TEST FORMAT
PART A: 21 questions each worth 2 points = 42 points
PART B: 6 questions each worth 6 points. You will select 3 out of the 6 questions for a total of 18 points
TOTAL = 60 possible points
The 21 questions will be in the form of multiple choice or definitions, or answers of one line of less. The 6-point questions will be more complex and may require drawings.
You will answer the questions on the test itself. You do not need a scantron or a blue book.
The test will cover the Chapters 3 and 7, 8, 9, NOT 10, and 11, and 12
First, I have given you a selection of multiple choice questions used in previous tests. Answers to multiple choice are at the end of that section.
This does NOT mean that all the questions on the test are in this study guide. They are to help you study. Some of the questions - or similar questions - from this selection may be on the test.
CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER
READ ALL THE QUESTIONS ON THE TEST CAREFULLY
ALSO, I have included some questions from the Review Questions in your text.
These are to help you study what I think are the main concepts. These - or similar questions - may also be on the test
SAMPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1] Natural selection is
A) determined by the animal that has the most live young.
B) the survival of the strongest of the offspring
C) preservation and elimination of certain biological features that make the animal best suited to it's environment over many generations.
D) due to isolation of a species.
E) preservation and elimination of certain biological features that make the animal best suited to it's environment over one generation.
2) What are the two main factors for fossilization to occur?
3] What is the solar nebular theory?
4] The law of faunal succession (also Dollo's Law) states
A) convergent evolution leads to identical species.
B) once a species has been changed by evolution or eliminated by extinction it is gone forever.
C) a species must be isolated to adapt and thrive in a new environment
D) deer and horses have the same ancestry.
E) the animals went in two by two.
5) What are the three main things that help us understand the Earth is 4540 million years old?
6) What changes happened between the sedimentary rocks that were deposited in the Archean, compared to those found in the Proterozoic.
7) Why does our sun give off light and heat?
8) What is a BIF and why is it important?
9) A sandstone sits on top of a 350 million-year old granite and a 15 million year old basalt dike cuts across both units. The sandstone is
A) over 350 million years old
B) between 350 and 15 million years old
C) younger than 15 million years in age
D) Precambrian in age
that existed in the past
E) of completely unknown age
10) What is life?
11) A species that is well adapted to its environment will survive forever?
A) true
B) false
C) impossible to tell
12] An example of an oceanic-oceanic plate margin is
A) the Andes
B) the Himalaya
C) Japan
D) the Red Sea
E) the east coast of the USA
13] The east African Rift valley is an example of a __________ plate margin.
A) transform
B) asthenospheric
C) convergent
D) continental
E) divergent
14) Hereditary factors (now called genes) were first worked on by
A) Darwin
B) Hutton
C) Mendel
D) Cope
E) Dollo
15] How did the Earth's moon form?
16] The three types of plate boundaries are:
A) convergent, divergent and transform
B) continental, oceanic and asthenospheric
C) convergent, oceanic and volcanic
D) continental, oceanic and lithospheric
E) continental, convergent and divergent
17] The Phanerozoic Era is _________ of the Earth's history .
A] 1/2
B] 3/4
C] 9/10
D] 1/10
E] all
18] Subduction related orogenies occur along
A) oceanic - oceanic plate margins
B) continental - continental plate margins
C) oceanic - continental plate margins
D) A and B
E) A and C
19] What was the same in the Archean as today
A) the atmosphere,
B) diversity of life
C) the salinity of the oceans
D) plate tectonics
E) numbers of meteorite impacts
20] All ocean-floor rocks are less than 200 million years old. They could be _________ in age
A] Archean
B] Cambrian
C] Cretaceous
D] Precambrian
E] Mississippian
21] The similarity of the Australian Marsupial mole and the North American mole is
evidence of evolutionary
A) convergence
B) divergence
C) extinction
D) pseudospeciation
E) isolation
22) The Cenozoic means ____________ and it is divided into the
A) new age, Paleogene and Neogene
B) new life, Neogene and Paleogene
C) recent life, Quaternary and Permian
D) recent life, Paleogene and Neogene
E) mammalian life, Cenogene and Newgene
23) When an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate, the continental plate is
subducted below the oceanic plate.
