Grade 5 Science Practice Test: Food Webs, Decomposers and Energy Flow
- Food Webs, Decomposers and Energy Flow
- 10 questions
- 13 minutes
Ten questions on how energy from the Sun and matter move through living things. Tip: in a food web, follow the arrows; they point toward the organism that does the eating.
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
In a meadow, grass is eaten by rabbits, mice and grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are eaten by frogs and birds. Frogs are eaten by snakes. Mice are eaten by snakes and owls. Rabbits are eaten by foxes.
What is the original source of energy for this food web?
Correct answer: A
Grass captures energy from sunlight to make its food, and every animal in the web gets its energy from the grass directly or indirectly. The grass passes energy on but is not its original source.
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Question 2
In a meadow, grass is eaten by rabbits, mice and grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are eaten by frogs and birds. Frogs are eaten by snakes. Mice are eaten by snakes and owls. Rabbits are eaten by foxes.
Which organism in the meadow is a producer?
Correct answer: C
A producer makes its own food from sunlight. Grass is the only plant listed; the animals are all consumers.
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Question 3
In a meadow, grass is eaten by rabbits, mice and grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are eaten by frogs and birds. Frogs are eaten by snakes. Mice are eaten by snakes and owls. Rabbits are eaten by foxes.
A disease kills most of the grasshoppers. Which population would most likely decrease next?
Correct answer: D
Frogs eat grasshoppers, so they would lose a food source. Grass would more likely increase because fewer grasshoppers would be eating it.
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Question 4
In a meadow, grass is eaten by rabbits, mice and grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are eaten by frogs and birds. Frogs are eaten by snakes. Mice are eaten by snakes and owls. Rabbits are eaten by foxes.
Which organism is a primary consumer?
Correct answer: B
A primary consumer eats producers. The mouse eats grass; the snake, owl and frog eat other animals.
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Question 5
What do the arrows in a food web show?
Correct answer: D
Arrows go from food to feeder, showing where the energy goes. A common mistake is drawing the arrow from the predator to its prey.
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Question 6
What is the main role of decomposers such as fungi and bacteria?
Correct answer: A
Decomposers feed on dead plants, animals and wastes, releasing nutrients that plants can use again. Making food from sunlight is what producers do.
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Question 7
A small seed grows into a large tree. Where does most of the material that makes up the tree's mass come from?
Correct answer: B
Plants build sugar from carbon dioxide and water during photosynthesis, and that sugar becomes wood and leaves. Sunlight provides energy, not matter, and only a small amount of the mass comes from soil minerals.
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Question 8
When a frog eats a grasshopper, how much of the energy the grasshopper got from its food is passed on to the frog?
Correct answer: C
Each organism uses most of the energy it takes in to move, grow and stay alive, and much leaves as heat. That is why there is less energy available at each higher level of a food web.
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Question 9
What would most likely happen in a forest if all the decomposers disappeared?
Correct answer: B
Without decomposers, dead leaves and bodies would not break down, and their nutrients would stay locked up instead of returning to the soil for new plants.
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Question 10
Two identical bean plants get the same water and soil. One sits in a sunny window and one in a dark closet. After two weeks the closet plant is pale and weak. What does this result support?
Correct answer: C
Light was the only thing that differed, and the plant without light did poorly, so light is needed to make food. Both plants had the same soil, so the soil cannot explain the difference.
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