basic
regions.