General Science
Solved Exam Questions
Course Introduction
General Science is a foundational course that introduces students to the core principles and concepts across various branches of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and astronomy. The course aims to develop a broad understanding of scientific methods, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills by exploring fundamental topics such as matter and energy, the structure of living organisms, Earths systems, and the universe. Through theoretical learning and practical experiments, students gain an appreciation for the interconnectedness of scientific disciplines and their relevance to everyday life and global challenges.
Recommended Textbook
Life in the Universe 4th Edition by Jeffrey O. Bennett
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13 Chapters
1172 Verified Questions
1172 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/1023
Page 2
Chapter 1: A Universe of Life
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28 Verified Questions
28 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/20263
Sample Questions
Q1) Beneath the surface of which moon of Jupiter is there the strongest evidence for the existence of a subsurface ocean of liquid water?
A) Io
B) Callisto
C) Europa
D) Ganymede
Answer: C
Q2) On the surface of which moon of Saturn are liquids observed to exist?
A) Enceladus
B) Mimas
C) Iapetus
D) Titan
Answer: D
Q3) The molecular building blocks of life have been found
A) only on the Earth
B) on the Earth, in interstellar clouds, and in meteorites
C) on the Earth and in meteorites
D) on the Earth and on Mars
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Science of Life in the Universe
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73 Verified Questions
73 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/20264
Sample Questions
Q1) The astronomical object in our sky which plays the most fundamental role in our lives is the
A) Sun
B) Moon
C) nearest star
D) most massive planet in our solar system, Jupiter
Answer: A
Q2) The seven days of the week are related to the
A) Sun, Moon and five naked eye planets
B) seven brightest stars in the sky
C) seven planets known at the end of the 19 century
D) seven most prominent constellations that the Sun, Moon and planets pass through
Answer: A
Q3) In science, conceptual representations of observed phenomena are referred to as A) facts
B) hypotheses
C) models
D) beliefs
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The Universal Context of Life
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123 Verified Questions
123 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Compared to the Sun, older stars contain what proportion of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium?
A) a higher proportion
B) exactly the same proportion
C) they contain absolutely no heavy elements at all
D) a lower proportion
Answer: D
Q2) Pluto, Eris and Ceres are all examples of
A) Kuiper belt objects
B) dwarf planets
C) asteroids
D) planets
Answer: B
Q3) Inward migration is a hypothesis used to explain why
A) Jupiter-sized planets are seen orbiting close to some stars
B) some stars do not have Jupiter-sized planets
C) some stars do not have planets at all
D) Terrestrial-sized planets are seen orbiting far from some stars
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: The Habitability of Earth
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149 Verified Questions
149 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A rock sample contains 1/2 microgram of the parent radioactive isotope U-235 and 1/2 microgram of its daughter isotope Pb-207. If the half-life of this decay is 700 million years, how old is this rock?
A) 1400 million years
B) 2100 million years
C) 700 million years
D) 350 million years
Q2) In alpha decay,
A) a proton turns into a neutron
B) a neutron turns into a proton
C) a proton turns into an electron
D) a helium nucleus is ejected
Q3) In beta decay,
A) a neutron turns into a proton
B) a helium nucleus is ejected
C) a proton turns into an electron
D) a proton turns into a neutron
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Chapter 5: The Nature of Life on Earth
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120 Verified Questions
120 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Using the following fragment of the genetic code: Leu = ATG, Gly = CAC, Ala = GTC, which of the following simple proteins does the gene GTCATGCACCACATG correspond to?
A) Ala-Leu-Gly-Gly-Leu
B) Ala-Gly-Leu-Ala-Gly
C) Gly-Gly-Ala-Gly-Leu
D) Leu-Ala-Leu-Gly-Gly
Q2) The second law of thermodynamics states that
A) energy cannot be created or destroyed
B) matter cannot be crated or destroyed
C) the energy in a system undergoes changes that lead to increasing disorder
D) the energy in a system undergoes changes that lead to increasing complexity
Q3) A section of DNA that corresponds to a particular protein is known as a
A) codon
B) chromosome
C) gene
D) genome
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Chapter 6: The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth
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130 Verified Questions
130 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 1994, fragments of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 were observed to collide with the planet
A) Mars
B) Saturn
C) Jupiter
D) Venus
Q2) What is the one piece of evidence that suggests that the dinosaurs were made extinct by the impact of an asteroid 65 million years ago?
A) the crater from this impact can still be seen in the deserts of Arizona
B) a layer of sediment laid down at that time contains grains of shocked quartz, solidified rock droplets, and soot from global wildfires
C) a layer of sediment laid down at that time is littered with dinosaur fossils
D) dinosaur fossils are found in rock layers older than 65 million years but not younger than 65 million years
Q3) Stromatolites are
A) fossils of the first organisms to introduce oxygen into the atmosphere
B) fossils of the first multicellular organisms
C) layers of sediment that once contained colonies of ancient microbes
D) fossils of the first eukaryotes
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Searching for Life in Our Solar System
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which dwarf planet did the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flyby in 2015?
