New York State 8th Grade Science Assessment

All living things are composed of

• vitamins

• cells

• blood

• organs

Which process is carried out by both a plant and an animal?

• eating food

• growing in size

• taking in carbon dioxide

• making oxygen

The chart below shows the classification of Felis catus, the common house cat. Which level of classification contains organisms that are the most closely related?

• Family

• Kingdom

• Genus

• Species

When a person chews food, the teeth grind the food into smaller pieces. This is an example of

• mechanical digestion

• chemical change

• cellular respiration

• waste removal

The diagram below represents a human organ system.

• breakdown of food

• production of sex cells

• removal of dissolved wastes

• coordination of body movement

The guinea pigs in a certain population all have black fur. The sudden appearance of a guinea pig with white fur in this population may be the result of

• ozone depletion

• asexual reproduction

• gene mutation

• habitat destruction

As their environment slowly changes, organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and produce offspring with those same traits. This statement describes

• cell division

• genetic engineering

• resource conservation

• natural selection

The photograph below shows four different dogs. All four dogs belong to the same species.The signifi cant differences between these four dogs were caused by humans. These differences are best explained by the process of

• biological adaptation

• selective breeding

• metamorphosis

• regulation

Three birds are represented in the drawings below.Studying the beak of each of these birds would best help a scientist understand

• how the birds fly

• where the birds live

• what the birds eat

• if the birds migrate

0 The graph below represents the extinction rate of invertebrates (animals without a backbone) over the last 600 million years. Based on the graph, it might be concluded that

• here were fewer extinctions 600 million years ago than at present

• the greatest invertebrate extinction rate occurred about 450 million years ago

• the most recent peak in extinction rate affected the largest number of groups

• the five greatest invertebrate extinction rates occurred every 100 million year