XIN ZHONG SECONDARY SCHOOL

School Year 2020 – 2021

BIOLOGY WORKSHEET
Semester 1 – Grade 11
Nucleic acid

Name/Class: October 2020 Score:

I. MULTIPLE CHOICE.
DIRECTIONS: Read the following statements carefully. Each question is given four choices.
Write the letter of the best answer in the bracket.
1. What is needed to transcribe DNA?

A. DNA ligase
B. DNA polymerase
C. ribosomes
D. RNA polymerase [D]

2. In a ribosome, which bond holds together two adjacent amino acids?

A. disulfide
B. hydrogen
C. ionic
D. peptide [D]

3. The diagram shows part of a DNA molecule.

How many hydrogen bonds are involved in holding these strands of DNA together?

A. 11 B. 9 C. 8 D. 4 [A]

4. Which statements about complementary base pairing are correct?

1 Cytosine forms three hydrogen bonds with guanine.

2 Purines and pyrimidines are different sizes.
3 It allows transcription to occur.
4 The base pairs are of different lengths.

A. 1, 2 and 3 B. 1, 2 and 4 C. 1, 3 and 4 D. 2, 3 and 4 [A]

5. Bacteria were grown in a medium containing 15N. After several generations, all of the DNA
contained 15N. Some of these bacteria were transferred to a medium containing the common
isotope of nitrogen, 14N. The bacteria were allowed to divide once. The DNA of some of these
bacteria was extracted and analysed. This DNA was all hybrid DNA containing equal amounts of
14N and 15N.

The remaining bacteria were left in the medium with 14N and allowed to divide one more time.
The DNA of some of these bacteria was extracted and analysed.

GRADE 11 A LEVEL 1
 What is the composition of this DNA?

A. 25% hybrid DNA

B. 50% hybrid DNA
C. 75% hybrid DNA
D. 100% hybrid DNA [B]

6. Which statements about tRNA are correct?

1 It contains base pairing.
2 It contains hydrogen bonds.
3 It contains uracil.
4 It is single stranded.

A. 1, 2, 3 and 4 B. 1, 3 and 4 only C. 1 and 2 only D. 2 and 3 only [A]

7. The diagram shows the nucleotide sequence of a small section of a gene which is transcribed.
TTCTTCCCGTTC

The table shows the amino acids coded for by 10 mRNA codons.

What is the order of the four amino acids in the polypeptide translated from this small section of a gene?

A. Cys-Cys-Gly-Cys
B. Lys-Lys-Gly-Lys
C. Lys-Lys-Pro-Lys
D. Thr-Thr-Pro-Thr [B]

8. The bacterium Escherichia coli divides once every 50 minutes at 36 °C.

E. coli were grown on a medium containing only heavy nitrogen, 15N, until all of the bacterial DNA
contained heavy nitrogen (0 minutes).

Some of the bacteria were moved from a heavy nitrogen medium and cultured in a medium with
only light nitrogen, 14N.

Some bacteria were collected after each of three generations. Their DNA was extracted and
centrifuged.

Hybrid DNA contains both heavy and light nitrogen.

The diagram shows the possible positions (upper, middle and lower) of the bands of DNA. The
actual positions of bands in the first two samples are shown.

Which proportion of the DNA of the sample taken at 150 minutes will be at the upper position?

A. 25% B. 50% C. 75% D. 100% [C]

GRADE 11 A LEVEL 2
9. Different tissues in a plant were supplied with a radioactively labelled substance in order to
identify which tissues were actively synthesising mRNA.

Which radioactively labelled substances would be most suitable for this experiment?

1 adenine
2 ribose
3 inorganic phosphate
4 uracil

A. 1, 2, 3 and 4
B. 1, 2 and 3 only
C. 2 and 4 only
D. 4 only [C]

10. Electron micrographs may show large numbers of ribosomes forming chains along mRNA
molecules.

What is the advantage of this arrangement, compared to when ribosomes appear singly on the
mRNA?

