Chapter 1

The smallest unit of life is the _____________.

____________ is a state in which the internal environment is being maintained within a tolerable range.

A trait is __________ if it improves an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in a given environment.

DNA ___________. a. contains instructions for building proteins b. undergoes mutation c. is transmitted from parents to offspring d. all of the above

____________ is the acquisition of traits after parents transmit their DNA to offspring. a. Metabolism b. Reproduction c. Homeostasis d. Inheritance

A control group is __________ a. a standard against which experimental groups can be compared b. an experiment that gives conclusive results

Match the terms with the most suitable descriptions. ______adaptive trait ______natural selection ______scientific theory ______hypothesis ______prediction a. statement of what you can expect to observe in nature b. proposed explanation; an educated guess c. improves chances of surviving and reproducing d. related set of hypotheses that form a broadly useful, testable explanation e. outcome of differences in survival, reproduction among individuals of a population that differ in the details of one or more traits