EVOLUTION PAST PAPER QUESTIONS

EVOLUTION PAST PAPER QUESTIONS

1. Which factors promote evolution in a species?

I. Sexual reproduction

II. Environmental change

III. Overproduction of offspring

A. I and II only

B. II and III only

C. I and III only

D. I, II and III

(Total 1 mark)

2. The percentage of bacteria showing antibiotic resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and other species of disease-causing bacteria has risen considerably since antibiotics were introduced. What has caused this increase?

A. When a bacterium detects an antibiotic, it changes its metabolism so that it becomes resistant.

B. When people do not complete courses of antibiotic, bacteria that were partly resistant become more resistant.

C. When a bacterium is treated with an antibiotic, it increases its resistance to the antibiotic and passes on increased resistance to its offspring.

D. When an antibiotic is used, only bacteria that are resistant to it survive and these bacteria pass on resistance to their offspring.

(Total 1 mark)

3. What is natural selection?

A. The mechanism that increases the chance of certain individuals reproducing.

B. The mechanism that leads to increasing variation within a population.

C. The cumulative change in the heritable characteristics of a population.

D. The mechanism that explains why populations produce more offspring than the environment can support.

(Total 1 mark)

4. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, what causes the struggle for survival in populations?

A. Overproduction of offspring

B. Favourable heritable variations

C. Natural selection

D. Competition between the fittest individuals in the population

(Total 1 mark)

5. The mosquito (Wyeomyia smithii) uses daylength as a guide to either continue development of its larvae or to begin hibernation. This response to daylength is genetically controlled. Longer daylengths maintain development whereas shorter daylengths induce hibernation. In the northern regions of the northern hemisphere, even though daylengths are longer, winter arrives earlier than in regions closer to the equator. The following data is from an experiment to determine if W. smithii has adapted to later onsets of winter as a consequence of global warming. In 1972 and 1996, larvae were collected at various locations in the United States at latitudes 30–50° North. The larvae were examined to determine what daylength induced hibernation. Each circle on the following graph represents one larval population.

[Source: Bradshaw and Holzapfel, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, (2001),

98 (25), pages 14509–14511]

(a) Outline the relationship between daylenght and latitude for the larval populations in 1972.

There´s a positive correlation between the daylenght and latitude. As the length of the day increases so does the

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