Study Guide

Health
Sample Questions

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Competency 0001
Understand the functioning and interrelationships of body systems and major stages of growth and development.

1. Which of the following body systems relays sensory and motor impulses from the brain and spinal cord to internal organs, skeletal muscles, glands, and body surfaces?

  1. endocrine system
  2. musculoskeletal system
  3. cardiovascular system
  4. nervous system
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Correct Response: D. In the peripheral nervous system, cranial nerves connect the brain with sensory organs, the heart, and other internal organs. Spinal nerves carry impulses between the spinal cord and skeletal muscles.

Competency 0002
Understand the nature of disease, factors and behaviors that increase and decrease susceptibility to disease, and benefits of personal health and wellness practices.

2. Autoimmune disorders can accurately be described as diseases in which:

  1. the antigen-antibody response attacks healthy cells in the body or fails to function altogether.
  2. weakened pathogens enter the blood before they are destroyed in the environment.
  3. acquired active immunity provided by vaccines fails to destroy disease-causing microorganisms.
  4. the body's early defense system fails to detect disease-causing pathogens.
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Correct Response: A. Autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, cause the body's immune system, which is designed to attack foreign substances in the body, to attack healthy cells and tissues instead. Since the immune system is unable to differentiate between antigens and normal tissues and cells at body sites, it sends antibodies to form immune complexes, which can circulate and cause tissue inflammation.

Competency 0003
Understand core principles of nutrition and the importance of establishing healthy eating patterns.

3. An adequate intake of carbohydrates is essential for nutritional health because the human body:

  1. utilizes carbohydrates as the raw material for making antibodies, enzymes, and hormones.
  2. converts carbohydrates to glucose, which is the fuel that supplies the energy needed for daily activities.
  3. uses carbohydrates to transport fat-soluble vitamins and convert cholesterol to vitamin D.
  4. relies on carbohydrates to supply the essential amino acids needed for muscle and connective tissue growth.
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Correct Response: B. Carbohydrates are the macronutrients that supply the human body with the energy needed to sustain normal activity. The body metabolizes simple sugars and complex carbohydrates quickly and efficiently, converting them into glucose, the fuel for the body's cells.

Competency 0004
Understand the benefits of physical activity and principles and components of health-related physical fitness.

4. A high school student includes cycling and swimming in her personal fitness program. As she participates in these activities, she tries to maintain a target heart rate of 60% to 80% of her maximum heart rate. This fitness goal is based on which of the following training principles?

  1. specificity of training
  2. intensity of training
  3. frequency of training
  4. progression of training
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Correct Response: B. In this scenario, the student applies the principle of intensity of training in two types of aerobic exercise. Monitoring and maintaining a target heart rate of 60% to 80% of one's maximum heart rate during sustained aerobic exercise provides health-related benefits such as strengthening the cardiovascular system, improving oxygen use and lung capacity, and increasing endurance and stamina.

Competency 0005
Understand principles and skills related to managing stress and maintaining mental and emotional health.

5. Which of the following techniques is likely to be most effective for managing stress that arises from pressures related to family, school, and work responsibilities?

  1. defining the stress reaction as a problem, thinking of several concrete strategies to cope with the problem, and trying out a few
  2. visualizing the events that led to stress and then visualizing an alternate positive version of events
  3. identifying types or sources of stress that are even more challenging than those that tend to affect one personally
  4. using self-talk to acknowledge that everyone has innate weaknesses that allow stress to affect them
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Correct Response: A. Using a problem-solving process to manage stress prompts an individual to identify the source of stress and anxiety, define it as a problem, develop realistic ways of coping with anxious feelings or stressful situations (e.g., participating in physical activity, using a relaxation method, communicating assertively with a person who causes tension), and implement thoughtful and purposeful coping strategies. The ability to accept reality, separate negative events from oneself, and use problem-solving skills to develop coping strategies promotes resiliency, which allows an individual to return to normal functioning after periods of sorrow, stress, or adversity.

Competency 0006
Understand factors, issues, and concepts related to sexual health and reproductive health, as well as how to foster students' ability to abstain from, avoid, and prevent sexual risk behaviors.

6. In a sexual health unit, a secondary health teacher provides students with medically accurate information on sexual health topics, guides students in practicing assertive communication and refusal and negotiation strategies in small-group activities and role plays, and engages students in discussions about the role of personal values and attributes in managing pressure situations. This approach is primarily designed to help students:

  1. separate myth from fact about sexual anatomy and the reproductive process.
  2. develop the ability to self-monitor and self-regulate behaviors in dating relationships.
  3. acquire the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to make responsible decisions in sexual risk situations.
  4. achieve proficiency in the social skills needed for maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships.
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Correct Response: C. The approach described is designed to foster students' ability to minimize and prevent sexual health risks. Providing students with factual information serves to correct any misconceptions students may have about sex, promotes students' understanding of the consequences of sexual risk taking, and enables students to make decisions based on accurate information. Assertive communication skills enhance students' ability to express a decision to not have sex. Practicing refusal, negotiation, and delaying techniques in realistic skits or role plays allows students to try out different strategies for refusing sexual activity and minimizing health risks. Values exploration and discussion on how to assert personal values in peer pressure or risk-related situations helps build students' self-confidence and supports healthy decision making. All of these techniques increase students' ability to analyze situations for potential sexual health risks, determine alternate courses of action and their consequences, and make purposeful health-enhancing decisions to reduce risks.

