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SAT Questions for 9A Inheritance and Selection

Level by Level (1996 to 2006)

Commentary

Implications of this for planning/Revision?

Level 3

1. Ben and Jason are identical twins. Ben plays football during break time. Jason has a broken leg. He sits quietly in the classroom.

(a) Tick the boxes by three sentences which can only describe Ben and not Jason.

He is sweating a lot.

He has brown hair.

His heart is beating fasterthan usual.

He has blue eyes.

He is sweating a lot.not

He is breathing slowly.

His heart is beating slowly.

He is breathing very quickly.

3 marks

(b) Which two sentences in the list above could describe both Ben and Jason during that break time?

1. ..................................................................................................................

2. ..................................................................................................................

2 marks

Maximum 5 marks

Level 3 4 5 6 7

no. of qu.s 1 1 0 2 6

2

Level 4 2. The diagram shows two families. Some of the people in the diagram have freckles.

family A family B

John married to MaryBob married to Emily

Rachel married to Bill Pam married to David

grandparents

parents

children Richard Penny Simon Becca Katie

and

and

key

person withfreckles

person withoutfreckles

(a) (i) Which children are most likely to have freckles? Tick the correct boxes.

Richard Simon Katie Penny Becca

1 mark

(ii) How did you decide?

.............................................................................................................

1 mark (iii) Suggest why Bill does not have freckles.

.............................................................................................................

1 mark

3

(b) (i) Which two cells pass on information from parents to their children? Tick the two correct boxes.

bone cell

cheek cell

egg cell

muscle cell

red blood cell

sperm cell

1 mark

(ii) Which organ system produces these two cells? Tick the correct box.

circulatory system

digestive system

reproductive system

respiratory system

1 mark

maximum 5 marks

Level 6

3. (a) The drawings below show a stoat in summer and in winter.

stoat in summer stoat in winter In winter the ground is often covered by snow or frost. During this part of the

year a stoat’s fur is white. Suggest two ways its white coat helps a stoat to survive in the winter.

......................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................

2 marks

4

(b) The diagram shows the family tree for a family of rabbits.

Use words from the list below to complete the sentences.

adapt cytoplasm genes grow inherit

letters membrane mutate nuclei

Rabbits have the same fur colour all year round.

Young rabbits ............................................ fur colour from their parents.

Information about fur colour is passed on from one generation to

the next in the form of ................................... in the ..................................... of

an egg and sperm.

3 marks

Maximum 5 marks

5

4. Uganda is a country close to the equator in Africa. Most Ugandan bred cows

produce only 1 litre of milk each day. In Britain, some cows can produce nearly 30 litres of milk each day. The milk yield of British cows exported to Uganda drops dramatically, even though they get sufficient food.

(a) Suggest why a British cow exported to Uganda would be less likely to produce 30 litres of milk each day.

..................................................................................................................1 mark

By selectively breeding British and Ugandan cattle, it is possible to breed cows which produce 10 litres of milk each day.

(b) A Ugandan farmer wishes to continue the breeding programme to improve his herd of cows further. When he is choosing which cows to use for breeding, milk production is an important quality. Give two other important qualities he could consider.

1. ..................................................................................................................

2. ...........................................................................................................2 marks

Maximum 3 marks

Level 7

5. (a) The diagram below shows the female reproductive system and a ciliated cell.

female reproductivesystem

ciliated cell

not to scale

Ciliated cells move an ovum along part of the reproductive system.

(i) In which part of the reproductive system are ciliated cells found?

.............................................................1 mark

(ii) Describe how ciliated cells move an ovum along.

...............................................................................................................1 mark

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(b) The diagrams below represent what happens at fertilisation and after fertilisation has taken place.

stage 1

stage 2

stage 3

not to scale

(i) Some women find it difficult to become pregnant. Doctors have developed a technique in which an ovum is fertilised in a test-tube. An embryo is then implanted into the woman’s reproductive system.

