Secondary 1 Science Practice Exam

*Questions 1 to 17 are multiple choice questions. Circle ONLY ONE answer.

1. Which of the following statements is the best definition of mass?

a. Mass refers to how much space an object takes up.

b. Mass refers to how heavy an object is.

c. Mass refers to how much matter (particles) an object has.

d. Mass refers to how hot or cold an object is.

2. Which of the following choices is an example of condensation?

a. Ms. Melanie has a supply of solid dry ice that quickly becomes a gas in room temperature.

b. Umair heats up water until it turns to gas during an experiment.

c. The ice in Jayla’s water bottle begins to melt.

d. Water droplets form on the surface of Gabriel’s cold water bottle.

3. Which of the following best describes the motion of particles in a solid?

a. The particles do not move at all.

b. The particles can only vibrate.

c. The particles “flow” around each other.

d. The particles move freely in every direction.

4. Which of the following is not a unit of volume?

a. Kilograms (kg) c. Litres (L)

b. Millilitres (mL) d. Cubic centimetres (cm3)

Write this practice test on your own. Try to do as much of it as possible without looking at your notes. If there is something you do not remember how to answer, be sure to check your notes or previous tests, or

ask the teacher for more information. The answers will be posted on our class website by Friday.

5. Which of the following pieces of science equipment is most appropriate for measuring a specific volume

of a liquid?

a. Mortar and pestle c. Scale

b. Beaker d. Graduated cylinder

6. Which of the following is an example of matter?

a. Heat c. Sound

b. Air d. Light

7. Jasmine has a large rectangular block and she needs to know its volume. What is the best way to determine its volume?

a. She should submerge the block in a graduated cylinder.

b. She should place the block in an overflow can.

c. She should calculate length x width x height.

d. She should place the block on a balance.

8. Saliva has a pH of 6. Which of the following statements is true?

a. Saliva is acidic c. Saliva is neutral

b. Saliva is basic d. None of the above

9. Coffee has a pH of 5, while seawater has a pH of 8. Which of the following statements is true?

a. Seawater is more acidic than coffee.

b. Seawater is more basic than coffee.

c. Seawater and coffee are equally acidic.

d. Seawater and coffee are equally basic.

10. Samantha drops a small metal object into a graduated cylinder, which is scaled in

mL. As soon as the object is submerged, the water level rises.

What is the volume of the metal object that Samantha has put in the cylinder?

a. 19 mL c. 10 mL

b. 29 mL d. 1.9 mL

11. Which of the following statements refers to acids?

a. They are typically used as cleaning products.

b. They react with metal to produce a gas.

c. They turn red litmus paper blue.

d. They have a very high pH value.

12. A veterinarian is asked to record the mass of a puppy. However, the puppy

refuses to sit calmly on the balance, as in this picture. Instead, the veterinarian

uses a bathroom scale.

• She steps on the scale while holding the puppy in her arms. The scale

indicates a mass of 78.61 kg.

• She lets go of the puppy and remains standing on the bathroom scale.

The scale now indicates a mass of 69.74 kg.

What is the mass of the puppy?

a. 78.61 kg c. 8.87 kg

b. 69.74 kg d. 1.13 kg

13. What two phase changes occur during distillation?

a. Sublimation and solidification

b. Evaporation and condensation

c. Sublimation and condensation

d. Evaporation and melting

14. Adrian pours 15 g of sand into a beaker of water. The sand settles to

the bottom of the beaker, as shown in the picture on the right. Which of the following statements is true?

a. This is a homogeneous mixture.

b. The water is the solvent, and the sand is the solute.

c. The sand is soluble in water.

d. The sand is insoluble in water.

