Midterm Review Flashcards
Which of these statements would Democritus disagree with most?
a) the world is made of atoms
b) people have souls and souls are made up of fire atoms
c) impersonal necessity is NOT how the laws of the universe operate
d) perceivers intercept atoms projected from the perceived objects
e) human brain is the organ of thought
c
Which of the following most reflects a similarity between Aristotle and Plato’s ideas?
a) both were atheists - the irrelevance of God
b) the importance of hands-on, extensive biological research
c) the value of blood-letting in medical treatment
d) the afterlife and fates
e) the divinely-ordained purposes in nature
e) both believed in teleological explanation
What was Pliny’s most significant contribution to scholarship?
a) popularization of atomic theory in alchemy and chemistry
b) critical examination of fanciful tales current in his time including rejections of theme
c) preservation of information from other authors’ works which have since been lost
d) first to suggest pulmonary circulation
e) discovered and described many new species
c) he created a 37-volume encyclopedia of other peoples’ works but was not careful or critical about the works
Which Egyptian papyrus contained many case histories?
a) Elgin papyrus
b) Ebers papyrus
c) Kafre papyrus
d) Edwin Smith papyrus
e) Kahun papyrus
d
Which of the following did Empedocles’ view of the transformation of organisms include?
a) selection of favoured or better-adapted types
b) the devolution of apes from people
c) common ancestry from a primordial cell
d) evolution of people from fish
e) a modern view of inheritance
a
Which aspect of Islamic science from the 8-13th centuries was most influential to modern experimental science?
a) biological classification
b) alchemy
c) astronomy
d) geography
e) physiology and anatomy
b
which of the following lists people and events in the correct timeline?
a) Pliny’s Natural History - Galen - beginnings of the Library and Museum of Alexandria - Hildegard of Bingen - Frederick II of Hohenstaufen’s career
b) beginnings of the Library and Museum of Alexandria - Pliny’s Natural History - life of Galen - life of Hildegard - career of Frederick II
c) beginnings of the Library and Museum of Alexandria - life of Galen - life of Hildegard - Pliny’s Natural History - career of Frederick II
d) Pliny’s Natural History - beginnings of the Library and Museum of Alexandria - life of Hildegard - life of Galen - career of Frederick II
e) Pliny’s Natural History - career of Frederick II - life of Galen - beginnings of the Library and Museum of Alexandria - life of Hildegard
b
Which Islamic medical writer had the highest reputation in later centuries in Europe?
a) Averroes
b) Avicenna
c) Alhazen
d) Rhazes
e) Ibn an-Nafis
b
Which of the following is the strongest reason that Hippocrates is so revered in medical history?
a) advocation for ethical, pragmatic medical practices, with natural causes for diseases (not supernatural)
b) pioneering of surgical technicals still used today and advocation of environmental medicine
c) prayer is a powerful ally of the physician and this was usually recommended as treatment for his patients
d) defeated a plague in Athens in 429 BC but the method he used has since been lost
e) really good at identifying diseases and differentiating between different diseases; many we know today are attributed to him
a
What field was Frederick II’s most significant contribution to science?
a) botany
b) math
c) geology
d) ornithology
e) the study of inheritance
d
What did St. Hildegard of Bingen study?
a) optics
b) natural history of Germany
c) math
d) alchemical transformations of rare earths
e) human circulatory system and its diseases
b
Which statement is true about Aristotle’s classification of organisms?
a) he classified animals as either vertebrates or invertebrates and worms, and plants into seed plants, vascular, mosses, fungi and bacteria
b) arranged organisms in a nested classification like modern classification systems
c) he didn’t have a concept for natural groups
d) he thought all organisms were identical in their form-perfection
e) he did no formal classification, but understood the idea of natural groups and as such, arranged organisms into a hierarchy based on form-dominance
e
Which best describes the Chinese concept of ‘chi’?
a) an ancient equivalent to modern antibiotics
b) balance of opposing forces
c) vital energy that flows through organisms to give them life
d) proper diet and exercise
e) blood
c
Applying the broad definition of science, which two attributes are essential to science?
a) observational, experimental
b) theoretical, experimental
c) natural, rational
d) natural, observational
e) rational, observational
c
What are natural groupings in biology?
groups whose members…
a) are recognized from our experience with nature
b) associate with one another in nature
c) have no uses in human affairs
d) have many attributes in common
e) have at least one important attribute in common
d
