100% Free Test Prep MCAT Practice Test Questions

Question 1

The bacterial cells and virus particle, both have:

Section: Biological Sciences

A : a cell membrane.

B : nuclear material.

C : a cell wall.

D : a slime layer.

Answer: B

Question 2

…From a geological point of view, the Mediterranean is a tectonically mobile land-enclosed depression – small

(about 3,000,000 square kilometers) in comparison to the major world oceans…Immediately obvious on all

charts is the highly variable topography and relief of both the seafloor and adjacent borderland. The coastline is

highly irregular and continental shelves, though generally narrow, are well developed off the major river deltas

(Nile, Rhone, Po, and Ebro). Moreover, the deep-sea basins and trenches have distinctive relief, with basin

plains ranging in depth from less than 1,000 meters to more than 4,000…Observation that rocks dredged

offshore are similar to those on land raised a fundamental concept – the key to understanding Mediterranean

history lies in the adjacent emerged land masses, and vice-versa…

…Early paleographic reconstructions showed that the once-open communication with the Atlantic deteriorated

during the upper Miocene. Water-mass exchange continued for a while in the Rif Strait, but then ceased

completely prior to the beginning of the Pliocene…

…High relief near what is now the Strait of Gibraltar served as a barrier to the exchange of waters with the

Atlantic. Exposed to a hot and dry climate, water evaporated and the then-dry basin elicited comparison with a

gigantic Death Valley…Microfossil studies suggested that the depth of the Mediterranean basin at these times

had been “deep.” Estimates suggested a dry seafloor as far as 2,000 meters below ocean level… As a

response to suddenly lowered sea level, rivers feeding the Mediterranean and canyons on the now-dry seafloor

began a geologically dramatic phase of erosion. Deep, Grand Canyon-like gorges of the Nile and Rhone rivers,

presently buried on land, were apparently cut during a great drawdown of water – when the Mediterranean floor

lay exposed 1,000 meters or more below its present level…The sudden flooding through a gigantic waterfall at

Gibraltar drowned the exposed basin floor. These falls would have been 1,000 times bigger than Niagara

Falls…This flooding event is recorded by the Miocene Pliocene boundary, a time when open marine faunal

assemblages were suddenly reintroduced from the Atlantic…

…Geological theories usually fall at a glacial pace into a sea of controversy, and this one is no exception. Today

– charging that proof for the theory is lacking – many scientists believe that the Med always contained saltwater,

with only the depth of the seafloor and the water being in question… Some of the tenets on which the theory

was formulated are, if not defective, very seriously in question. To interpret their findings, a respectable number

of geologists studying the surrounding emerged borderland as well as subsea sections indicate that alternative,

more comprehensive concepts must be envisioned…

…It is not realistic to envision the Mediterranean seafloor of about 5 million years ago as a desert at 3,000

meters below present ocean level. Several years ago…the Mediterranean [was compared] to a complex

picture-puzzle that comprises numerous intricate pieces, many of which are already in place. A general image

is emerging, although gaps in some areas of the picture remain fuzzy and indistinct.

It can be inferred from the passage that geological theories tend to:

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : exist in the world of science with little controversy.

B : develop over short periods of time after multiple research efforts.

C : be disproved with the next trend in scientific thought.

D : evolve to incorporate the growing body of knowledge derived from geological research.

Answer: D

Question 3

Agonistic behavior, or aggression, is exhibited by most of the more than three million species of animals on this

planet. Animal behaviorists still disagree on a comprehensive definition of the term, but aggressive behavior

can be loosely described as any action that harms an adversary or compels it to retreat. Aggression may serve

many purposes, such as food gathering, establishing territory, and enforcing social hierarchy. In a general

Darwinian sense, however, the purpose of aggressive behavior is to increase the individual animal’s – and thus,

the species’ – chance of survival.

