Grade 11 · Practice problems
What makes something alive
50 problems, including 19 🔥 challenging (exam-level, multi-step). Work through them on paper, then reveal every answer to check.
1. In MRS GREN, what does the letter M stand for?
2. In MRS GREN, what does the letter N stand for?
3. Which characteristic of life means producing new individuals?
4. Which characteristic means removing the waste products of metabolism?
5. Which characteristic means detecting and responding to surroundings?
6. What is the smallest unit of life called?
7. Is a granite rock alive?
8. Is a mushroom alive?
9. Which molecule stores the genetic instructions of a cell?
10. Which characteristic means a permanent increase in size or cell number?
11. Give one reason a car is not alive even though it moves and uses fuel.
12. How does excretion differ from egestion?
13. Define homeostasis.
14. Give one example of homeostasis in humans.
15. A plant grows toward light. Which characteristic is this?
16. What is metabolism?
17. Which gas do most organisms take in for aerobic respiration?
18. State one difference between respiration and breathing.
19. Why do all living things need a supply of energy?
20. Give two reasons a candle flame is not alive.
21. Define a stimulus.
22. Name two waste products excreted by humans.
23. What is nutrition by making food from light called?
24. What is nutrition that requires eating other organisms called?
25. List MRS GREN in the correct order.
26. Must a living thing show all seven characteristics at some stage?
27. Why is a salt crystal 'growing' different from an organism growing?
28. Is a single bacterium a complete living organism?
29. Give one single-celled and one multicellular organism.
30. What internal variable does insulin help keep steady?
31. Name the seven life processes and give one everyday example of any one of them.
32. 🔥 ChallengingExplain, using MRS GREN, why a virus is a borderline case.
33. 🔥 ChallengingGive a reasoned argument that fire is not alive despite metabolism-like features.
34. 🔥 ChallengingA robot senses, moves, recharges and is copied in a factory. Why is it not alive?
35. 🔥 ChallengingDistinguish homeostasis from simply 'not changing'.
36. 🔥 ChallengingWhy is negative feedback essential to life?
37. 🔥 ChallengingExplain why 'movement' alone is a weak criterion for life.
38. 🔥 ChallengingA student says 'plants don't respire, they photosynthesise.' Correct them.
39. 🔥 ChallengingExplain why reproduction is defined at the species level, not for every individual.
40. 🔥 ChallengingHow does excretion connect to metabolism?
41. 🔥 ChallengingCompare autotroph and heterotroph nutrition with an example and energy source for each.
42. 🔥 ChallengingExplain why no single criterion can define life.
43. 🔥 ChallengingAn object on Mars grows and responds but shows no reproduction or cells. Verdict?
44. 🔥 ChallengingExplain how DNA links growth, reproduction and heredity.
45. 🔥 ChallengingWhy is homeostasis harder for a single cell than for a large organism? Discuss.
46. 🔥 ChallengingGive a reasoned argument for classifying a seed as alive using at least three characteristics.
47. 🔥 ChallengingAn ecosystem 'grows', 'responds' and cycles matter. Is an ecosystem an organism? Justify.
48. 🔥 ChallengingDistinguish a coordinated biological response from a simple chemical reaction to a trigger.
49. 🔥 ChallengingPrions are misfolded proteins that 'spread'. Are they alive? Justify with criteria.
50. 🔥 ChallengingConstruct a rule that correctly separates the living from fire, crystals, rivers and viruses, and explain it.