Which stage in part (b) shows an embryo and which stage shows a foetus?

embryo ...........................................................foetus .........................................1 mark

(ii) Into which part of the woman’s reproductive system is the embryo implanted?

.............................................................1 mark

(c) (i) Explain why a child can look like both parents but is not identical to either of the parents.

...............................................................................................................2 marks (ii) In the table below, tick one box by each human characteristic to show

whether it is:

> inherited only > inherited and affected by environmental conditions.

human characteristic

inherited only

inherited and affected

by environmental conditions

eye colour

skin colour

weight

1 mark

maximum 7 marks

7

6. The quagga is an extinct animal that lived in Africa. Quaggas belonged to the same group as zebras. The drawings below show a zebra and a quagga.

(a) Zebras and quaggas used to breed with each other. The offspring contained a combination of both zebra and quagga genes (genetic information). How were zebra and quagga genes passed on from the parents to their offspring?

.....................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................

1 mark

(b) These days there are some zebras that still show some quagga features. Scientists are using zebras to try to produce quaggas by selective breeding. Describe the steps in this selective breeding process.

.....................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................

3 marks

Maximum 4 marks

8

9

7. A group of pupils recorded some different characteristics of pupils in their class.

The table below shows their results.

name gender height, in cm

mass, in kg

hand span, in cm

arm span, in cm

eye colour

Julie girl 152 48 17.2 160 blue

Laura girl 157 54 15.0 141 green

Aftab boy 159 49 18.4 172 brown

Jenna girl 144 46 17.4 161 hazel

Barry boy 148 49 17.4 162 blue

Oliver boy 172 57 21.5 204 brown

Safina girl 155 48 16.8 158 brown

Maria girl 154 50 17.9 166 green

Amanat girl 162 46 16.2 150 brown

Thomas boy 157 49 19.9 186 blue

(a) Oliver concluded that boys do not have green eyes.

Explain why his conclusion is not justified.

.....................................................................................................................

1 mark

(b) Name two continuous variables in their table.

1. .....................................................

2. .....................................................

10

1 mark

(c) Look at the scatter graphs below.

210

200

190

180

170

160

150

140

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

220

210

200

190

180

170

160

150

140

210

200

190

180

170

160

150

140140

140

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22150

150

160

160

170

170

180

180

height, in cm

height, in cm mass, in kg

hand span, in cm

graph A

graph C graph D

graph B

armspan,in cm

handspan,in cm

armspan,in cm

armspan,in cm

× ×××

×

×

×

×

×

× ×××

×

×

×

××

×

×

× ×××

×

×

×

××

×

×

××

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60

Use the data in the scatter graphs to show whether each of the conclusions below is true, false or you cannot tell.

conclusions true or false or cannot tell

Graph C shows that the shortest pupil has the smallest hand span. ........................................

Graph B shows the strongest correlation between two variables. ........................................

Graph A looks similar to graph C because of the high correlation of arm span to hand span. ........................................

Boys are generally taller than girls. ........................................

2 marks

Maximum 4 marks

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8. Gareth was writing to a pen-friend. This is how he described himself:

I am a boy. I weigh 600 N.

I am 16 years old. I speak French.

I have brown eyes. I have a scar on my chin.

I am 1.8 m tall.

(a) From the list, choose two features which he must have inherited and which will not have been affected by his environment.

1. ..................................................................................................................

2. ..................................................................................................................

2 marks

(b) From the list, choose two features which will have been affected by both inherited and environmental factors.

1. ..................................................................................................................

2. ..................................................................................................................

2 marks

(c) Gareth measured the heights of the 16-year-old pupils at his school. He recorded the distribution in a bar chart.

number of pupils ineach height range

height

He also collected data about the features in the list below.

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Which two features would show a similarly shaped distribution to Gareth’s bar chart?

Tick the two correct boxes.

Ability to roll the tongue.

Presence of ear lobes.

Mass of the pupil.

Circumference of the head.

Sex of the pupil.

2 marks

Maximum 6 marks