Aggressive behavior may be directed at animals of other species, or it may be conspecific – that is, directed at

members of an animal’s own species. One of the most common examples of conspecific aggression occurs in

the establishment and maintenance of social hierarchies. In a hierarchy, social dominance is usually

established according to physical superiority; the classic example is that of a pecking order among domestic

fowl. The dominance hierarchy may be viewed as a means of social control that reduces the incidence of attack

within a group. Once established, the hierarchy is rarely threatened by disputes because the inferior animal

immediately submits when confronted by a superior.

Two basic types of aggressive behavior are common to most species: attack and defensive threat. Each type

involves a particular pattern of physiological and behavioral responses, which tends not to vary regardless of

the stimulus that provokes it. For example, the pattern of attack behavior in cats involves a series of

movements, such as stalking, biting, seizing with the forepaws and scratching with the hind legs, that changes

very little regardless of the stimulus – that is, regardless of who or what the cat is attacking.

The cat’s defensive threat response offers another set of closely linked physiological and behavioral patterns.

The cardiovascular system begins to pump blood at a faster rate, in preparation for sudden physical activity.

The eyes narrow and the ears flatten against the side of the cat’s head for protection, and other vulnerable

areas of the body such as the stomach and throat are similarly contracted. Growling or hissing noises and erect

fur also signal defensive threat. As with the attack response, this pattern of responses is generated with little

variation regardless of the nature of the stimulus.

Are these aggressive patterns of attack and defensive threat innate, genetically programmed, or are they

learned? The answer seems to be a combination of both. A mouse is helpless at birth, but by its 12th day of life

can assume a defensive threat position by backing up on its hind legs. By the time it is one month old, the

mouse begins to exhibit the attack response. Nonetheless, copious evidence suggests that animals learn and

practice aggressive behavior; one need look no further than the sight of a kitten playing with a ball of string. All

the elements of attack – stalking, pouncing, biting and shaking – are part of the game which prepares the kitten

for more serious situations later in life.

The author suggests that the question of whether agonistic behavior is genetically programmed or learned:

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : still generates considerable controversy among animal behaviorists.

B : was first investigated through experiments on mice.

C : is outdated since most scientists now believe the genetic element to be most important.

D : has been the subject of extensive clinical study.

Answer: D

Question 4

The anthropomorphic bias of those who would relegate marsupials to an inferior evolutionary status is most

apparent in their recourse to data on brain structure and behavior. Unlike humans and other placentals,

marsupials lack the corpus callosum, which facilitates inter-hemisphere transfer of data acquired through the

senses. Yet it cannot be inferred that marsupials are thus deprived of such function. Didelphis Virginiana, one

of the opossums, makes use of the anterior commissure, an adaptation that is also found in reptiles and

monotremes. Diprodontons, including kangaroos and koalas, supplement the anterior commissure with the

fasciculus aberrans. While the modes of neocortical interconnection may be diverse, the work of Johnson,

Heath and Jones points to the conclusion that, functionally speaking the cortices and neocortices of both

groups of mammals exhibit parallel connections. Parker also notes “a similar range of brain size to body weight

ratios and of neocortical expansion”.

Another stigma borne by marsupials is the consensus that they are less intelligent than placentals. Yet Williams

argues that, all else being equal, natural selection will favor instinctive over learned behavior as being more

biologically efficient and that it is the accidental death of the young that is the prime selective pressure for the

evolution of intelligence. Seen in this light, marsupials have a competitive edge; their gestation period is brief

and the young remain in the pouch for an extended period exposed only to those dangers which also affect the

mother. There they are directly exposed to the mother’s food supply and can observe her behavior at leisure.

Placentals, on the other hand, not only have a longer gestation period but, once their young are born, must

often leave while foraging. Such absences increase the risk of mortality and decrease the opportunity to learn.

Thus, among placentals, selection would favor the apparent intelligence in the young and protective behavior in

the mother.

