CHAPTER 4 / CRITICAL READING SKILLS 181
- If both Pasteur’s conclusion that “life could
not originate in the absence of... eggs and
spores” (lines 42–45) and the statement, “This
common ancestor... units” (lines 53–57) are
true, then which of the following statements also
must be true about “prebiotic assembly” (lines
54–55)?
(A) It is not a “spontaneous” process.
(B) It does not depend on sunlight.
(C) It produces molecules unlike those in
current life forms.
(D) It occurs in the absence of water.
(E) It occurs very quickly. - The author of this passage would likely agree
with all of the following statements EXCEPT
(A) Jean Baptiste van Helmont’s efforts to syn-
thesize organisms were poorly controlled.
(B) Life on earth began about 4 billion years ago.
(C) Nonliving matter cannot form units that can
reproduce themselves.
(D) The chemical makeup of organisms must be
fundamentally similar to that of their parents.
(E) Carefully controlled experiments can
disprove even widely held biological theories. - The theory of biogenesis described in lines 50–60
shares what common element with the theory of
spontaneous generation described in lines 1–11?
(A) a single common ancestor
(B) water as an essential reactant
(C) the process of fermentation
(D) sexual reproduction
(E) decaying organisms