Basic Biology test!

By: Torrance Grey
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Basic Biology test!
Image: Andrew Brookes/Cultura/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Back in school, you might have liked chemistry better. Or maybe physics. But do those sciences allow you to, you know, breathe? We didn't think so! 

Biology, as you probably know, is the very science of life. It's the base of more specific scientific fields like botany, animal behavior, nutrition and more. And, of course, it underlies all fields of medicine. So perhaps it's time you took a second look at this classic element of middle-school and high-school curricula, and find out how much you remember from those long-ago classes. 

How much, for example, do you know about the cell? From the Latin for "small room," the cell is to biology what the atom is to chemistry, its most basic part. (Although, as with atoms, there are things in biology smaller than cells). Also, if you want to be a biology whiz, you'd better learn how things are classified. A large part of basic biology is sorting things into groups and subgroups, based on their size, how they reproduce, and more. Which reminds us -- do you remember the name of the Swedish botanist/zoologist who is known as the father of modern taxonomy? For that matter, did you know that classification in biology is *called* taxonomy? We really hope so, or this quiz might not go so well!

Good luck!


What is the basic, catch-all term for a living thing?
Animal
Cell
Organism
Zootope
What is the practice, or system, of classifying organisms called?
Bioinformatics
Classification
Matter science
Taxonomy
Which word is missing? "Kingdom, phylum, _____, order, family, genus, species."
Clan
Class
Group
Taxon

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An organism's scientific name is made up of its what?
Kingdom and phylum
Genus and species
Family and genus
Latin name and common name
Where would you find a "base pair"?
In DNA
In a lipid
In a sugar
In nitrogen
Which of these terms are you unlikely to encounter on a biology exam?
Air resistance
Chlorophyll
Metabolism
Sugars

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What does "DNA" stand for?
Denucleated Acid
Deoxynucleic Acid
Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Do Not Attempt
What is the twisted shape of a DNA strand called?
Double helix
Dual ladder
Wrench-and-ladder
Triskele
Which of these is not one of the four constituents of DNA?
Adenine
Glucose
Guanine
Thymine

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Water moves in and out of cells via what process?
Conduction
Convection
Osmosis
The electroweak force
What kind of invaders does an antibiotic fight?
Bacteria
B-cells
Foreign DNA
Viruses
Who is the creator of modern taxonomy?
Carl Linnaeus
Sigmund Freud
Marie Curie
Linus Pauling

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Structures inside a cell are called _______.
Cytoskeletons
Functions
Helixes
Organelles
Where in the cell is the genetic blueprint of the whole organism found?
Lysosomes
Mitochondria
Nucleus
Wall
Cell death is more formally called what?
Apoptosis
Exopartis
Thanotopsis
It's just called cell death

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Which of these is the "power plant" of the cell?
Nucleolus
Golgi apparatus
Mitochondria
Peroxisomes
In humans, how many pairs of chromosomes are in each cell nucleus?
6
12
23
44
A "motile" cell can do what?
Create a new chromosome
Generate electricity
Move
Think for itself

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When the systems of your body are in balance, you are in what state?
Rigor vitalis
Homeopathy
Homeostasis
Ecstasy
A prokaryote is a single-celled organism without what?
Cell walls
Lipids
A nucleus
Water
Which of these is a "biome"?
Air
Bacteria
Plants
Tundra

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Something that causes a disease is called what?
A trigger
A germ
A pathogen
A viridium
Which of these substances makes plants green?
Chlorine
Chlorophyll
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Which of these prefixes means a cell is involved?
Bio-
Cyto-
Plasmo-
Kino-

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What is "cytoplasm"?
Cell division
The raw material a cell will be made from
The jellylike substance that fills a cell
None of these
The citric-acid cycle is also known as _______.
Catabolic breakdown
The Haller process
The Krebs cycle
Metabolism
If an organism is "oviparous," what does it do?
Eats eggs
Lays eggs
Reproduces by cell division
Lives more than 100 years

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Which of these mammals lays eggs?
Donkey
Badger
Platypus
Kangaroo
If an animal is a "homeotherm," then it can regulate its own _____.
Behavior
Body temperature
Blood pressure
Menstrual cycles
"Torpor" is a state similar to _____.
Birth
Hibernation
Sexual estrus
Growth

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True or false: Sodium is always not always harmful to the body.
True
False
Which of these was most recent human organ to be identified?
Brain
Lung
Interstitium
Ovary
The opposite of parasitism is called what?
Beneficence
Donation
Mutualism
There is no name for this.

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Commensalism is a relationship between two species in which one benefits and the other ...
Is killed
Is not harmed
Is unaware
Is genetically mutated
Fun fact question: The sci-fi movie "Gattaca" based its title on what aspect of biology?
The Krebs cycle
The letters of DNA base pairs
Linnean taxonomy
The Haber process