Chapter 1

LIFE PROCESSES
Question 1

What criteria do we use to decide whether

something is alive ?

Answer.

The main criteria used to decide whether

something is alive are breathing and respiration.

However, living beings also show growth and

movement.

Question 2

What are outside raw materials used by an

organism ?

Answer:
Many organism uses organic molecules as raw
material. Heteroptrophs use food and
autotrophs use carbon dioxide, minerals, water
and all organisms use oxygen (for respiration)
as rawmaterials.

Question 3

What are the differences between autotrophic

and heterotrophic nutrition?
Question 4

Where do plants get each of the raw materials

required for photosynthesis ?

Answer

(i) Carbon dioxide : Plants get carbon dioxide

from the environment/atmosphere through
stomata.

(i) Water : Plants absorb water from the soil

through roots and transport to leaves.

(i) Sunlight : Plants get sunlight from the sun

(iv) Chlorophyll : it is present in chloroplast

found in green leaves and green parts of plants

Question 5

What is the role of the acid in our stomach ?

Answer:

Role of acid in our stomach is

() To make acidic medium which is necessary

for the activation of the enzyme pepsin

(i) To kill bacteria which the food may contain

Question 7

What is the function of digestive enzymes ?

Answer:

The food we eat is complex in nature, i.e., it

contains complex molecules. Digestive
enzymes break down these complex molecules
into smaller simpler molecules so that they can
be absorbed by the walls of the intestine

Question 8
How is the small intestine designed to absorb
digested food ?

Answer:

The small intestine is designed to provide

maximum area for absorption of digested food
and its transfer into the blood for its circulation
into the body. For this the inner lining of the
small intestine has numerous finger-like
projections called villi. The villi are richly
supplied with blood vessels which take the
absorbed food to each and every cell of the
body

Question 9

What advantage over an aquatic organism does

a terrestrial organism have with regard to
obtaining oxygen for respiration ?

Answer:

Aquatic organisms use oxygen dissolved in

surrounding water. Since air dissolved in water
has fairly low concentration of oxygen, the
aquatic organisms have much faster rate of
breathing

Terrestrial organisms take oxygen from the

oxygen-rich atmosphere through
respiratoryorgans. Hence, they have much less
breathing rate than aquatic organisms.

Question 10

What are the different ways in which glucose is

oxidised to provide energy in various organisms
?
Answer:

First step of breakdown of glucose (6

carbonmolecules) takes place in the cytoplasm
of cells of all organisms. This process yields a
three carbon molecule compound called
pyruvate

1)Anaerobic respiration : The anaerobic

respiration in plants (like yeast) produces
ethanol and carbon dioxide as end products

(ii) Aerobic respiration : In aerobic respiration

break down of pyruvate takes place in presence
of oxygen to give rise three molecules of
carbondioxide and water. The release of energy
in aerobic respiration is much more than in
anaerobic respiration
(i) Lack of oxygen : Sometimes, when there is
lack of oxygen especially during physical
exercise, in our muscles, pyruvate is converted
into lactic acid (3 carbon molecule compound).

Formation of lactic acid in muscles causes

cramps

Question 11

How is oxygen and carbon dioxide transported

in human beings ?

Answer.

(I) Transport of oxygen : Haemoglobin present

in the blood takes up the oxygen from the air in
the lungs. It carries the oxygen to tissues which
are deficient in oxygen before releasing it
(ii) Transport of carbon dioxide : Carbon dioxide
is more soluble in water. Therefore, it is mostly
transported from body tissues in the dissolved
form in our blood plasma to lungs. Here air
diffuses from blood to air in the lungs

Question 12

How are the lungs designed in human beings to

maximise the area for exchange of gases

Answer:

Within the lungs, the air passage divides into

smaller and smaller tubes, called bronchi which
in turn form bronchioles. The bronchioles
terminate in balloon-like structures, called
alveoli

The alveoli present in the lungs provide

maximum surface for exchange of gases. The
alveoli have vary thin walls and contain an
extensive network of blood vessels to facilitate
exchange of gases

Question 13

What are the components of the transport

system in highly organised plants?

Answer:

In highly organised plants there are two

conducting tissues xylem and phloem

Xylem consists of vessels, tracheids and other

xylem tissues. The interconnected vessels and
tracheids form a continuous system of water
conducting channels reaching all parts of the
plant. Xylem carries water and minerals.
Phloem conducts soluble products of
photosynthesis from leaves to different parts of
the plant body.

Question 14

How are water and minerals transport in plants?

Answer:

The roots of a plant have hair called root hair.

The root hair are directly in contact with the film

of water in between the soil particles. Water
and dissolved minerals get into the root hair by
the process of diffusion. The water and
minerals absorbed by the root hair from the soil
pass from cell to cell by osmosis through the
epidermis,root cortex, endodermis and reach
the root xylem The xylem vessels of the root of
the plant are connected to the xylem vessels of
its stem,Therefore the water containing
dissolved minerals enters the root xylem
vessels into stem xylem vessels. The xylem
vessels of the stem branch into the leaves of
the plants. So, the water and minerals carried by
the xylem vessels in the stem reach the leaves
through the branched xylem vessels which
enter from the petiole (stalk of the leaf) into
each and every part of the [Link] the water
and minerals from the soil reach through the
root and stem to the leaves of the plants.
Evaporation of water molecules

from the cells of a leaf creates a suction which

pulls water from the xylem cells of roots. The
loss of water in the form of vapour from the
aerial parts of the plant is known as
transpiration

Question 15

How is food transported in plants ?

