General Science Questions (MCQs) for Competitive Examinations

Notes:
There are three types of heterotrophs: herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Also referred to as consumers, heterotrophs are organisms that obtain their energy from organic compounds. In other words, they are organisms that are unable to produce their own food (unlike autotrophs) and therefore have to consume/ ingest organic compounds as a source of energy.

Notes:
The Sartorius muscle is the longest muscle in the human body. It is a long, thin, superficial muscle that runs down the length of the thigh in the anterior compartment. Its upper portion forms the lateral border of the femoral triangle.

Notes:
The Widal test is used to help make a presumptive diagnosis of enteric fever, also known as typhoid fever. Typhid is the other test used to ascertain the diagnosis of typhoid fever.

Notes:
Xerophthalmia caused by a severe vitamin A deficiency is described by pathologic dryness of the conjunctiva and cornea. The conjunctiva becomes dry, thick and wrinkled. Since retinoic acid cannot be reduced to retinal or retinol, these effects on the cornea must be specific to retinoic acid. Scurvy happens when there is a lack of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. Hemorrhagic disease is caused due to the deficiency of Vitamin K. Rickets is caused due to the deficiency of Vitamin D.

Notes:
Dolly was a female domestic sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. It was cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh in 1996.

Notes:
The kidneys are bean-shaped organs that serve several excretory roles apart from the essential regulatory roles in mammals. They remove from the blood the nitrogenous wastes such as urea, as well as salts and excess water, and excrete them in the form of urine. In producing urine, the kidneys excrete nitrogenous wastes such as urea and ammonium.

Notes:
Unicellular organisms reproduce by asexual means. This asexual mode of reproduction involves cell division in which single parent produce their offspring. For simple unicellular microorganisms such as the amoeba, one cell division is equivalent to reproduction – an entire new organism is created. Different asexual modes of reproduction include binary fission, multiple fission, fragmentation, budding etc.

Notes:
A heterogeneous mixture is a mixture in which the composition is not uniform throughout the mixture. A suspension is a heterogeneous mixture in which solute-like particles settle out of a solvent-like phase sometime after their introduction. Examples of suspensions are: fine sand or silt in water or tomato juice.

Notes:
When we leave a piece of iron in the open for some time, it acquires a film of brownish substance. This substance is called rust and the process is called rusting. Iron gates of parks or farmlands, iron benches kept in lawns and gardens, almost every article of iron, kept in the open gets rusted.

Notes:
Paper is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. Mostly wooden pulp obtained from eucalyptus tree is used to produce good quality paper.