A) Pluto
B) Eris
C) Ceres
D) Haumea
Q2) Stardust was an example of which kind of mission?
A) lander
B) flyby
C) sample return
D) orbiter
Q3) The search for life in the solar system that is similar to life on Earth is essentially a search for
A) organic molecules
B) liquid water
C) molecular oxygen
D) energy sources
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Mars
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104 Verified Questions
104 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/20270
Sample Questions
Q1) The most important geological process that has removed craters from the northern plains of Mars is
A) plate tectonics
B) wind erosion
C) volcanism
D) water erosion
Q2) The middle era of the geological history of Mars is called the
A) Noachian
B) Hesperian
C) Amazonian
D) Phanerozonian
Q3) What is the most likely origin of the Valles Marineris on Mars?
A) it is a fissure in the surface carved out by a giant impact
B) it is a tectonic fracture associated with the formation of the adjacent Tharsis bulge
C) it is a huge canyon system formed by water erosion
D) it was formed from the separation of two tectonic plates
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Chapter 9: Life on Jovian Moons
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80 Verified Questions
80 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/20271
Sample Questions
Q1) Which Galilean moons of Jupiter show evidence for subsurface oceans of water beneath their icy crusts?
A) Europa and Ganymede
B) all four show evidence for subsurface oceans
C) Europa
D) Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
Q2) Why is the innermost Galilean moon Io made mostly of rock while the outermost Galilean moon, Callisto made of a mixture of ice and rock?
A) Io formed close to Jupiter where the temperatures were too high for ices to form
B) Callisto was captured as it wandered in from the Kuiper Belt
C) Io once had ice on its surface which was vaporized away by volcanism
D) Callisto experience many impact by icy comets which built up a layer of ice on its surface
Q3) Features called "Tiger Stripes" are found on the surface of which Jovian moon?
A) Europa
B) Ganymede
C) Enceladus
D) Triton
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11
Chapter 10: The Nature and Evolution of Habitability
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The recent gradual rise in the Earth's average surface temperature is commonly referred to as
A) global warming
B) the greenhouse effect
C) ozone depletion
D) global heating
Q2) What can contribute to a planet losing its atmosphere?
A) thermal escape
B) large impacts
C) solar wind stripping
D) all of these
Q3) Over the last century, global average temperatures have
A) risen by about 0.85°C (1.5°F)
B) stayed approximately constant
C) risen by about 2.0°C (3.6°F)
D) risen by about 3.0°C (5.4°F)
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Chapter 11: Extrasolar Planets: Their Nature and Potential
Habitability
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100 Verified Questions
100 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/20273
Sample Questions
Q1) The center of mass of the solar system is
A) midway between the Sun and Jupiter
B) exactly at the center of the Sun
C) just outside the orbit of Mercury
D) close to but not exactly at the center of the Sun
Q2) How can we explain the presence of extrasolar planetary systems with Jovian-sized planets at distances at which we normally find terrestrial planets?
A) they are brown dwarfs that were captured by their parent stars
B) these are massive terrestrial planets that formed close to their parent stars
C) they are Jovian planets that were spun out from their rapidly spinning parent stars
D) the Jovian planets formed farther out and then migrated inward
Q3) Which space mission is searching for extrasolar planets using the astrometric method?
A) Kepler
B) GAIA
C) CoRoT
D) Spitzer
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) After World War II, the U.S. Government spent two decades investigating UFOs because they
A) were themselves developing new types of aircraft and used the official investigation as a cover-up
B) thought that they might be new types of aircraft being developed by the Soviet Union
C) knew that UFOs were alien craft and used the official investigation as a cover-up
D) were afraid that an alien civilization was in the process of invading the Earth
Q2) If the communication lifetime of civilizations in our galaxy is 10,000 years and our galaxy is 13 billion years old, what is the chance of us detecting another intelligent civilization now?
A) 1 in 13,000
B) 1 in 1,300,000
C) 1 in 1300
D) 1 in 130,000
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Chapter 13: Interstellar Travel and the Fermi Paradox
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65 Verified Questions
65 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/20275
Sample Questions
Q1) During the annihilation of matter and antimatter, what percentage of the mass of the colliding particles is converted into energy?
A) 0.7%
B) 0.07%
C) 70%
D) 100%
Q2) In Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, spacetime is
A) one dimensional
B) two dimensional
C) four dimensional
D) three dimensional
Q3) Which of the following is a difficulty associated with interstellar travel?
A) all three are difficulties
B) the speed of light being the fastest possible speed we can travel
C) the enormous amount of energy required to accelerate any ship to high speed
D) the huge distances between the stars
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