Chapter 4 Questions - Ch 4 Multiple Choice Identify the...

Ch 4
Multiple Choice
Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____ 1. Organic chemistry is a science based on the study of
a. functional groups.
b. vital forces interacting with matter.
c. carbon compounds.
d. water and its interaction with other kinds of molecules.
e. inorganic compounds.
____ 2. Early 19th-century scientists believed that living organisms differed from nonliving things as a result of
possessing a "life force" that could create organic molecules from inorganic matter. The term given to this
belief is
a. organic synthesis.
b. vitalism.
c. mechanism.
d. organic evolution.
e. inorganic synthesis.
____ 3. The concept of vitalism is based on a belief in a life force outside the jurisdiction of physical and chemical
laws. According to this belief, organic compounds can arise only within living organisms. Which of the
following did the most to refute the concept of vitalism?
____ 4. The experimental approach taken in current biological investigations presumes that
a. simple organic compounds can be synthesized in the laboratory from inorganic precursors,
but complex organic compounds like carbohydrates and proteins can only be synthesized
by living organisms.
b. a life force ultimately controls the activities of living organisms and this life force cannot
be studied by physical or chemical methods.
c. although a life force, or vitalism, exists in living organisms, this life force cannot be
studied by physical or chemical methods.
d. living organisms are composed of the same elements present in nonliving things, plus a
few special trace elements found in only living organisms or their products.
e. living organisms can be understood in terms of the same physical and chemical laws that
can be used to explain all natural phenomena.
____