Unit 1: Chemistry of Life
Biology · Unit 1 · Paper 2

Chemistry of Life unit test

A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.

Paper 1Paper 2Paper 3
Each paper is built from this unit’s 34 terms and is the same for everyone, so a teacher can assign “Unit 1, Paper 2” and every student sits the identical test. Multiple choice is marked objectively; the written sections you mark yourself against the model answer and rubric.
Suggested time 31 min 28 points0/17 attempted
1

Why ice floats

2

Protein structure levels

3

Cohesion vs adhesion

4

Hydrolysis

5

Saturated vs unsaturated fat

6

pH scale

7

Peptide bond

8

Carbonic acid–bicarbonate buffer

9

Nucleic acid directionality

10

Buffer

11

R group

12

Carbohydrate structure and function

Short answer 1. Define or explain: Functional groups

3 pts

Short answer 2. Define or explain: Nucleotide structure

3 pts

Short answer 3. Define or explain: Monomers of the four macromolecules

3 pts

Short answer 4. Define or explain: Phospholipid amphipathicity

3 pts

Free response

4 pts

This course has no free-response prompt tagged to this unit, so one from elsewhere in the course is used. It is still worth writing — the skill transfers.

A student places a plant cell in a solution and observes that the cytoplasm pulls away from the cell wall.

Identify the tonicity of the solution relative to the cell and name the process observed.

Explain, in terms of water potential, why water left the cell.

Explain why an animal cell placed in the same solution would look different from this plant cell.