General Science Questions (MCQs) for Competitive Examinations

Notes:
Parietal cells (also known as oxyntic cells), are the epithelial cells that secrete hydrochloric acid (HCl) and intrinsic factor. These cells are located in the gastric glands found in the stomach. They contain an extensive secretory network from which the HCl is secreted by active transport into the stomach.

Notes:
Apiculture is the practice of keeping bees as well as the manufacturing of honey and beeswax. A beekeeper (or apiarist) keeps bees in order to collect their honey and other products that the hive produce to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary or “bee yard.”

Notes:
Potatoes are examples of tubers : the swollen ends of stolons that may store starch. It is a stem because it has many nodes called eyes with spaces between eyes known as internodes. Potato tubers develop at the end of swollen underground stem structures, rhizomes.

Notes:
Water catchment areas such as forests are continually being destroyed through deforestation to pave way for human settlement. This problem has been brought about by rapid population increase. As a result, there is not enough rain thus causing water shortage.

Notes:
The uterus or womb is a major female hormone responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. It is within the uterus that the fetus develops during gestation, usually developing completely in placental mammals such as humans and partially in marsupials such as kangaroos and opossums.

Notes:
Bioremediation is a waste management technique that involves the use of organisms to remove or neutralize pollutants from a contaminated site. It uses naturally occurring organisms to break down hazardous substances into less toxic or non-toxic substances. There are two classes of bioremediation used : In situ and Ex situ.

Notes:
Those who eat a well-balanced diet and have no metabolic disorders, excess dietary carbohydrates?are converted by the liver into complex chains of glucose called glycogen. Glycogen is stored in liver and muscle cells and is a secondary source of energy to freely circulating blood glucose.

Notes:
A pair of testes is situated outside the abdominal cavity within a pouch called scrotum. The scrotum helps in maintaining the low temperature of the testes (2-2.5o C lower than the normal internal body temperature) necessary for spermatogenesis.

Notes:
Snake is an example of cold blooded animals that do not maintain a constant body temperature. They get their heat from the outside environment, so their body temperature fluctuates, based on external temperatures. Other examples of cold blooded animals include fish, reptiles (frogs, lizards), etc.

Notes:
The term Blattaria comes from the Latin blatta, which simply means cockroach. It is the scientific name of cockroaches and refer to an order of medium to large-sized broadly oval flattened cursorial cockroaches.