Question 1

Linear Function

Accepted Answer

A function whose graph forms a straight line. Change in y over change in x remains constant.

Question 2

Quadratic Function

Accepted Answer

A function that can be described by an equation of the form f(x) = ax^2 + bx + c, where a ≠ 0.

Question 3

Photosynthesis

Accepted Answer

Process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods with the aid of chlorophyll.

Question 4

Cellular Respiration

Accepted Answer

The process by which cells use oxygen to produce energy from food.

Question 5

Prokaryote

Accepted Answer

A unicellular organism that lacks a nucleus or any other membrane-bound organelle.

Question 6

Eukaryote

Accepted Answer

An organism with cells that have nuclei and membrane-bound organelles.

Question 7

Mendelian Inheritance

Accepted Answer

The principles of heredity proposed by Gregor Mendel in 1866, based on his observations of traits in pea plants.

Question 8

Homeostasis

Accepted Answer

The state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions maintained by living systems.

Question 9

Federalism

Accepted Answer

The mixed or compound mode of government, combining a general government with regional governments in a single political system.

Question 10

Separation of Powers

Accepted Answer

A model for the governance of democratic states, where powers are divided among different branches of government.

Question 11

Checks and Balances

Accepted Answer

A system in which each branch of government is able to check, or restrain, the power of the others.

Question 12

Market Economy

Accepted Answer

An economic system in which production and prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.

Question 13

Command Economy

Accepted Answer

An economy in which production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government.

Question 14

Mixed Economy

Accepted Answer

An economic system combining private and public enterprise.

Question 15

Mesoamerica

Accepted Answer

A region and cultural area in the Americas, extending roughly from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica.

Question 16

Manifest Destiny

Accepted Answer

The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Question 17

Reconstruction

Accepted Answer

The period after the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union (1865-1877).

Question 18

The Great Depression

Accepted Answer

The severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States.

Question 19

Civil Rights Movement

Accepted Answer

A struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law.

Question 20

Cold War

Accepted Answer

The geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II.

Question 21

Central Idea

Accepted Answer

The most important point the author makes in a text.

Question 22

Inference

Accepted Answer

A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.

Question 23

Connotation

Accepted Answer

An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Question 24

Denotation

Accepted Answer

The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.

Question 25

Theme

Accepted Answer

The main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.

Question 26

Genre

Accepted Answer

A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

Question 27

Point of View

Accepted Answer

The perspective from which a story is told.

Question 28

Irony

Accepted Answer

The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Question 29

Symbolism

Accepted Answer

The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

Question 30

Foreshadowing

Accepted Answer

A literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

Question 31

Metaphor

Accepted Answer

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Question 32

Simile

Accepted Answer

A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.

Question 33

Alliteration

Accepted Answer

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Question 34

Hyperbole

Accepted Answer

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Question 35

Onomatopoeia

Accepted Answer

The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.

Question 36

Personification

Accepted Answer

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Question 37

Imagery

Accepted Answer

Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

Question 38

Atomic Number

Accepted Answer

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom, which determines the chemical properties of an element and its place in the periodic table.

Question 39

Isotope

Accepted Answer

Each of two or more forms of the same element that contain equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.

Question 40

Ionic Bond

Accepted Answer

A type of chemical bond that involves the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions.

Question 41

Covalent Bond

Accepted Answer

A chemical bond that involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms.

Question 42

Endothermic Reaction

Accepted Answer

A process or reaction that absorbs energy in the form of heat.

Question 43

Exothermic Reaction

Accepted Answer

A chemical reaction that releases energy by light or heat.

Question 44

Density

Accepted Answer

The degree of compactness of a substance, calculated as mass/volume.

Question 45

Law of Conservation of Mass

Accepted Answer

States that mass in an isolated system is neither created nor destroyed by chemical reactions or physical transformations.

Question 46

Plate Tectonics

Accepted Answer

A theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle.

Question 47

Weathering

Accepted Answer

The breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, water, and biological organisms.

Question 48

Erosion

Accepted Answer

The process of eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents.

Question 49

Deposition

Accepted Answer

The geological process in which sediments, soil and rocks are added to a landform or land mass.

Question 50

Producers

Accepted Answer

Organisms, usually plants, that produce oxygen and convert carbon dioxide into organic material by photosynthesis.

Question 51

Consumers

Accepted Answer

Organisms, typically animals, that feed on other organisms or organic matter due to lack of the ability to produce their own food.

Question 52

Decomposers

Accepted Answer

Organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, that break down dead or decaying organisms.

Question 53

Food Chain

Accepted Answer

A series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food.

Question 54

Food Web

Accepted Answer

A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.

Question 55

Biotic Factor

Accepted Answer

A living component that affects another organism, or shapes the ecosystem.

Question 56

Abiotic Factor

Accepted Answer

A non-living condition or thing that influences or affects an ecosystem and the organisms in it.

Question 57

Symbiosis

Accepted Answer

Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.

Question 58

Ecological Succession

Accepted Answer

The process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.

Question 59

Primary Succession

Accepted Answer

An ecological succession process that occurs in an environment devoid of vegetation and other organisms usually following a devastating event.

Question 60

Secondary Succession

Accepted Answer

The series of community changes that take place on a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat.

Question 61

Carrying Capacity

Accepted Answer

The maximum number of individuals of a particular species that a particular environment can support.

Question 62

Biodiversity

Accepted Answer

The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

Question 63

Taxonomy

Accepted Answer

The branch of science concerned with classification, especially of organisms; systematics.

Question 64

Kingdom

Accepted Answer

The highest taxonomic rank, or the second highest in a domain system, grouping together all forms of life having certain fundamental characteristics in common.

Advanced Texas STAAR Exam Flashcards