Science Stuff
Graphs and Stuff
Mystery Questions
Grammar
Social Studies
100
In a lab experiment designed to test the rate at which plants grow under artificial light, the kind of light used is which type of variable?
A. Dependent
B. Independent
C. Random
D. Responding
B. Independent
In an experiment, an independent variable is a factor controlled by the scientists. A dependent variable represents the output or effect. Since the light is controlled by the experimenters, it is an independent variable.
100
What is the median of number of hurricanes per decade?
15
The median is the middle number/value that you have. Putting them in either ascending or descending order
9, 12, 15, 15, 17, 19, 20
7 numbers, so the 4th number (15) would be the median
100
Which amendment gave women the right to vote?
A. 18th
B. 19th
C. 10th
B. 19th amendment gave (white) women the right to vote in 1920.
100
He described your school as being about the same sized as ours but having different (courses and also he) thought it would be a great idea for our schools to initiate an exchange program.
A. (No change)
B. courses. He
C. courses, besides which he
D. courses mentioning he
B.
Otherwise, it turns into a run on sentence.
100
Three of the following statements about the Korean War are based on facts and evidence. Which one is based on speculation or opinion?
A. More than 34,000 American soldiers died during the Korean War.
B. The Korean War was the first time jet fighters faced each other in combat.
C. The United States may have won the Korean War if General Douglas MacArthur had been permitted to use nuclear weapons against Communist forces.
D. The Korean War began in 1950 and ended with an armistice in 1953.
C.
This statement is speculating about how an historical event might have played out differently under altered circumstances. There is no way to prove this factually.
200
The square above is based on the eye color of two parents. One of the parents has brown eyes and carries the recessive gene for green eyes (a). What is the probability that a biological child of these parents will have brown eyes?
50%
Even if you are not sure, you can reason through, there are 2 with a dominant trait (A) and two with only the recessive trait (aa).
200
What is the range of this data set?
11
The range of a set of data is the difference between the highest and lowest values in the set. The highest value is 20 and the lowest value is 9, so the range is:
20-9=11
200
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
What can the reader infer from this sentence?
A. Holmes is angry that the narrator keeps interrupting him.
B. Holmes is not as smart as he believes he is.
C. Holmes does not believe that the Earth revolves around the sun.
D. Holmes only keeps knowledge that he deems valuable.
D.
Holmes, in this selection, reiterates to him that this knowledge would make no difference to his work and is therefore not important.
200
Select the option that correctly completes the sentence.
Quite truthfully, I would not have scheduled the appointment
A. had I known there was a charge.
B. should I known there was a charge.
C. if I had knowed there was a charge.
D. if I had of known there was a charge.
A.
A good way to check subject/verb agreement in a clause that begins with a verb is to put it in subject/verb order. In this clause, the order would be as follows: I had known there was a charge. “Had known” is the correct verb tense and shows standard usage. This leaves only (A) and (D) as potentially correct answer. The insertion of the word “of” in answer (D) is meant to throw students off. “Of” is sometimes (incorrectly) used informally to take the place of “have.” Not only is answer (D) too informal, but it also essentially says “if I had had known,” which doesn’t make a lot of sense.
200
Consider the following statements:
When prices rise, supply increases. When prices fall, supply decreases. When prices increase, demand falls. When prices fall, demand increases.
Which of the following is true?
A. Farmers will produce additional beans when the price per ton goes down by $10.
B. Manufacturers will produce more tires when the price per tire goes up by $8.
C. Consumers will buy more apples when the price per dozen goes up by $1.50.
D. Consumers will buy less ice cream when the price per carton goes down by $1.
B.
This is a case of rising prices leading to increase suppy. When the price of tires goes up, manufacturers will work to produce more tires in order to profit from these high prices. Over time, this increased production will start to push prices back down.
300
Wavelengths are measured in nanometers (nm). Each color on the visible spectrum has a different wavelength. The human eye is only able to distinguish wavelengths between 400-750 nm. The approximate wavelengths of the visible spectrum are shown below:
If you were reading a scientific report, and it referred to a wavelength of 455 nm, which color would it be referring to?
Blue (violet is 400 and green is 500)
300
The graph below shows the population of fur seals on one of the Pribilof Islands, a group of volcanic islands near the coast of Alaska. Scientists believe that fur seals first arrived on this island in the year 1902. The red circles are population estimates and the red line is the population trend line.
What is the island's approximate carrying capacity for fur seals?
A. 6,000
B. 10,500
C. 11,500
D. 1,500
B. 10,500
In this chart the population trend line begins to plateau around 10,500, which indicates that this would be the carrying capacity of the island. Sometimes a population will overshoot the carrying capacity of its ecosystem, but this will cause a shortage of resources, which will in turn lead to an increase in the death rate, bringing the population back to equilibrium.
300
Select the option that correctly completes the sentence.
However, your subsequent proposal with amounts totaling over $6,800
A. were disappointing in light of my budget limitations.
B. was disappointing in light of my budget limitations.
C. be disappointing in light of my budget limitations.
D. been disappointing in light of my budget limitations.
B.
The subject of the sentence is “proposal.” Since the word “proposal” is singular, it must be followed by the singular verb “was”. If you chose (A), you may have mistakenly thought that “amounts” was the subject of the sentence. Make sure you read each sentence carefully.
