PRE-SEMESTER SURVEY

(UNGRADED-BUT I WILL AWARD YOU AN EXTRA CREDIT POINT IF YOU TURN IT IN AND GIVE ME YOUR NAME ON A NOTE CARD)

GIVE THE ANSWER THAT YOU BELIEVE IS MOST CORRECT

T/F 1) New findings in the field of genetics show that individuals from one race frequently share more genes in common with an individual of another race than their members of their own race.

T/F 2) Evolution inevitably results in organisms becoming more complex and intelligent.

T/F 3) Natural selection prepares species for future unforeseeable changes in climate and habitat.

T/F 4) Variation in populations is generally not beneficial to the survival of a species.

T/F 5) Biologists agree that there is a “vital force” which propels species to progress evolutionarily.

T/F 6) Humans are the highest being on the evolutionary ladder, probably because our line emerged at an earlier time than other lines (i.e. we got an evolutionary “head start”).

T/F 7) Chimps and gorillas stopped evolving when the human line split away from them.

T/F 8) Orangutans are more closely related to chimps than chimps are to humans.

T/F 9) Once humans developed culture we stopped physically evolving.

T/F 10) Humans are the only animals to make tools and to transmit learned traits onto their offspring.

T/F 11) Humans are the only mammals to have social groups.

T/F 12) A genetically-based behavior is not influenced by learning or environment.

T/F 13) Apes have never been observed to participate in organized warfare or commit infanticide.

T/F 14) Homosexual behaviors are never common in natural groups of monkeys and apes.

T/F 15) Physical anthropologists are still searching for the “missing link” that shows brain sizes in between humans and the apes.

T/F 16) Chimps and gorillas are the largest monkeys.

T/F 17) A biological “species” is really no more than a more distinct race or “breed”.

T/F 18) Two persons carrying dominant traits cannot have a child with a recessive condition. For example, two normally pigmented parents cannot have an albino child.

T/F 19) Dominant alleles will ultimately eliminate recessive traits from the gene pool.

T/F 20) Modern populations are the result of the mixing of several “pure” races that existed thousands of years ago.

T/F 21) Evolution occurs because organisms that exercise or develop new skills will pass these on to their offspring.

T/F 22) Evolution operates solely by the random chance accumulation of mutations over time.

T/F 23) Until 1967 it was illegal to teach evolution in some parts of the United States.

T/F 24) Intermarriage between individuals of different human populations generally results in their children having more genetic diseases than if the had married people within their population.

T/F 25) There are no fossils which clearly show intermediate traits between monkeys and apes, and between apes and humans, in the fossil record.

T/F 26) Humans did not evolve from apes, because there are still living species of apes around today.

T/F 27) The Second Law of Thermodynamics (which states that the universe is moving towards greater entropy or disorder) makes it impossible to evolve complex life from simpler substances.

T/F 28) Humans and apes do not share genetic similarities except those that can be accounted for by chance.

T/F 29) Sedimentary rocks found over the globe were formed in a single catastrophic flood only 5000 years ago.

T/F 30) Evolutionary rates are too slow to account for the diversity of life on earth.

T/F 31) Some groups of mammals are so similar (e.g. cats like the cougar, lion, lynx, leopard, tiger and house-cat) that they easily could have emerged from a single ancestor in the last 5000 years.

T/F 32) Complex ruins of ancient civilizations are evidence that we have been visited by extraterrestrial life more intelligent than mankind.

T/F 33) Animals and some people have strong psychic abilities.

T/F 34) The position of the planets at the time of our birth affects or personalities and fate.

T/F 35) Birth order has a predictable influence on personality.

T/F 36) Women who live together often begin to synchronize their menstrual cycles.

T/F 37) Calling someone a “Cro-Magnon” is a serious insult!

T/F 38) IQ’s of children from low IQ families in Japan remained 14 points lower than other Japanese-Americans immigrants one generation after immigrating to the US.

T/F 39) Sickle-cell anemia is spread by malaria mosquitoes.

T/F 40) There is evidence of human genetic variability in resistance to infection by the HIV virus.

T/F 41) Human females have an additional pair of ribs not found in males.

Briefly discuss what your experiences you have had that exposed you to the idea of evolution (e.g. Did you learn about the importance of evolution in High School Biology? Was it largely ignored? Did you have acquaintances that strongly opposed the idea of evolution?).

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