Practice question - Fish osmosis

Prompt
The following table contains details of the relative solutes in a variety of fish and their environments. Both sharks and bony fish live in the sea.

	Salt	Urea	Osmotic concentration
Sea water	1000		1000
Fresh water	20		20
Sharks	650	400	1050
Bony fish	190		190
Freshwater fish	130		130

Questions
Which of the fish types would need to drink water in their normal environment?
A. Freshwater fish
B. Bony fish
C. Sharks
D. None of the above

In which fish is there likely to be a net solute flow into the fish?
A. Freshwater fish and bony fish
B. Bony fish only
C. Sharks only
D. Both freshwater fish and sharks

Practice question - Metabolic rates

Prompt
The below diagram shows changes in metabolic rates dependant on body and environment temperature for two mammals, the kangaroo rat and the harbour seal.

(diagram)

Questions

When outside temperature drops below body temperature, the kangaroo rat's metabolism increases
A. at different rates but at the same body temperatures
B. at the same rate at the same body temperatures
C. at different rates at different body temperatures
D. at the same rate at different body temperatures

When outside temperature drops below body temperature, the harbour seal's metabolism increases
A. at different rates but at the same body temperatures
B. at the same rate at the same body temperatures
C. at different rates at different body temperatures
D. at the same rate at different body temperatures

Answers

Kangaroo rat - D, harbour seal - A

Practice question - Fish circulation

Prompt
The circulatory system of the fish is diagrammed below. Of the output from the heart, 40% is directed to the brain and 15% to each of the gills, kidneys, front and rear intestines.

(diagram - not guaranteed to be an actual fish circulatory system)

Question
What percentage of the blood from any one pump of the heart will pass through the liver?
A. 0%
B. 15%
C. 30%
D. 40%

Practice Question - Acceleration

Prompt:
Ann, a physics student, decides to measure the acceleration in her car. She decides to hang a bob (pendulum) from the rear view mirror in her car. It can swing towards the front of the car, which she measures as theta, or towards the rear of the car, which she measures as negative theta.

(diagram)

Questions

What angle will the bob make when Ann, after moving forward at a constant speed, brakes?
A. Positive theta
B. Zero
C. Negative theta
D. There is not enough information provided to answer this question

Ann graphs the angle of the pendulum over a period of time.
(second graph)

At period 4, the car's speed was
A. Increasing
B. Constant
C. Decreasing
D. There is not enough information provided to answer this question

Over the whole time period, the car was stationary:
A. During period 1 only
B. During period 3 only
C. During period 6 only
D. There is not enough information provided to answer this question

Practice Question - Defibrillation

Prompt:
Defibrillation is a treatment for cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia that delivers an electrical shock to the heart. The electrical shock allows the sinoatrial node to reestablish the baseline heart rythym.

An 80kg man is shocked with a defibrillator which delivers 6000 volts with a current of 100 amps.

Questions

What is the resistance across the body?
A.
B.
C.
D.

What amount of energy was delivered by the electrical shock?
A.
B.
C.
D.

Answers

Note that this question requires you to have memorised the physics formula v=ir. You may also find reading up on defibrillation at the Wikipedia page to be useful

Practice question - Gettysburg Address

Prompt The Battle of Gettysburg was a pivotal moment in the US Civil War. Following the battle, a famed orator, Everett, and Lincoln, then President of the United States, were invited to a ceremony to dedicate a war cemetery.

Everett's speech was the day's principal "Gettysburg address." His oration began:

"Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must be performed; — grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy."

And ended three hours later with:

"But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates the Battles of Gettysburg."

The speech was well received, but overshadowed by Lincoln's reply:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Questions

Lincoln's address differs from Elliot's in the
A. Religious overtones
B. Sentence length and structure
C. Poetic imagery
D. Appeals to patriotism

In his speech, Lincoln appears
A. Confident
B. Shy
C. Self concious
D. Self assured

Which phrase from the speeches is most realistic?
A. "overlooking these broad fields"
B. "dust of these martyr-heroes"
C. "there will be no brighter page than that ..."
D. "graves of our brethren beneath our feet"

Question - Science vs Religion cartoon

The prompt for this question was a cartoon of two men sitting on mountaintops. One, a bearded man in a robe with a book, sits next to a sign in gothic type with the word 'Truth'. The other man is in a lab coat and glasses, holds a beaker, and sits next to a sign with the word 'Rebuttal'.

Questions:


This comic shows
A. Science considers religion to be false
B. Truth can only be reached through religion
C. Science and religion can learn a lot from each other
D. Science has no truth of it's own to offer

The scientist in this comic
A. Believes that there are many different types of truth
B. Understands that religion is an ally in the search for truth
C. Considers truth as something unreachable
D. Holds science to be superior to religion

Question - Falsifiability

This question provided a text on a theory of science - that all scientific theories are scientific theories because they are falsifiable. I do not recall enough about the prompt on this question to locate or recreate it, so I will instead direct you to an article by Karl Popper, a philosopher of science, entitled "Science as Falsification" and originally published in 1963. Please keep in mind that this piece is significantly longer than a standard GAMSAT prompt.