15. Refer to the image in question 14. Adrian tilts the beaker and pours out the water into another container. This

is an example of:

a. Filtration c. Distillation

b. Decantation d. Sedimentation

16. Which of the following is a pure substance?

a. Water c. Brass

b. Air d. Salad dressing

17. Which of the following statements about mixtures is true?

a. Only heterogeneous mixtures can be separated.

b. Only homogeneous mixtures can be separated.

c. A solute is dissolved in a solvent.

d. A solvent is dissolved in a solute.

Water

Sand

18. During a phase change, the particles that make up a substance behave differently. In the table below, label each

phase of matter and briefly describe the motion of the particles.

Phase

Description of

particle behaviour

19. Identify the name of each phase change in the following diagram. Write the name of the phase in the

appropriate arrow.

20. Using the phase changes in question 20, identify the phase changes being described below:

a. Nathaniel dries some wet clothes in the sun. ____________________

b. Malak floods her backyard in winter to make a skating rink. ____________________

c. Clouds (composed of water droplets) form in the atmosphere. ____________________

d. Water vapour in the air turns to frost on your window. ____________________

e. The solid wax on a candle becomes a liquid when ignited. ____________________

f. When heated, solid iodine crystals transform into a purple gas. ____________________

g. Jimin puts water in a freezer to make ice cubes. ____________________

h. Solid cesium (a dangerous metal) transforms into a liquid at 28C. ____________________

21. Label each of these pieces of lab equipment:

___________________ ___________________

___________________ ___________________

___________________ ___________________

22. Maverick finds a block with the dimensions shown below. It has a mass of 700 g.

14 cm

4 cm

12 cm

What is the density of this block? Show your work.

23. Daciana wants to find out the density of a key she found. She puts it on a balance and notices that it has a mass

of 18.9 g. She then decides to submerge it in a graduated cylinder of water. The images below show the volume

of water inside her graduated cylinder before and after she dropped the key in, in mL.

mL mL

Before After

24. Chalom finds a page in his textbook that shows the densities of different substances. A table with these densities

is shown below.

Densities of Common Substances

Substance

Density

Marble 2.56

Quartz 2.64

Diamond 3.52

Copper 8.92

Gold 19.32

Platinum 21.4

Use this information to answer the following questions.

a. Paolo finds a coin that has a mass of 26.76 g and a volume of 3 cm3. What is the coin made of?

b. Jasmine finds a shiny substance in her backyard and believes that it’s a diamond. She finds that it has

a mass of 5.28 g and a volume of 2 cm3. Did she find a diamond? If not, what did she find?

c. Mïchel finds a ring that has a mass of 107 g. Its volume is 5 cm3. What is the ring made of?

d. Jade has a block with dimensions measuring 3 cm by 4 cm by 6 cm. It has a mass of 184.32 g. What is

its mass?

g

cm3( )

25. Record the volumes of each of these graduated cylinders.

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______

26. The following pH scale shows the pH of several different substances you may have around your house.

a. Sort each of the above substances into the following categories:

Acids Bases Neutral

27. This table summarizes what happens when you put red or blue litmus paper in each type of substance. Fill in

the empty spaces with one of these options:

“stays red” “stays blue” “turns red” “turns blue”

28. What is a characteristic property? Give two examples.

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

First example of a characteristic property: _____________________________

Second example of a characteristic property: _____________________________

29. What is a homogeneous mixture? Give 3 examples.

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_______________ _______________ _______________ First example Second example Third example

30. What is a heterogeneous mixture? Give 3 examples.

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_______________ _______________ _______________ First example Second example Third example

Acid Base Neutral Substance

Red Litmus Paper

Blue Litmus Paper

31. Christopher, Blake, Avarie, Mia and Niamh discover that a mysterious liquid has been spilled onto the floor in

the science room. They each record several observations to attempt to determine what the substance is. Each

student shared their observations:

Christopher

Blake

Avarie

Mia

Niamh

Which student has provided you with the most useful information toward identifying the unknown liquid?

Explain your answer.

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

32. Label the 5 principle layers of Earth’s interior on the following diagram.

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

I poured the entire mysterious liquid into a graduated

cylinder and discovered that it had a volume of 15 mL.

