Benchmark 3 Results Review

The image shows the rover Curiosity's sky crane and the retrorockets that the sky crane used to place the rover on the surface of Mars. As the sky crane approached Mars, it fired its retrorockets so that the rover was slowly lowered onto the Martian surface. Which scientific concept best explains the action of the retrorockets?

• Mendel's priciple of independent assortment

• Newton's law of universal gravitation

• Mendel's principle of segregation

• Newton's third law of motion

Which term is best defined as heat transfer that occurs when warm particles move in currents?

• Radiation

• Convection

• Evaporation

• Conduction

The diagram represents a food web in a marine ecosystem. Which statement best describes the role of two populations within this food web?

• Phytoplankton are producers, and cod are consumers.

• Phytoplankton and zooplankton are both producers.

• Phytoplankton and cod are both producers.

• Zooplankton are producers, and phytoplankton are consumers.

Humans depend on the ocean systems around the world for many purposes, including shipping goods, obtaining food, and participating in recreational activities. Many precautions are taken by both individuals and governments to protect ocean ecosystems, but negative impacts still occur as humans use and interact with the ocean and its organisms. Which of the following is an environmental impact caused by humans removing more resources from an ocean ecosystem than it can withstand?

• decreased biodiversity caused by overfishing

• algae blooms caused by fertilizer runoff

• fish kills caused by industrial waste

• increased biodiversity caused by artificial reefs

Which solar system body is a comet?

• Y

• Z

• W

• X

The Earth experiences high tide in two locations at the same time due to the Moon's gravity. One location faces the Moon, and the other location is on the opposite side of the Earth. A given region on the Earth's surface will experience high tide once in each of these locations every day. Which of the following explains this pattern?

• The Earth revolves around the Sun once each year.

• The Earth rotates on its axis once each month.

• The Earth revolves around the Sun once each day.

• The Earth rotates on its axis once each day.

A scientist has a pure sample of an unknown metal that she is trying to identify. She measures the sample to have a mass of 25.1 g and a volume of 2.82 cm³. What should the scientist conclude that her sample is made of?

• Copper

• Iron

• Nickel

• Aluminum

A gardener is installing several large flower beds. The flower beds will vary in length from 5 to 12 feet. Depending on the type of flower, the flowers are to be planted 3 to 12 inches apart. The gardener will measure the outlines of all the flower beds first. Then, she must plant each flower one by one, measuring the spacing of each flower relative to adjacent flowers in all directions. How should the gardener approach the measurements she needs to make?

• She should use a tape measure with multiple feet to measure the flower spacing and use a ruler to measure the flower beds.

• She should use a ruler to measure the flower spacing and use a tape measure with multiple feet to measure the flower beds.

• She should use a ruler to measure both the flower spacing and the flower beds.

• She should use a tape measure to measure both the flower spacing and the flower beds.

The diagram represents a pendulum bob at four different positions along its path after the pendulum has been pulled to point A and released. Assuming that there is no energy lost due to friction, what is happening to the energy of the pendulum bob as it moves from point A to point B?

• Both its potential energy and its kinetic energy are increasing.

• Its kinetic energy is being transformed into potential energy.

• Both its potential energy and its kinetic energy are decreasing.

• Its potential energy is being transformed into kinetic energy.

Which of the following statements best describes the effect of population change on the food web shown above?

• Predator populations can be affected by changes in other predator populations but not by changes in prey populations.

• Change in any one population causes change in other populations to help sustain the food web system as a whole.

• Consumer populations can be affected by changes in other consumer populations but not by changes in producer populations.

• Change in any one population does not affect any of the other populations in the rest of the food web system.