300
Jeremy Hunt, who graduated from our high school last year, recently returned from Morelia, where he visited your school, (as I guess you should already know)
A. (No change)
B. a fact you know.
C. as I probably don’t need to tell you.
D. as you probably know.
D.
300
Article 1, Section 8 – “The Congress shall have Power To... raise and support Armies… To provide and maintain a Navy… to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia.”
Article 2, Section 2 – “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.”
Which fundamental principle of US democracy do these excerpts reflect?
A. Federalism
B. Limited Government
C. Separation of Powers
D. Judicial Review
Separation of powers refers to the division of government responsibilities into different branches. The purpose is to prevent the concentration of power and provide for checks and balances.
400
Animals that feed exclusively on plants are called:
A. Primary Consumers
B. Secondary Consumers
C. Tertiary Consumers
D. Primary Producers
A. Primary Producers
Explanation:
In an ecological food chain, primary producers are those that photosynthesize and utilize sunlight as their energy source; these are almost entirely plants. Primary consumers attain their energy from primary producers. Secondary consumers feed upon primary consumers, and tertiary consumers feed upon primary and secondary consumers.
400
Based on the information in this cladogram, which of these statements is true?
A. Primates evolved from sharks.
B. The original ancestor of all the species on the cladogram had a bony skeleton.
C. Dinosaurs are more closely related to crocodiles than they are to amphibians.
D. Ray-finned fish have an amniotic egg.
C.
Explanation: The cladogram shows that dinosaurs and crocodiles are closely related. They both have an amniotic egg and they both have two post-orbital fenestrae. Amphibians branched off before either of these developments, so they are less closely related.
400
This World War II poster served what function:
A. Encourage protest against the war.
B. Promote support for the war.
C. Encourage the Axis powers to end the war.
D. Demonstrate the ineffectiveness of guns.
B.
While men were on the battle lines, women were encouraged to contribute to the war effort by participating in factory work and other jobs traditionally held by men.
400
Select the option that correctly completes the sentence.
I called to discuss the invoice and explained over the telephone that I felt I was _______________ to compromise by paying one-half the bill.
A. misled, at that time, I offered
B. misled at that time, I offered
C. misled. At that time, I offered
D. misled at that time I offered
C.
A period shows the ending of the first sentence. The capitalized word “At” shows the beginning of the second sentence. The other options are run-on sentences.
400
The following is an excerpt from the The Declaration of Independence:
...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
In the excerpt, what does the term abolish mean?
A. validate
B. change
C. eliminate
D. ignore
C. Eliminate
500
Many individuals concerned with their carbon footprint are excited about the availability of hybrid electric vehicles. These cars are much more efficient in their use of fossil fuels than similarly sized internal combustion automobiles. However, hybrid electric vehicles do come with an environmental price tag. Their construction uses scarce metals, such as neodymium, lithium and lanthanum. Additionally, mining these elements involves pumping acids into deep boreholes to dissolve the surrounding rock and then removing the acid and mineral slurry. Such extraction processes are a type of surface mining, which have severe environmental impacts such as erosion, acid mine drainage, water pollution, and disruption of habitat.
Based on the passage above, what are the environmental trade-offs of hybrid electric vehicles?
The passage explains that using hybrid electric vehicles will benefit the environment by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, but it will come at a cost to the environment through the damaging methods that are required for the extraction of the limited resources these vehicles require.
500
The graph below shows data from the United States census.
Based on this data, which of the following statements is true?
A. In 2010, Hispanics were the largest non-white population group.
B. In 2010, whites accounted for less than half of the US population.
C. In 2010, blacks were the smallest population group in the US.
D. In 2010, Asians were the largest non-white population group.
A.
The non-white population groups include hispanic, asian, and black. The orange line represents hispanics, and in 2010 it is clearly higher than the other two lines.
500
What is the 22nd amendment?
It limits the amount of terms that a president can be president.
500
Select the option that correctly completes the sentence.
The store representative told me that someone would call me back regarding the invoice and
A. its payment.
B. her payment.
C. it’s payment.
D. their payment.
A.
The possessive form of the pronoun “it” does not have an apostrophe. A good way to remember this is to compare it to other possessive pronouns: his, hers, theirs. These possessive pronouns do not have apostrophes either. “Its” only gets an apostrophe if it is a contraction of “it is.” The other answers don’t work because they personify the invoice by calling it a “her” or a “them (their).”
500
Review the following timeline:
- 1932 – FDR is elected to his first term as president.
- 1933 – FDR signs a law repealing Prohibition.
- 1936 – FDR is elected to a second term in office.
- 1940 – FDR is elected to a third term in office.
- 1941 – Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and the US enters WWII.
- 1944 – FDR is elected to a fourth term in office.
- 1945 – The US wins WWII.
- 1947 – The 22nd Amendment is introduced which limits presidents to two four-year terms.
What conclusion is supported by the information in the timeline?
A. The 22nd Amendment was a response to FDR’s unprecedented four terms in office.
B. The attack on Pearl Harbor helped FDR win a third term in office.
C. FDR failed to fulfill a campaign promise to repeal Prohibition.
D. Voters elected FDR to a fourth term in order to show their appreciation for victory in WWII.
A.
The timeline shows that FDR was elected as President four times, and then the 22nd Amendment was introduced. It is reasonable infer that this Amendment was a response to FDR's four terms. There is no evidence supporting any of the other claims.