I put a thermometer in the liquid sample and saw that it had

a temperature of 21C.

I calculated that the liquid had a density of 0.79 g/mL.

Using a graduated cylinder whose mass I already knew, I

determined that the liquid had a mass of 11.9 g.

I noticed that the liquid was colourless (transparent).

33. Identify the separation technique being described in this table:

Separation Technique Description Separation Technique

This is a method by which a liquid mixture is spun very fast, separating

it into visible layers.

This method separates solid particles from liquids by trapping them

in paper, while the liquid component flows through small holes.

This method separates mixtures of different sized solid particles

using a metal or plastic mesh.

This method involves collecting the gas that is produced from boiling

a liquid component of a mixture.

This method involves carefully pouring out one of the layers of a

mixture involving a liquid.

34. Identify the separation technique being shown in each of the pictures below:

________________ ________________

________________ ________________

Time

35. In class, you learned about the various “spheres” of the Earth. Match each sphere in the word bank below to

its description.

Sphere Sphere Description

This is the sphere describes the Earth’s upper mantle and crust, focusing on its

rocks, minerals, soils, and the procedures that form them.

This sphere refers to all of the Earth’s water, whether it is frozen or in liquid

form.

This sphere refers to the mixture of gases that make up the air that surrounds

the Earth.

This is the sphere describes plants, animals, germs, and any other living thing

on Earth.

36. This is a picture of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. It is known as a

“geothermal spa”, and its water is very warm (approximately 37C). The

water is so warm that visitors can swim comfortably in this water, even

during Iceland’s cold winters.

Why is the water of this lagoon so warm?

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

37. The atmosphere has 4 main functions. List these functions below.

1. __________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

38. Identify the water cycle phenomenon being described in the table below.

Water Cycle Phenomenon Description

This is the movement of water that is flowing underground. It can

be accessed by a well. Eventually, this water will flow into a larger body of water.

This is a phase change in which water vapour cools in the

atmosphere and forms clouds.

This is when water that fell as rain or melted snow flows down the

surface of an uneven slope, such as a mountain. It will run down the mountainside until it reaches a larger body of water.

This is a process in which plants and animals (mostly plants) exhale

water vapour into the atmosphere.

When the water droplets in clouds become too heavy, they fall as

rain (or snow if these droplets solidify).

This is a phase change in which liquid water on the surface of the Earth is heated. When heated, the liquid becomes vapour and rises

in the atmosphere.

This is when rain water or melted snow makes its way into the

ground. This is the reason plants can get moisture from the soil.

39. Using your knowledge of the atmosphere, give two reasons why you cannot open a window on an airplane.

______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________

40. Fill in the blanks in the following text:

Millions of years ago, the Earth’s continents were all connected into a supercontinent called

____________. Tectonic plates moved very slowly at a rate of approximately 2 cm per year. This

has separated the continents into their current configuration. This separation of continents is known

as ___________________.

4

41. During a lab, Maverick places a beaker of water on a hot plate. When the heat is turned on, the water begins

to move.

a. Describe the motion of the water in the beaker once the heat is turned

on. Be specific about what happens with the hotter and colder water. You

may draw arrows on the beaker to accompany your explanation.

___________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

b. What part of the inner Earth (crust, mantle, or core) does the water

represent?

___________________

c. What is the process by which fluids of different temperatures circulate?

___________________

42. Selina is Maverick’s lab partner. After the water in Maverick’s beaker begins to boil, Selina places 3 glasses of

water directly above the boiling water. The first glass contains hot water, the second contains room temperature water, and the third contains cold water. On which glass would you expect to see the most

condensation, and why?

_____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

43. In the table below, identify the type of tectonic plate movement shown by the arrows. Then, predict what geological phenomenon would occur as a result.

Tectonic Plate Movement Name of Movement What does this cause?