-Start at section 1.3 on page 8, read up to "a theory can be modified" on page 12.
Do include the box entitled "does spoiled meat produce maggots?" It will also be helpful in a general sense to read pages 1-6, stopping before "how do scientists categorize the diversity of life?"

-page 149 to halfway down the first column of page 155. Include figure 9.4
Also the short paragraph titled "mistakes do happen" on page 158

Reading for cellular reproduction:
Textbook, pages 186-192; 194-195. Section 11.5, 11.6 to page 205

To understand pages 186-7 you need to know that a prokaryotic organism is a simple organism with only one cell and no nucleus. There is only one chromosome and it is circular, as shown in figure 11-2. Bacteria are prokaryotes. Eukaryotic organisms have one or more cells. An ameba is an example of a one-celled eukaryote, a snake is a multi-cellular eukaryote. Each eukaryotic cell has a nucleus with a membrane around it, and "cytoplasm" around the nucleus. Each cell contains several strands of DNA which, together with the protein that surrounds them, make up the "chromosomes." So when the cell reproduces, the chromosomes must also reproduce and the DNA molecules must somehow be copied.

You should know the difference between "interphase" and cell division described on page 188, but you do NOT need to know the other "phases." So ignore figure 11.3 but do study figure 11.4. And in figure 11.8 you just need to know the broad outlines of what happens to the chromosomes, the cell and ther nucleus. Don’t worry about the poles, microtubules, nucleolus or spindle. The same applies to figure 11-11 on page 200.

Reading for MENDELIAN GENETICS

chapter 12 (all of it, but especially up to and including page 225)

BIOTECH chapter 13. THIS IS YOUR LAST READING ASSIGNMENT BEFORE THE TEST

We don’t need you to know ALL the details, so try this;

Read page 241 to 245, stop at "the polymerase chain reaction amplifies DNA." Skip the next section and start again at section 13.4. Include table 13-1 (for the test just remember what traits have been changed, you don’t need to remember the names of the plants for each trait) begin sec 13.5 (page 251) and stop at "malfunctioning allele" at the end of the second paragraph. Read just the yellow box on page 252. On page 253 start at the top of the second column ("Different alleles may bind..") and read to the end of the chapter.

The sections I asked you to omit contain a small amount of info that you need. Here it is:

1) PCR is short for "polymerase chain reaction." I believe that the person who thought this up became extremely rich and took up surfing more or less full-time. This reaction enables a DNA molecule to be "amplified’ which means to be copied over and over again in a test tube. No living organism is required!

2) An "STR" is a "short tandem repeat" a short sequence of DNA that is repeated a variable number of times. By using PCR plus further analysis you can tell how many times each one is repeated in a particular individual. Law enforcement has agreed to use 10-13 STR’s each 4 nucleotides long that vary a lot. With a perfect match between two samples for 10 STRs there is less than one chance in a trillion that they did not come from the same individual. With 13 STRs the chance is less than 1 in 200 quadrillion.