Marsupials are not known to exhibit maternal protective behavior. In fact, Serventy has reported that frightened

female kangaroos will drop their pouch-young as they flee, drawing a predator’s attention to the less able

offspring while the adult escapes. This behavior, whether purposeful or accidental, instantaneously relieves the

female marsupial of the mechanical difficulties of pregnancy with which her placental counterpart would be

burdened, while marsupials can replace any lost young quickly. Thus, in the absence of any need for close

maternal supervision, sacrificing their offspring in this manner may well have been favored in selection. Pointing

to the absence of the “virtue” of maternal protectiveness in marsupials is an instance of how mistaken are those

theorists who see similarities with humans as marks of evolutionary sophistication.

According to the passage, which of the following favor(s) the development of intelligence as a trait of placental

mammals?

I. The need to leave their young while foraging

II. The comparatively great risk of accidental death of the young

III. The opportunity for the young to observe the mother at leisure

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : I only

B : III only

C : I and II only

D : II and III only

Answer: C

Question 5

Millenialism is, generally speaking, the religious belief that salvation and material benefits will be conferred

upon a society in the near future as the result of some apocalyptic event. The term derives from the Latin word

for 1,000; in early Christian theology, believers held that Christ would return and establish his kingdom on earth

for a period of a thousand years.

Millenialist movements, Christian and non-Christian, have arisen at various points throughout history, usually in

times of great crisis or social upheaval. In “nativistic” millenialist movements, a people threatened with cultural

disintegration attempts to earn its salvation by rejecting foreign customs and values and returning to the “old

ways.” One such movement involving the Ghost Dance cults, named after the ceremonial dance which cult

members performed in hope of salvation, flourished in the late 19th century among Indians of the western

United States.

By the middle of the 19th century, western expansion and settlement by whites was seriously threatening Native

American cultures. Mining, agriculture and ranching encroached on and destroyed many Indian land and food

sources. Indian resistance led to a series of wars and massacres, culminating in the U.S. Government’s policy

of resettlement of Indians onto reservations which constituted a fraction of their former territorial base. Under

these dire circumstances, a series of millenialist movements began among western tribes.

The first Ghost Dance cult arose in western Nevada around 1870. A Native American prophet named

Wodziwob, a member of a Northern Paiute tribe, received the revelation of an imminent apocalypse which

would destroy the white man, restore all dead Indians to life, and return to the Indians their lands, food supplies

(such as the vanishing buffalo), and old way of life. The apocalypse was to be brought about with the help of a

ceremonial dance and songs, and by strict adherence to a moral code which, oddly enough, strongly resembled

Christian teaching. In the early 1870s, Wodziwob’s Ghost Dance cult spread to several tribes in California and

Oregon, but soon died out or was absorbed into other cults.

A second Ghost Dance cult, founded in January 1889, evolved as the result of a similar revelation. This time

Wovoka – another Northern Paiute Indian, whose father had been a disciple of Wodziwob – received a vision

during a solar eclipse in which he died, spoke to God, and was assigned the task of teaching the dance and the

millennial message. With white civilization having pushed western tribes ever closer to the brink of cultural

disintegration during the previous twenty years, the Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly this time, catching

on among tribes from the Canadian border to Texas, and from the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevadas – an

area approximately one-third the size of the continental United States.

Wovoka’s Ghost Dance doctrine forbade Indian violence against whites or other Indians; it also involved the

wearing of “ghost shirts,” which supposedly rendered the wearers invulnerable to the white man’s bullets. In

1890, when the Ghost Dance spread to the Sioux Indians, both the ghost shirts and the movement itself were

put to the test. Violent resistance to white domination had all but ended among the Sioux by the late 1880s,

when government- ordered reductions in the size of their reservations infuriated the Sioux, and made them

particularly responsive to the millenialist message of the Ghost Dance. As the Sioux organized themselves in

the cult of the dance, an alarmed federal government resorted to armed intervention which ultimately led to the

massacre of some 200 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in December of

1890. The ghost shirts had been worn to no avail, and Wounded Knee marked the end of the second Ghost

Dance cult.

Which of the following was NOT part of the spiritual revelation described in the fourth paragraph of the

passage?

Section: Verbal Reasoning

A : Unity among all Indian tribes

B : Restoration of traditional Indian ways

C : Resurrection of the dead

D : Return of the buffalo

Answer: A

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