Grade 3 Science Practice Test: Forces, Life Cycles and Weather
- Forces, Life Cycles and Weather
- 12 questions
- 15 minutes
This test covers Grade 3 science: pushes and pulls, magnets, life cycles, traits that come from parents, fossils, and weather. Tip: when a question shows a table, look for the pattern in the numbers before you choose an answer.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
The arrows show two pushes on a wagon that is standing still. A longer arrow means a stronger push.
Which statement is true?
Correct answer: B
The push from the left side is stronger (longer arrow) than the push from the right side, so the forces are unbalanced. The wagon starts to move in the direction of the stronger push, which points to the right. The forces would be balanced only if both arrows were the same length, and then the wagon would stay still.
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Question 2
Jada watches a toy car with a motor roll across a flat floor. She marks how far it is from the starting line every second.
Time (seconds) Distance from start (cm) 0 0 1 15 2 30 3 45 If the pattern continues, how far from the start will the car be after 5 seconds?
Correct answer: C
The car moves 15 cm farther every second. After 4 seconds it is at 60 cm, and after 5 seconds it is at 75 cm. The answer 60 cm is where the car is after only 4 seconds.
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Question 3
Which object would a magnet pick up?
Correct answer: A
Magnets attract things that contain iron, and steel is made mostly of iron. Aluminum and copper are metals too, but a magnet does not pick them up, so not every metal is attracted to a magnet.
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Question 4
Leo tapes sheets of paper to the bottom of a magnet. He touches the paper to a pile of paper clips, lifts the magnet and counts the clips that come up with it. More sheets put more distance between the magnet and the clips.
Sheets of paper Paper clips lifted 0 10 5 7 10 4 15 1 What do the results show?
Correct answer: D
As the stack of paper grew, the number of clips lifted went down from 10 to 1, so the magnet's pull got weaker as the distance grew. The magnet still lifted clips through 10 and even 15 sheets, so it can pull through paper.
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Question 5
Which statement is true about the life cycles of all plants and animals?
Correct answer: B
Life cycles look very different, but every plant and animal begins life, grows, can reproduce and finally dies. Many animals, such as dogs and people, are born alive instead of hatching, and a caterpillar does not look like the butterfly it will become.
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Question 6
A butterfly's life cycle has four stages: egg → caterpillar (larva) → ? → adult butterfly. Which stage is missing?
Correct answer: A
When the caterpillar is fully grown, it forms a chrysalis. Inside this pupa stage its body changes into an adult butterfly. A tadpole belongs to a frog's life cycle, and a young grasshopper (nymph) hatches looking like a small adult, so it has no pupa stage.
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Question 7
Which of these traits did a puppy most likely inherit from its parents?
Correct answer: D
Fur color and pattern are passed from parents to their young. A scar comes from an injury, sitting on command is learned, and a haircut is something done to the dog, so none of those are inherited.
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Question 8
Mia cuts two stems from the same mint plant and grows each one in its own pot, so the two new plants have the same inherited traits. Both pots get the same soil and the same amount of water. One pot sits in a sunny window, and the other sits in a dark corner. After four weeks, the plant in the window is green and bushy with many leaves, while the plant in the corner is pale and thin with few leaves. What does this experiment best show?
Correct answer: C
Both plants came from the same parent plant and got the same soil and water, so the only difference was the light where they grew. This shows that the environment can affect a living thing's traits, such as its size and color. The traits they inherited were the same.
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Question 9
Scientists find fossils of clams and fish in the rock at the top of a dry mountain. What do these fossils tell us about this place long ago?
Correct answer: A
Clams and fish live in water, so their fossils show that this rock formed under water, such as at the bottom of a sea. Over a very long time the land changed, and the rock was pushed up to become part of a mountain.
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Question 10
Pocket mice live in an area covered with dark rock. Some of the mice have dark fur and some have light fur, and fur color is passed from parents to their young. Owls hunt the mice. Scientists counted the mice for three years.
Year Dark mice Light mice 1 50 50 2 61 39 3 72 28 Which explanation best fits the data?
Correct answer: B
Dark mice blend in with the dark rock, so owls catch fewer of them. More dark mice live long enough to have babies, and their young also have dark fur, so dark mice become more common each year. A mouse does not change its fur color to match the rocks during its life.
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Question 11
The table shows the usual weather in one town.
Month Average high temperature Average rain and snow January 38°F 3.1 inches April 61°F 3.9 inches July 86°F 4.2 inches October 64°F 3.0 inches Which month in the table is usually both the warmest and the wettest?
Correct answer: C
July has the highest average temperature (86°F) and the most rain and snow (4.2 inches). April is the second wettest month, but it is much cooler than July.
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Question 12
A family's house is next to a river that sometimes floods after heavy rain. Which design would best protect the house from flood damage?
Correct answer: D
If the house stands on tall posts, floodwater can flow underneath it instead of into the rooms. A lightning rod protects a building from lightning, not from rising water.
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