A) true
B) false
24) A Pangea-type supercontinent is unstable because it traps heat beneath it due to its
A) small size
B) star-shape
C) large size
D) basaltic rocks
E) older age than oceanic crust
25) The Wilson cycle includes
A) continental fragmentation
B) ocean basins opening and closing
C) subduction zones
D) A and B
E) A, B and C
26) While on vacation you find a cliff face with rock exposed. You explain to your
friends that this was once an ocean floor - yeah right! What evidence did you use?
A) angular unsorted sediment
B) radiometric dating
C) pillow basalt and gabbro
D) granite and andesite
E) paleomagnetic data
Answers
1) C
2) hard parts and rapid burial
3) cloud..dust..disc..planetismals...planets (in more detail)
4) B
5) solar nebula theory - Earth is the same age as the other planets,
meteorites - most give a 4.54 Ga age,
moon - from Earth + a meteorite impact. Oldest age is 4-54 Ga
(KNOW the details of each of these)
6) B
7) hydrogen burning - part of stella evolution
8) A
9) B
10) normal, reverse, strike slip
11) B
12) C
13) E
14) C
15) Impact of the Earth with a Mars size meteorite.
16) A
17) D
18) E
19) C
20) C
21) A
22) D
23) B
24) C
25) C
26) C
QUESTIONS FROM CHAPTERS
Again, these are meant to help you study. They are not the only questions but let you know what I will emphasize in the test.
For some I have included only parts of the questions. For some I had added a little in BOLD
Chapter 3.
Questions:
1. What conditions favor the preservation of fossils (even soft parts) in sediment?
2. What are the six kingdoms of organisms, and what traits characterize each one?
Chapter 7.
Questions:
1. What geographic patterns (i.e. what did he see on different islands) suggested to Charles Darwin the certain kinds of species descended from others?
2. What characteristics make a particular kind of individual successful in the process of natural selection?
6. (3) What kind of environmental change can lead to the extinction (and rapid speciation) of / from a species
7. What is mass extinction?
9. Give an example of evolutionary convergence
10. What general trends has the evolution of horses displayed? Who's "rule" is this following?
Chapter 8.
Questions:
1. List as many pieces of information as you can in support of the idea that the continents moved.
2. What is the geographical extent of the lithospheric plate on which you live?
4. Why are most volcanoes that have been active in the last few million years positioned in or near the Pacific Ocean?
5. Why do mid-ocean ridges occur?
6. Why do deep focus earthquakes occur only near subduction zones
9. What happens to slabs of subducted lithosphere?
Chapter 9.
Questions:
1. What geological features enable us to recognize continental rifting? What features enable us to recognize ancient subduction zones?
2. What are failed rifts and how are they important in understanding the breakup of continents?
Q.5 How can mountain chains form without collision?
Q. 6 How does the angle of subduction relate to the presence or absence of volcanic activity?
Chapter 11.
Questions:
1. What is a Precambrian shield? Where is one located in N. America? What are the differences between the terms craton, shield and platform?
2. What reasons are there to believe that Earth was pelted by vast numbers of meteorites early in its history?
3. Why might we expect Earth to be nearly the same age as its moon and the material that forms meteorites?
4. What geological features characterize greenstone belts and how do these belts form?
5. What type of sedimentary rocks were rare in the Archean? (at least 2 answers). How are the continental margins of microcontinents different in the Archean than in more recent times.
6. Why did magma rise from the mantle to Earth's surface at a faster rate during Archean times than it does today?
Q What are the significant differences between Archean plate tectonics and the plate tectonics we observe today? Does this negate uniformitarianism (actualism)? Why / Why not?
Chapter twelve.
1) How are the basic features of the Wopmay orogenic belt typical of orogenic belts in general?
3. List as many differences as you can between the Archean world and the world that existed 1 billion years ago
6. How does the history of North America illustrate continental accretion?
7. How does the Grenville orogeny relate to the supercontinent Rodinia?