Biology Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Sound above 120 decibels damages hearing at once.

That is the threshold of pain, comparable to a jet engine at close range. Prolonged exposure above 85 dB damages hearing more slowly, which is why 85 dB is the usual occupational limit.

Answer: C

Hippocrates is called the father of medicine.

Working on Kos in the fifth century BC, he separated medicine from superstition, insisting that disease has natural causes. The Hippocratic Oath is named after him.

Answer: A

Man has three pairs of salivary glands: the parotid, submandibular and sublingual.

Together they secrete about 1 to 1.5 litres of saliva a day, containing the enzyme ptyalin, which begins the digestion of starch.

Answer: B

Blood grouping is based on antigens on the surface of the red cells.

The A and B antigens define the ABO groups and the D antigen the Rh factor. The corresponding antibodies are in the plasma, and it is the reaction between an antigen and its antibody that makes an incompatible transfusion dangerous.

Answer: B

Floriculture is the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants.

It covers cut flowers, potted plants, bedding plants and nursery stock. Agronomy deals with field crops and phenology with the timing of seasonal events.

Answer: C

White blood corpuscles defend the body against infection.

Neutrophils and macrophages engulf bacteria, lymphocytes make antibodies and destroy infected cells. Oxygen and carbon dioxide transport are the work of the red cells and the plasma.

Answer: D

The brain is covered by all three - the meninges, the bone of the skull and the skin over it.

Between the meninges circulates cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain against shock. The layers together make the brain the best protected organ in the body.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Mitochondrion

The mitochondrion carries out oxidative phosphorylation and supplies most of the cell’s ATP. It has its own circular DNA and double membrane, evidence of the free-living bacterium from which it is thought to descend.

Answer: B

The dodo is the extinct bird in question.

The tambalacoque tree of Mauritius was said to need its seeds to pass through the dodo's gut before they would germinate, so no new trees grew after the bird was hunted out in the seventeenth century. The link is disputed, but the story is the standard illustration of coextinction.

Answer: C

Plants growing in full sunlight are heliophytes, from the Greek helios, sun.

They have small thick leaves, a heavy cuticle and a high rate of photosynthesis at high light. Sciophytes are shade plants, with large thin leaves that saturate at low light.