A. Different polypeptides can be produced simultaneously.

B. Fewer tRNA molecules are required to translate the polypeptide.
C. Large polypeptide chains can be produced.
D. Polypeptides can be produced more rapidly. [D]

11. Which row is correct for adenine?

[C]

12. Which statement explains why DNA replication is described as semi-conservative?

A. Half of each original strand is conserved in each new molecule of DNA.

B. Half of the base sequence of each strand is conserved in each new molecule of DNA.
C. Only one strand of DNA is used as a template during replication.
D. The template for each new molecule of DNA is one strand of the original molecule. [D]

13. A section of a DNA molecule has the coding sequence: AGGCAATGGC.

Which statements are correct?

1 This coding sequence contains 3 pyrimidines.

2 The double-stranded DNA of this section contains 26 hydrogen bonds between
complementary bases.
3 The double-stranded DNA of this section has 20 sugar-phosphate bonds.

A. 1, 2 and 3 B. 1 and 2 only C. 1 and 3 only D. 2 and 3 only [B]

GRADE 11 A LEVEL 3
 14. XNA is a laboratory-made nucleic acid made of nucleotides in which one component has been
replaced by chemical X. The chemical X is not found in nature. The part of the molecule
responsible for coding is not changed.

Which organic component of a DNA or RNA nucleotide has been replaced by X?

A. five-carbon sugar
B. phosphate group
C. purine base
D. pyrimidine base [A]

15. Which statements about tRNA are correct?

1 Hydrogen bonds between bases temporarily hold tRNA against mRNA.

2 The base sequences in the tRNA molecules are the same as the base sequences in
the mRNA that is being translated.
3 The specificity of the tRNA molecule for glycine and the specificity of the enzyme
that loads glycine are both necessary for correct loading.

A. 1, 2 and 3 B. 1 and 2 only C. 1 and 3 only D. 2 and 3 only [C]

II. OPEN -ENDED QUESTIONS.

DIRECTIONS: Read and analyse the statements carefully. Use the space provided to write
your brief and concise answers.
11.The presence of B. pertussis stimulates the production of mucin, a gel-like glycoprotein that is
the main component of mucus.

The mucin produced by the cell is packaged into vesicles ready for exocytosis.

(i) The first stage in the production of mucin involves transcription of the gene MUC5AC.

Outline the stages occurring in transcription.

The DNA unwinds, and the H bonds break between the bases, and the strand acts as a template, which involves

the RNA polymerase

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...................................................................................................................................................................................[4]

GRADE 11 A LEVEL 4
 (ii) The base sequence shown in Fig. 1.1 is a short section of a longer length of DNA that is
transcribed to produce mRNA. When translated, this short section produces the amino acid
sequence threonine (Thr), proline (Pro), cysteine (Cys).

Fill in the two unshaded boxes in Fig. 1.1 to show:

• the mRNA codon for Cys

• the tRNA anticodon for Thr.

You do not need to give the codon and anticodon sequences in the shaded boxes.

Fig 1.1
mRNA strand produced = UGU
tRNA anticodon produced = UGU
[2]

[Total:6]
12. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published details about the structure of DNA. They
used experimental results from other scientists to help them work out the structure and then built
a model of a section of a DNA molecule, using pieces of wire and metal, with clamp stands to hold
the model in place. This is shown in Fig. 2.1.

(a) Watson and Crick used results from work carried out by Erwin Chargaff. He found that the
proportions of the bases A, T, C and G were different in different species, but within each
species:

• the proportion of A was equal to the proportion of T

• the proportion of G was equal to the proportion of C.

(i) Name the bases A, T, G and C.

A.....adenine...................................................................................................................................

T .....thymine...................................................................................................................................

G .....guanine..................................................................................................................................

GRADE 11 A LEVEL 5
 C ......cytosine..................................................................................................................................
[2]

[TOTAL 2]

GRADE 11 A LEVEL 6