Answer:

The movement of food in phloem (or

translocation) takes place by utilizing energy.
The sugar (food) made in leaves is loaded into
the sieve tubes of phloem tissue by using
energy from ATP Water now enters the sieve
tubes containing sugar by the process of
osmosis due to which the pressure in the
phloem tissue [Link] high pressure
produced in the phloem tissue moves the food
to all parts of the plant having less pressure in
their tissues. This allows the phloem to
transport food according to the needs of the
plant.

Question 16

Describe the structure and functions of

nephrons

Answer:

Structure of nephron : Each nephron is

composed of two parts. First one is a cup-
shaped bag at its upper end which is called
Bowman's [Link] Bowman's capsule
contains a bundle of blood capillaries which is
called glomerulus. One end of the glomerulus is
attached to the renal artery which brings the
impure blood containing the urea waste into it.
These impurities are filtered. The other part of
the nephron is coiled. In this part, the
substances like sugar (glucose),amino acid,
ions and excess water which are required by the
body, are reabsorbed. The substance remained
in the nephron is mainly urine containing
dissolved urea in water which is expelled from
the body through urethra from time to time
Functions of nephron : Filtration of blood takes
place in Bowman's capsule from the capillaries
of glomerulus. The filtrate passes into the
tubularpart of the nephron. This filtrate contains
glucose,amino acids, urea, uric acid, salts and
water.

Reabsorption: As the filtrate flows along the

tubule, useful substances such as glucose
amino acids, salts and water are selectively
reabsorbed into the blood by capillaries
surrounding the nephron tubule.

Urine : The filtrate which remained after

reabsorption is called urine. Urine contains
dissolved nitrogenous waste like urea and uric
acid, excess salts and water. Urine is collected
from nephrons to carry it to the ureter from
where it passes into urinary bladder.

Question 17
What are the methods used by plants to get rid
ofexcretory products ?

Answer:

The plants get rid of gaseous products through

stomata in leaves and lenticels in stems

(i) The plants get rid of stored solid and liquid

waste by the shedding off leaves, peeling off
bark and felling off fruits.

(ili) The plants get rid of wastes by secreting

them in the form of gums and resins

(iv) Plants also excrete some waste substances

into the soil around them.

Question 18

How is the amount of urine produced regulated ?

Answer:

The amount of urine is regulated by kidney. It

depends on the quantity of excess water and
wastes dissolved in water.

() Quantity of water : When water is abundant in

the body tissues, large quantities of dilute urine
is excreted out. When water is less in quantity
in the body tissues, a small quantity of
concentrate urine is excreted.

(i) Quantity of dissolved wastes : Dissolved

wastes, especially nitrogenous wastes, like urea
and uric acid and salts are excreted from the
body. When there is more quantity of dissolved
wastes in the body, more quantity of water is
required to excrete them. Therefore, the amount
of urine produced increases

(ii) Hormones: The amount of urine produced is

also regulated by certain hormones which
control the movement of water and Na+ ions in
and out of the nephrons.

Question 19

How are fats digested in our bodies ? Where

does this process take place ?

Answer:

Digestion of fats takes place in the small

intestine.

Bile juice secreted by the liver poured in the

intestine along with pancreatic juice. The bile
salts present in the bile juice emulsify the large
globules of fats. Therefore, by emulsification
.large globules break down into fine globules to
provide larger surface area to act upon by the
[Link] enzyme present in the
pancreatic juice causes break down of
emulsified fats. Glands present in the wall of
small intestine secrete intestinal juice which
contains lipase enzyme that converts fats into
fatty acids and glycerol.

Question 20

What would be the consequences of a

deficiency of haemoglobin in our bodies?

Answer:

Due to the deficiency of haemoglobin in blood,

its oxygen carrying capacity decreases. As a
result the production of energy by oxidation will
become slower. Therefore, one would fall sick
and would feel fatigue most of the time.

Question 21

Describe double circulation in human beings

Why is it necessary ?

Answer:

In our heart blood enters twice and also

pumped out twice from the heart. The
deoxygenated blood from the body is brought
to the right atrium through vena cava from
where it is sent to right ventricle. From right
ventricle, the blood is pumped to the lungs for
oxygenation through pulmonary artery. The
oxygenated blood from lungs again enters the
left atrium of the heart through pulmonary veins.
From left atrium it is send to left ventricle, from
where this oxygenated blood is pumped to
different parts of body through the arteries. In
this way the blood flows through the heart twice,
thats why it is called double circulation'

Necessity of double circulation: The right side

and the left side of the human heart are useful
to keep deoxygenated and oxygenated blood
from mixing. This type of separation of
oxygenated and deoxygenated blood ensures a
highly efficient supply of oxygen to the body.
This is useful in case of humans who
constantly need energy to maintain their body
temperature.