hey guys--can you put these biology words in your own words--10th grade-b/c i cant understand them in the book

Question

adaptation
descent with modification
natural selection
population
variation
artificial selection

Answer 1

According to information as presented on Dr. Graeme Lindbeck (of the Valencia Community College Science Department)'s Fundamentals of Biology II website and Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (with whom I hold no ties and have gained no permission in citing or using their works in both cases) - and my interpretation:

Adaptation: an adjustment within a living thing that makes it more fit to the conditions in its environment. (something like a flower closing its petals when it gets cold)

Descent with modification: all living things are related through being relatives of (descendents to) unknown ancestors in the past who adapted to their environment. (that flower is related to a flower long ago that may not look like it now, but gained the ability to close its petals when it gets cold)

Natural selection: explain's Darwin's theory about life's unity and diversity and the cause of adaptive evolution (this flower survived because it was naturally more fit to its surroundings when other flowers died because they couldn't close)

Population: a number of things within a location (there are 15 of those flowers on this hill, but there may be more in other parts of the world)

Variation: change in structure or function of a living thing that is not the norm (when that flower adapted to close when it gets cold - that is a variation from the other flowers like it that could not close)

Artificial Selection: selecting certain living things within a population based on the fact that they hold certain adapted features. (I purposely select that flower that closes when it gets cold and breeding that flower with another flower that turns color when it gets cold)