1. Which of the following are connected by hydrogen bonds?

A. Hydrogen to oxygen within a molecule of water

B. Phosphate to sugar in a DNA molecule

C. Base to sugar in a DNA molecule

D. Hydrogen to oxygen between two different molecules of water

(Total 1 mark)

2. Which describes these molecules correctly?

I II
A. ribose amino acid
B. glucose amino acid
C. ribose fatty acid
D. glucose fatty acid
(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 1
3. Which chemical is shown in the diagram below?

A. Monosaccharide

B. Triglyceride

C. Fatty acid

D. Amino acid
(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 2
4. The graph below shows the effect of substrate concentration on enzyme activity. What
conclusion can be drawn about section X of the graph?

A. The enzyme has started to denature and the reaction slows down.

B. The reaction has finished and the substrate has been used up.

C. The enzyme is saturated and is working at its maximum reaction rate.

D. Some of the enzyme has been consumed and the reaction has reached a plateau.
(Total 1 mark)

5. What does a nucleosome consist of ?

A. DNA and histones

B. DNA and chromatin

C. Chromatin and nucleotides

D. Mature RNA and histones

(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 3
6. Which base is connected to its complementary base in a base pair by three hydrogen bonds?

A. Uracil

B. Thymine

C. Guanine

D. Adenine
(Total 1 mark)

7. What are Okazaki fragments?

A. Short lengths of RNA primase attached to the DNA during replication

B. Short sections of DNA formed during DNA replication

C. Nucleotides added by DNA polymerase I in the same direction as the replication fork

D. Sections of RNA removed by DNA polymerase III and replaced with DNA
(Total 1 mark)

8. Which enzyme catalyzes the elongation of the leading strand?

[Source: image from W K Purves, et al., (2003) Life: The Science of Biology, 4, Sinauer Associates
(www.sinauer.com) and W H Freeman (www.whfreeman.com)]

A. RNA polymerase

B. Helicase

C. DNA polymerase

D. Ligase
(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 4
9. What sequence of processes is carried out by the structure labelled X during translation?

A. Combining with an amino acid and then binding to an anticodon

B. Binding to an anticodon and then combining with an amino acid

C. Binding to a codon and then combining with an amino acid

D. Combining with an amino acid and then binding to a codon

(Total 1 mark)

10. What is removed during the formation of mature RNA in eukaryotes?

A. Exons

B. Introns

C. Codons

D. Nucleosomes
(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 5
11. A woman who is a carrier for hemophilia and a man who does not have hemophilia have a
child.
What is the probability that the child will have hemophilia?

If it is a girl If it is a boy
A. 0% 50%
B. 0% 0%
C. 50% 50%
D. 50% 0%
(Total 1 mark)

12. A new allele that provides herbicide resistance is identified in soybean plants. The allele is
dominant.
Which of the following would be carried out in a herbicide-resistant plant to find out if it is
homozygous or heterozygous for the gene?

A. Gel electrophoresis

B. Karyotyping

C. Test cross

D. DNA profiling
(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 6
13.
In fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) grey body is dominant to black body
and normal wings are dominant to vestigial wings.

Male flies, heterozygous for both grey body and normal wings, were mated with black-bodied,
vestigial-winged females. 2000 offspring were counted. The resulting percentage of each type of
offspring is shown in the table below.

Resulting offspring Frequency

Grey body, normal wings 40%
Black body, vestigial wings 40%
Grey body, vestigial wings 10%
Black body, normal wings 10%

What conclusion can be drawn from the information given above?

A. The genes assort independently.

B. A mistake has been made.

C. The genes are linked.

D. The genes are on separate chromosomes.

(Total 1 mark)

14. The table below shows the level of hemoglobin measured in two different groups of athletes.

Hemoglobin / Number of Standard deviation /

grams per 100 cm3 athletes tested grams per 100 cm3
Group A 12.6 200 0.8
Group B 11.9 220 3.2

Which of the following statements is correct?

A. Results from group B are more accurate because more athletes were tested.

B. Results from group B are more reliable because it has a higher standard deviation.

C. More athletes have their hemoglobin concentration close to the mean in group A than in
group B.

D. These results indicate that the level of hemoglobin follows a normal distribution.
(Total 1 mark)

IB Questionbank Biology 7
15. Which of the following will promote variation in a species?

I. Meiosis
II. Fertilization
III. Natural selection

A. I only

B. II only

C. I and II only

D. I, II and III
(Total 1 mark)

16. Why has antibiotic resistance evolved in bacteria?

A. All bacteria reproduce very quickly.

B. Bacteria exposed to antibiotics developed a resistance to them.

C. Varieties of bacteria resistant to antibiotics reproduce faster than non-resistant varieties.

D. Bacteria showing resistance to antibiotics survive after antibiotics are used.

(Total 1 mark)

17. Fossils provide important evidence for evolution.

(a) Outline how radioisotopes can be used to date fossils.

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(2)

IB Questionbank Biology 8
 (b) The half-life of the radioisotope 14C is approximately 5730 years.

Using the decay curve shown above, deduce the age of a fossil that contains 30% of the
original amount of 14C.

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(1)

(c) Describe two major trends that can be seen from fossil remains in the sequence
Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus species and Homo species.

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(2)
(Total 5 marks)

IB Questionbank Biology 9
18. (a) Outline allopatric and sympatric speciation.

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(4)

(b) Explain the biochemical evidence for the common ancestry of living organisms.

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(6)
(Total 10 marks)

IB Questionbank Biology 10