Questions:

A scientific theory must be:
A. Broad and sweeping
B. Unspecific and topical
C. Creative and innovative
D. Specific and testable

Considering the following three theories:
I. The earth is flat
II. The sun orbits the earth
III. The earth orbits the sun

Which of these is a scientific theory?
A. I only
B. I and III only
C. II and III only
D. All of I, II and III

Question - Energy flows in Inuit society

Diagram:
This was a complicated flowchart diagram of quantified energy flows, with different members of society (men, women and children), different types of work (campwork, travelling, hunting, mining and carving, wage work), different commodities and energy products (selling skins to purchase gasoline, feeding excess fat from hunting to dogs). I believe this flowchart can be found in the book The Flow of Energy in a Hunting Society by William B Kemp, as published by Scientific American. I will attempt the creation of a modified diagram as a study aid.

Questions:

Which of the following is true?
A. Housing is a net provider of energy
B. Snowmobiles use less energy than they provide
C. Children have no effect on the Inuit energy system
D. Dogs use more energy than they provide

Which change would have the greatest effect on the Inuit lifestyle?
A. Price of gasoline increases by 2%
B. Dragnet hunting reduces the number of seals by 40%
C. The carving-stone mine closes down, reducing supplies of carving stone and mine work
D. Wages paid for wage work drop 10%

Of the following four Venn diagrams, which best describes the division of work in an Inuit camp?

(choose from four Venn diagrams for answer; they are not labelled so you need to choose which circle represents men, women, children)

Question - Shafts of Light

Prompt: Emily Dickinson's "There's a certain Slant of light'

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons -
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes -

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us -
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are -

None may teach it - Any -
'Tis the Seal Despair -
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air -

When it comes, the Landscape listens -
Shadows - hold their breath -
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death -

Questions:
The poem's central contradiction is:
A. That something immaterial like light can cause mental pain
B. That something which should bring transcendence also brings pain
C. That the living landscape can so soon become deathly
D. That enlightenment can be a cause of despair


Answering the questions:

I found this one very tricky, as analysis of poems really isn't my forte and this one in particular gives you very little material to work with (unlike, for example, Mr Bleaney).
There are several sites out there that attempt to deconstruct this poem, eg
http://american-poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/dickinsons_slant_of_light
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/10210/comments

Question - Mr Bleaney

Prompt:

Mr. Bleaney - a poem by Philip Larkin, published in The Whitsun Weddings in 1955

'This was Mr Bleaney's room. He stayed 1
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him.' Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill,

Whose window shows a strip of building land, 2
Tussocky, littered. 'Mr Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.'
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook

Behind the door, no room for books or bags - 3
'I'll take it.' So it happens that I lie
Where Mr Bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer-souvenir, and try

Stuffing my ears with cotton-wool, to drown 4
The jabbering set he egged her on to buy.
I know his habits - what time he came down,
His preference for sauce to gravy, why

He kept on plugging at the four aways - 5
Likewise their yearly frame: the Frinton folk
Who put him up for summer holidays,
And Christmas at his sister's house in Stoke.

But if he stood and watched the frigid wind 6
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread

That how we live measures our own nature, 7
And at his age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don't know.

Questions:

Mr. Bleaney's environment is best described as

A. comfortable and cosy
B. messy and squalid
C. spartan and comfortless
D. shabby and genteel

The landlady's description of Mr. Bleaney is

A. shy
B. neighborly
C. parsimonious
D. malicious

The author's desperation comes through most in

A. Stanza 3 only
B. Stanza 4 only
C. Stanzas 3 and 5
D. Stanzas 6 and 7

The author felt for Mr Bleaney because he was

A. unaware of what he was lacking
B. violent but impotent
C. aware that he had not accomplished much in life
D. stuck in a monotonous yearly schedule

***

I found that answering these questions were easier as they relate directly to words within the poem - 'Mr Bleaney took my bit of garden properly in hand' was clearly a neighborly action.

Question - Isaac Asimov on science

Prompt:

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...' -Isaac Asimov.

Question:

In this quote, 'That's funny' refers to

A. Finding a solution
B. Discovering a problem
C. Developing a new theory
D. Abandoning an old hypothesis

Question - Fingernail growth rates

Question: Making some basic assumptions, how fast do your fingernails grow?

Answers:
A. 1*10^-3 m/s
B. 1*10^-6 m/s
C. 1*10^-9 m/s
D. 1*10^-12 m/s

How to work it out:

First, make those 'basic assumptions' mentioned earlier in the question. How fast do my fingernails grow? I assumed 5cm/year. As it turns out, I wasn't too far off, as Wikipedia suggests 3.5 cm. I then made sure I had this result in the correct units - first adjusting cm to m, and then years to seconds. You make need to make sure that you are confident with scientific notation. This estimate brought me fairly close to the result of 1*10^-9m/s - option C.