General Science Questions (MCQs) for Competitive Examinations

Notes:
As per the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, the soft metals are: Lead, gold, silver, tin, zinc, aluminium, thorium, copper, brass and bronze. Diamond is one of the hardest known metals on earth.

Notes:
The plastid is a major double-membrane organelle found in the cells of plants. Plastids are the site of manufacture and storage of important chemical compounds used by the cell. Plastids often contain pigments used in photosynthesis, and the types of pigments present can change or determine the cell’s colour.

Notes:
The major proteins in milk are casein and whey. These two milk proteins are both excellent sources of all the essential amino acids, but they differ in one important aspect—whey is a fast-digesting protein and casein is a slow-digesting protein. As a food source, casein supplies amino acids, carbohydrates, and the two inorganic elements calcium and phosphorus.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Swedish naturalist Carlous Linnaeus established the binomial system of naming living organisms, setting a format and a structured process for classifying the interrelationships between plants (among which he included all fungi), and between animals. The binomial system that Linnaeus devised enables an author to refer to a species confident that it will mean the same thing to informed readers anywhere else in the world.

Notes:
Sphygmomanometer an instrument for measuring blood pressure. It typically consists of an inflatable rubber cuff which is applied to the arm and connected to a column of mercury next to a graduated scale, enabling the determination of systolic and diastolic blood pressure by increasing and gradually releasing the pressure in the cuff. The sphygmomanometer was invented by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch in 1881.

Notes:
Changes in pH which can accompany metabolic process such as respiration (aerobic glycolysis for example) can alter the conformation of an enzyme and hence enzyme activity such as salivarya mylase is effective in neutral condition, pepsin in acidic condition l.5 (less than pH 7) and trypsin in basic condition (more than pH 7).

Notes:
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, some bacteria and some protistans use the energy from sunlight to produce glucose from carbon dioxide and water. This glucose can be converted into pyruvate which releases adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by cellular respiration. Oxy-gen is released through the stomata on the underside of the leaf; glucose is transported around the plant in the phloem vessels.

Notes:
Cecum is a pouch connected to the junction of the small and large intestines. It is a large tube-like structure in the lower abdominal cavity that receives undigested food material from the small intestine and is considered the first region of the large intestine. It is separated from the ileum (the final portion of the small intestine) by the ileocecal valve (also called Bauhin valve). The main functions of the cecum are to absorb fluids and salts that remain after completion of intestinal digestion and absorption and to mix its contents with a lubricating substance, mucus.

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.