AD
« Back

STEPCAI

« All free sample lessons

Classifying Living Things: Practice Questions with Answers

Curriculum: Classifying Living ThingsGrades: 7–9Questions: 12Mode: Practice

These are the real questions from this STEPCAI practice lesson. Read each question, pick your answer, then open Show the answer to check yourself and read why it is right. On STEPCAI the same lesson runs interactively: you click an answer and get instant feedback, and a free account keeps your scores.

Practice this lesson free with instant feedback

Free. New visitors accept the Software License Agreement first.

1. Why do scientists classify living things into groups?

  1. To make plants grow faster
  2. To give every organism the same name
  3. To make organisms easier to study and organize based on shared traits
  4. To decide which animals are allowed in zoos
Show the answer
Answer: C. To make organisms easier to study and organize based on shared traits
Classification groups organisms by shared characteristics, which helps scientists organize, study, and communicate about the huge variety of living things on Earth.

2. Who developed the two-name naming system for organisms that scientists still use today?

  1. Gregor Mendel
  2. Charles Darwin
  3. Carl Linnaeus
  4. Louis Pasteur
Show the answer
Answer: C. Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus, an 18th-century Swedish scientist, created binomial nomenclature, the two-word naming system that gives every species a unique scientific name.

3. What is the basic unit of classification, and the smallest, most specific group in the system?

  1. Phylum
  2. Family
  3. Species
  4. Kingdom
Show the answer
Answer: C. Species
Species is the smallest and most specific taxonomic group. Organisms in the same species share the most traits and are the most closely related.

4. Two organisms belong to the same species if they can do which of the following?

  1. Mate and produce fertile offspring
  2. Eat the same type of food
  3. Live in the same country
  4. Be the same color
Show the answer
Answer: A. Mate and produce fertile offspring
The main scientific definition of a species is a group of organisms that can breed with each other in nature and produce offspring that are themselves able to reproduce.

5. In a scientific name like Homo sapiens, what do the two parts represent?

  1. The genus and the species
  2. The family and the genus
  3. The class and the order
  4. The kingdom and the phylum
Show the answer
Answer: A. The genus and the species
A scientific name has two parts: the first word is the genus (capitalized) and the second word is the specific species name (lowercase), together they identify one exact organism.

6. Which kingdom is made up of organisms that make their own food through photosynthesis and have cell walls made of cellulose?

  1. Fungi
  2. Plantae
  3. Animalia
  4. Protista
Show the answer
Answer: B. Plantae
Plantae contains organisms like trees, grasses, and mosses. They use sunlight to make their own food through photosynthesis and have rigid cell walls made of cellulose.

7. Which kingdom contains organisms that get energy by eating other organisms and have cells with no cell walls?

  1. Animalia
  2. Fungi
  3. Plantae
  4. Bacteria
Show the answer
Answer: A. Animalia
Animalia includes multicellular organisms that cannot make their own food, so they must eat other living things, and their cells lack the rigid cell walls found in plants and fungi.

8. Mushrooms, molds, and yeasts belong to which kingdom, since they absorb nutrients from dead or decaying material?

  1. Animalia
  2. Fungi
  3. Protista
  4. Plantae
Show the answer
Answer: B. Fungi
Fungi are decomposers that absorb nutrients from their surroundings, often from dead organic matter, and their cells have walls made of a tough material called chitin, not cellulose.

9. What is a branching tool with a series of paired yes-or-no questions that helps identify an unknown organism?

  1. A life cycle chart
  2. A dichotomous key
  3. A cladogram
  4. A food web
Show the answer
Answer: B. A dichotomous key
A dichotomous key guides you through a series of two-choice steps about an organism's traits, narrowing the possibilities until you reach its identification.

10. In the classification hierarchy, which of these groups contains the most different kinds of organisms?

  1. Species
  2. Family
  3. Genus
  4. Kingdom
Show the answer
Answer: D. Kingdom
Kingdom is one of the broadest, most general levels in the classification system, so it contains far more organisms and more variety than the smaller, more specific groups.

11. Animals that have a backbone, such as fish, birds, and mammals, are called what?

  1. Decomposers
  2. Protists
  3. Vertebrates
  4. Invertebrates
Show the answer
Answer: C. Vertebrates
Vertebrates are animals with an internal skeleton that includes a backbone, or spinal column, which supports the body and protects the spinal cord.

12. Which of these follows the correct format for writing a scientific name?

  1. CANIS LUPUS
  2. canis Lupus
  3. canis lupus
  4. Canis lupus
Show the answer
Answer: D. Canis lupus
The correct format capitalizes only the first letter of the genus name, keeps the species name lowercase, and the whole name is italicized (or underlined when handwritten).
Practice this lesson free with instant feedback

Free. New visitors accept the Software License Agreement first.

More free middle school sample lessons

See all free sample lessons »
AD
AD
Free Sample Lessons  •  Free Homeschool Curriculum  •  Privacy Policy  •  Terms of Use  •  Contact Us