General Science Questions (MCQs) for Competitive Examinations

Notes:
All metal carbonates and hydrogen carbonates react with acids to give a corresponding salt, carbon dioxide and water. Limestone, chalk and marble are different forms of calcium carbonate.

Notes:
Tungsten has the highest tensile strength of any natural metal, with an ultimate strength of 1510 megapascals. Tungsten has the highest melting point (3422 °C, 6192 °F), lowest vapor pressure (at temperatures above 1650 °C, 3000 °F).

Notes:
Most cases of filariasis are caused by the parasite known as Wuchereria bancrofti. A wide range of mosquitoes can transmit this parasite, depending on the geographic area. In Africa, the most common vector is Anopheles while in the Americas, it is Culex quinquefasciatus. Aedes and Mansonia transmits transmit the infection in the Pacific and in Asia. Thus, Culex, Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes serve as vector for W. bancrofti in transmission of the disease. Aedes mosquito causes dengue fever. Anopheles mosquito causes malaria. Culex mosquito causes filaria. A wide range of mosquitoes can transmit the parasite, depending on the geographic area. In Africa, the most common vector is Anopheles and in the Americas, it is Culex quinquefasciatus. [This question was wrongly framed in exam as “filaria is caused by__:”. GKtoday has edited it to make it correct.]

Notes:
The stapes or stirrup is a bone in the middle ear of humans which is involved in the conduction of sound vibrations to the inner ear. The stapes transmits sound vibrations from the incus, another little bone in the middle ear, to the oval window adjacent to the inner ear. The stapes is the smallest bone in the body.

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Utricularia (also called bladderworts) is a genus of insectivorous plants. They occur in fresh water and wet soil as terrestrial or aquatic species. All Utri cularia are carnivorous and capture small organisms by means of bladder-like traps. Aquatic species feed on protozoa and rotifers swimming in water-saturated soil’ while terrestrial species feed on water fleas (Daphnia), nematodes and even fish fry, mosquito larvae and young tadpoles.

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Haemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen transporting metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates. Similarly, Cytochromes are, in general, membrane-bound haemo-proteins containing heme groups and are primarily responsible for the generation of ATP via electron transport.

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Bharat Biotech, a vaccine company, in December 2017, received Pre-Qualification tag from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Typbar TCV or Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine. The WHO tag would allow the firm to access global public vaccination programmes. Typbar TCV is the first typhoid vaccine, clinically proven to be administered to children from six months of age to adults and confers long term protection against typhoid fever.

Notes:
Protein digestion begins in the stomach with the action of pepsin. Pepsin is the active protein-digesting enzyme of the stomach. When pepsin acts on the protein molecule, it breaks the bonds that hold the protein molecule together, called peptide bonds. Once broken, peptide bonds yield chains of amino acids linked together called polypeptides that are further digested in the small intestine with the help of trypsin, chymotrypsin, and carboxypeptidase.

Notes:
The term smooth muscle refers to a muscle of the human body that is part of a involuntary muscle group. The walls of hollow organs are the primary place that smooth muscles can be found. Some of those locations include: Walls of blood vessels, walls of stomach, intestines, large (aorta) and small arteries and veins, urinary bladder, uterus, male and female reproductive tracts, respiratory tract, etc.

Notes:
Gymnosperm are flowerless plant that produces cones and seeds. The term gymnosperm literally means “naked seed”, as gymnosperm seed are not encased within an ovary. Rather they sit exposed on the surface of the leaf like structures called bracts.