Competency 0007
Understand types and characteristics of interpersonal communication and relationships, as well as how to foster students' ability to use interpersonal communication skills to avoid health risks and maintain healthy relationships.

7. Which of the following types of personal attributes is likely to make the greatest positive contribution to the development of healthy interpersonal communication?

  1. being able to rationalize and defend one's behavior and personal beliefs in difficult situations
  2. having an aptitude for making people feel that they are important and beyond reproach
  3. being able to express and reveal one's deepest emotions openly and without fear of judgment
  4. having the ability to listen to and demonstrate respect for the viewpoints of others
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Correct Response: D. Active listening is a key aspect of healthy interpersonal communication. Effective listeners try to understand the perspectives, thoughts, and feelings of others from what others communicate verbally and nonverbally. Attributes such as demonstrating respect for others' viewpoints and remaining open and willing to listen to and exchange ideas with others are essential for establishing and maintaining positive interpersonal communication and relationships.

Competency 0008
Understand principles and skills for maintaining safety; preventing accidents, injuries, and violence; and responding to emergencies.

8. Which of the following steps is most appropriate to take first when caring for a conscious child who has accidentally swallowed an adult's prescription or over-the-counter medication?

  1. taking the child to the nearest emergency room
  2. calling the state's Poison Control Center
  3. administering ipecac to induce vomiting
  4. contacting a local pharmacy
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Correct Response: B. When a child ingests a potential poison such as a prescription or over-the-counter medication, the first step is to call the state's Poison Control Center with the label from the medication in hand. The caller should describe who has swallowed the medication, including the child's age and weight; what substance was ingested, how much, and when it was ingested; and any symptoms that are occurring or have occurred (e.g., dizziness, weakness, vomiting). Poison Control Center staff will use this information to decide on a recommendation of what to do next.

Use the information below to answer the two questions that follow.

A health teacher and students participate in the following lesson activities during an alcohol and other drug prevention unit.

  1. The teacher introduces and demonstrates resistance and refusal skills such as walking away, suggesting an alternate activity in a convincing way, assertively saying no or explaining reasons for declining, and using humor to change the subject or turn down an offer of alcohol or other drugs.

  2. The teacher and students watch a video that shows students demonstrating the strategies introduced in the first activity. After the video, the teacher and students discuss the strategies demonstrated and brainstorm and list additional strategies that could be used to resist or refuse alcohol or other drugs.

  3. The teacher passes out a rubric that outlines the resistance and refusal skills covered in class and asks students to form groups of three. Each group thinks of scenarios related to risk situations involving alcohol or other drug use. Two students in each group take turns demonstrating a different resistance or refusal strategy, while the third student uses the skills rubric to provide peer feedback. Group members switch until everyone in the group has had a chance to practice at least two strategies.

  4. The teacher leads a whole-class discussion on which strategies students felt comfortable using and which strategies might work more effectively than others in various situations and why.

Competency 0009
Understand health risks associated with the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, as well as how to foster students' ability to avoid alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

9. Which of the following statements best describes a key advantage of using this series of alcohol and other drug prevention activities?

  1. The activities serve as a hook to motivate students' interest in examining the links between risk-taking behaviors involving alcohol and other drugs and the likelihood of engaging in other unhealthy behaviors.
  2. The activities familiarize students with conflict-management and conflict-resolution skills in a comfortable and nonthreatening practice environment.
  3. The activities help students recognize and anticipate potential risk situations and develop appropriate strategies and attitudes for responding to real-life pressure to engage in risk activities.
  4. The activities encourage students to develop individualized health-enhancing strategies for dealing with both negative and positive peer pressure.
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Correct Response: C. The activities described provide students with experiential learning opportunities that help develop their ability to identify and analyze pressure and risk situations and increase their social competence in dealing with such situations. The activities are aligned with a skills-based approach to teaching resistance and refusal strategies that involves modeling and demonstrating the skills, examining examples of the skills being used, practicing the skills in small-group settings, and receiving feedback from others. Thus, the students have multiple opportunities to rehearse, adapt, and internalize the skills, which in turn increases their competence and confidence in applying the skills in the real world.

