Animals Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Soldier ants look after and guard the nest.

An ant colony divides its work. The queen lays the eggs. Worker ants collect food, build and repair the nest and care for the young. Soldier ants, larger workers with big heads and strong jaws, defend the colony and guard the nest against intruders.

The Pharaoh ant is a species, a small household pest ant, not a role in the colony.

Answer: D

The incorrect statement is male elephants leave the herd when they are 24-25 years old.

Elephants live in herds of related females and their young, typically around 10 to 12 females with their calves, led by the oldest female (the matriarch). Young males leave the herd as they approach maturity, in their early to mid teens, not at 24 to 25 years.

The other three statements match that account: herd size, leadership by the oldest female, and a herd made up only of females and young, since adult males live alone or in loose groups of males.

Answer: D

The correct statements are A, C and D.

A hive has a single queen bee, the only one that lays eggs (A). Most of the bees are female worker bees, which do the work of the hive all day, including caring for the young (C). Workers search flowers for nectar, and a bee that finds a good source performs a special dance on its return that tells the others where to go (D).

Statement B is false. The few male bees (drones) do not build the hive; the comb is built by the worker bees from wax they produce. So every option containing B is wrong, and 'A and D' leaves out C.

Answer: C

The correct statements are A and D.

Elephants live in herds (A), and a herd is led by the oldest female, who takes its decisions (D).

Statements B and C give the wrong figures. The EVS account on which this question is based describes a herd of about 10 to 12 female elephants and their young, not 20 to 25, and says that males stay in the herd until they are about 14 to 15 years old, not 9 to 10, after which they leave. So the options including B or C are wrong.

Answer: A

(A) and (B) both are wrong.

The NCERT Class 5 EVS book (lesson 'Super Senses') describes the sloth as sleeping for almost 17 hours a day while hanging upside down from a branch, and says sloths live for about 40 years, in which time they move around only eight trees.

Statement (A) gives 20 hours of sleep instead of 17, and statement (B) gives a 20-year life and 5 trees instead of 40 years and eight trees. Since both figures are changed, neither statement is correct, which rules out every option that accepts one or both.

Answer: C

The bird is the Indian Robin.

In NCERT's Class 4 EVS book, a letter from Bhavnagar describes an Indian Robin that has laid its eggs in the space between stones by the roadside. Its nest is made of grass, topped with soft twigs, roots, wool, hair and cotton wool, which matches the clue word for word.

The same lesson contrasts it with the crow, which builds high up in a tree using all kinds of things, even wire and wood. Woodpeckers nest in holes they cut in tree trunks, and the peafowl lays its eggs in a simple scrape on the ground among bushes.

Answer: D

(A) and (B) both are correct.

Both statements come from NCERT's Class 4 EVS lesson 'Ear to Ear'. After sorting animals, children are led to note that animals whose ears can be seen have hair on their body and give birth to young ones, while animals that do not have ears on the outside do not have hair on their body and lay eggs.

Cows, dogs and cats show the first pattern; crows, lizards and snakes show the second. The question follows the textbook's generalisation, so the options marking either statement wrong are not accepted.

Answer: B

The answer is (A) is true but (R) is false.

The assertion is true: worker bees build and maintain the hive, collect nectar and pollen, feed the larvae and guard the colony, so without them there would be neither a beehive nor nectar collection.

The reason is false. Worker bees are female. Male bees (drones) do no work in the hive; their only role is to mate with a queen. So the reason gives the workers' role to the wrong bees.

Answer: D

The group is Eagles, Kites, Vultures.

Birds of prey have exceptionally sharp eyesight. The NCERT Class V EVS chapter on animals' senses notes that birds such as eagles, kites and vultures can see four times as far as we can, which is how they spot small prey or carcasses from high in the sky.

The other groups each include birds without this ability: doves, crows and peacocks; pigeons and parrots; crows and nightingales. Only the third and fourth options contain kites, and only the fourth is made up wholly of birds of prey.

Answer: B

The statement that is NOT true is that male bees are very important for the hives.

A honeybee colony has one queen that lays all the eggs, thousands of female worker bees that collect nectar and pollen, build the comb, feed the young and guard the hive, and only a few male bees, called drones. Drones do no work in the hive; their only role is to mate with a queen, and they are often driven out when food runs short.

The other three statements are true, as described above: one egg-laying queen, mostly worker bees, and only a few males.