Common Assessment #5 Study Guide

Which sentence BEST describes a pandemic?

• The disease causes high fever and vomiting.

• The disease passes through direct contact with an infected person.

• The disease is fatal if not treated immediately.

• The disease has spread to every country in the Northern Hemisphere.

In 1918, an outbreak of influenza infected 500,000 people all over the world. Tens of millions of those infected died. In 1994, an outbreak of pneumonic plague spread quickly through the city of Surat in India, killing 52 people. Which statement BEST describes the two events?

• Both outbreaks were epidemics.

• Both outbreaks were pandemics.

• The influenza outbreak was a pandemic. The plague outbreak was an epidemic.

• The influenza outbreak was an epidemic. The plague outbreak was a pandemic.

Lyme disease is spread by ticks that attach to an animal to feed. Which describes the role of the tick?

• The tick is a virus

• The tick is a donor

• The tick is a bacteria

• The tick is a vector

Which pathogen, by being the smallest, is able to spread and infect the greatest number of hosts?

• bacteria

• fungi

• protists

• viruses

Five students get sick with a cold after a weekend field trip to the aquarium with their classmates. Which best explains why these students became sick?

• contact with contaminated food

• contact with a contaminated water

• contact with an infected fish

• contact with an infected person

Which is the best explanation for why there is a continued need to develop new antibiotics to fight bacterial infections?

• Bacteria learn to avoid antibiotics that have been used for years.

• Drug companies want to sell as many drugs as they can to consumers

• Bacteria are constantly mutating and developing resistance to antibiotics.

• Doctors need many drug options to treat many different patients with different characteristics.

Dr. Wagner is investigating a newly discovered, disease-causing agent. She determines that one structure in the agent is double-stranded DNA. The other is a protein coat. What kind of agent is Dr. Wagner studying?

• a virus

• a protist

• a fungus

• a bacterium

Which set of diseases do viruses cause?

• malaria, influenza, AIDS

• ringworm, smallpox, bubonic plague

• influenza, AIDS, smallpox

• bubonic plague, malaria, tuberculosis

Which characteristic of viruses prevents them from being used as evidence to support cell theory?

• Viruses do not have nuclei

• Viruses cannot move by themselves.

• Viruses replicate only inside host cells

• Viruses can have glycoproteins on their surfaces.

Louis Pasteur discovered a process that allows milk to be stored in sealed containers for long periods of time without spoiling. The process, called pasteurization, involves heating the milk before placing it in the sealed containers. Which is the BEST explanation of how pasteurization works?

• Heat strengthens molecules that prevent spoiling.

• The chemical structure of the food changes with the heat

• Heat killed microorganisms that could cause spoiling

• The food particles are better mixed after heating