Competency 0013
Understand instructional, assessment, and professional practices associated with a coordinated school health program (CSHP) and a comprehensive health education curriculum.

10. After activity 4, the teacher asks students to form groups of three again. The teacher provides each small group with three risk scenarios related to alcohol or other drugs. Each group chooses one scenario and acts out three ways of responding to the situation using resistance or refusal skills. Each group then demonstrates one of the strategies in a role play for the class. This is a particularly useful culminating health education activity primarily because it:

  1. ensures that students will embrace the values inherent in the instructional unit and be able to apply the skills successfully in real-world situations under a variety of conditions.
  2. promotes students' ability to advocate for alcohol and other drug avoidance and prevention efforts using accurate peer and social norms.
  3. serves as authentic practice for students and as a formative assessment that the teacher can use to evaluate students' conceptual understanding and skill processing and performance.
  4. provides students with personalization and closure by allowing them to reflect on skills and tweak the skills to make them their own.
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Correct Response: C. The culminating activity described allows students to refine the skills previously learned in a new practice context and to benefit from observing additional modeling and demonstration of resistance and refusal skills. The activity also serves as a performance assessment task that the teacher can use to evaluate students' skill development and progress, identify strengths and areas needing improvement, and make adjustments to instruction.

Competency 0010
Understand the role of decision making and goal setting in implementing, evaluating, and sustaining healthy behaviors, as well as how to foster students' ability to use decision-making and goal-setting skills to enhance personal and family health.

11. Use the scenario below to answer the question that follows.

A high school student is trying to decide whether to attend a weekend party at a classmate's house. The student knows that the classmate's family will be away and alcohol will be available. The student could tell his parents that he is going to sleep over at a friend's house and instead go to the party, but if his parents found out, he would be in serious trouble and his parents would lose trust in him. The student also knows that he could lose eligibility to play varsity soccer if someone reported that he had violated the athletic and school codes of conduct. On the other hand, if the student does not go to the party, he will miss out on the fun and his friends who do go will think he is a coward.

The student's thinking illustrates the use of which of the following strategies in the decision-making process?

  1. considering alternate options and evaluating possible consequences
  2. reflecting on a personal problem and considering potential barriers to making a decision
  3. choosing the best course of action and identifying potential benefits and rewards
  4. articulating realistic goals and evaluating how to implement and monitor progress toward attaining them
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Correct Response: A. The student in the scenario realizes that decisions have positive and negative consequences. He weighs his options and thinks through the pros and cons of attending or not attending the unsupervised party, reflecting mainly on the negative consequences of each option. After clarifying the decision to be made and identifying possible courses of action, students should carefully consider alternate options and brainstorm and evaluate possible positive and negative consequences. This important step in decision making is typically carried out just before making a decision and is essential for helping students choose healthy options.

Competency 0011
Understand principles and techniques for locating, evaluating, and accessing valid health information, products, and services and the role of advocacy skills and resources in promoting personal, family, and community health.

12. The family of an individual recently diagnosed with high blood pressure wants to learn more about nutritional and physical activity strategies for managing the condition. Which of the following resources is likely to provide accurate information that is most helpful for this purpose?

  1. local department of health
  2. Web sites sponsored by the manufacturers of blood pressure medications
  3. professional health and fitness journals
  4. nonprofit educational or government-sponsored Web sites for health consumers
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Correct Response: D. Many government-sponsored and educational Web sites for health consumers (e.g., the Mayo Clinic, Healthy People 2020) provide comprehensive, objective, and accurate health-related information, as well as links to other reliable resources. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Heart Association are a few examples of government organizations and voluntary nonprofit health agencies whose Web sites recommend appropriate nutritional and physical activity strategies for managing high blood pressure and other conditions.

Competency 0012
Understand the influence of family, peers, society, culture, media, technology, and the environment on personal, family, and community health.

13. Which of the following statements best describes how advertisers target adolescents and attract them to products that pose potential health risks?

  1. Television shows, movies, and magazines feature individuals who embody unrealistic standards of physical beauty.
  2. Advertisers pay television and film companies to place brand-name cosmetics prominently in scenes in television shows and movies.
  3. Fast-food companies arrange promotions and toy tie-ins to coincide with the release of major motion pictures.
  4. Alcohol manufacturers place advertising in magazines, in televised and live sporting events, and on Web sites with young viewers.
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Correct Response: D. Even though adolescents cannot legally drink alcohol, manufacturers of alcoholic beverages target young people with much of their marketing, especially at sporting events that young people attend or watch on television; in music, entertainment, and sports magazines; and on Web sites popular with young people. Alcohol advertising and marketing has a significant effect on youth attitudes and helps create an environment that promotes underage drinking. National studies have confirmed that adolescents who are exposed to alcohol advertisements and view them favorably are likely to have positive expectations about alcohol use.