IGCSE Biology Topic 1: Characteristics and Classification of Living Organisms MCQs – 30 Practice Questions with Answers (Cambridge 0610)
Free practice for Cambridge IGCSE Biology 0610 on the characteristics and classification of living organisms, with every question followed by a worked explanation to help you revise this topic with confidence.
The seven characteristics of living organisms
Q1. Which life process is best described as an organism, or part of an organism, changing its position or place?
- (A) Movement
- (B) Sensitivity
- (C) Growth
- (D) Nutrition
Show Answer
Answer: A – Movement is defined in the syllabus as an action causing a change of position or place.
Q2. A plant bending its shoot towards light is an example of which characteristic of living organisms?
- (A) Excretion
- (B) Reproduction
- (C) Sensitivity
- (D) Respiration
Show Answer
Answer: C – Sensitivity is the ability to detect a change in the environment and respond to it, as in bending towards light.
Q3. Which statement best describes respiration as a characteristic of living organisms?
- (A) Chemical reactions in cells that break down nutrients and release energy
- (B) The taking in of materials for energy, growth and development by an organism
- (C) The removal of waste products of metabolism and substances in excess
- (D) A permanent increase in size and dry mass over time
Show Answer
Answer: A – Respiration is defined as the chemical reactions in cells that break down nutrient molecules and release energy for metabolism.
Q4. Why is growth in living organisms described as a permanent increase in size and dry mass, rather than a temporary change?
- (A) Because temporary swelling from water uptake also counts as growth
- (B) Because only animals grow permanently
- (C) Because dry mass is lost during growth
- (D) Because growth is a lasting increase in size and dry mass
Show Answer
Answer: D – The syllabus defines growth as a permanent increase in size and dry mass, which rules out temporary changes such as taking up water.
Q5. Which characteristic involves making more organisms of the same kind?
- (A) Nutrition and feeding
- (B) Reproduction
- (C) Excretion of waste products
- (D) Sensitivity to the environment
Show Answer
Answer: B – Reproduction is the set of processes that make more of the same kind of organism.
Q6. A mammal sweating out excess salt and urea is showing which life process?
- (A) Nutrition
- (B) Growth
- (C) Excretion
- (D) Movement
Show Answer
Answer: C – Excretion is the removal of waste products of metabolism and substances in excess of requirements.
Q7. Taking in materials for energy, growth and development is the definition of which characteristic?
- (A) Respiration
- (B) Sensitivity
- (C) Excretion
- (D) Nutrition
Show Answer
Answer: D – Nutrition is defined as the taking in of materials for energy, growth and development.
Q8. Which pair of characteristics is most clearly shown when a seedling grows taller and its dry mass increases over several weeks?
- (A) Movement and sensitivity
- (B) Growth and nutrition
- (C) Reproduction and excretion
- (D) Sensitivity and respiration
Show Answer
Answer: B – A lasting increase in size and dry mass shows growth, and the materials taken in to support it show nutrition.
Q9. An organism detects a fall in temperature inside its body and responds by shivering. Which characteristic does this response best illustrate?
- (A) Growth
- (B) Reproduction
- (C) Sensitivity
- (D) Nutrition
Show Answer
Answer: C – Detecting a change in the internal environment and responding to it is sensitivity.
Q10. Which of the following is a correct use of the term excretion?
- (A) Removing undigested food from the gut, which is egestion not excretion
- (B) Breaking down nutrient molecules to release energy
- (C) Removing urea, a waste product of metabolism, from the body
- (D) Taking in food for growth
Show Answer
Answer: C – Excretion removes waste products of metabolism, such as urea, and substances present in excess of requirements.
Species, binomial naming and dichotomous keys
Q11. What is the main basis on which organisms are placed into classification groups?
- (A) The size of the organism
- (B) The features that they share
- (C) The country where they are found
- (D) The colour of the organism
Show Answer
Answer: B – Organisms are classified into groups by the features that they share.
Q12. Which definition of a species is used in the Cambridge IGCSE syllabus?
- (A) A group of organisms that look alike and share the same habitat
- (B) A group of organisms that live in the same habitat and eat the same food
- (C) A group of organisms with the same scientific name ending
- (D) A group of organisms that can reproduce to produce fertile offspring
Show Answer
Answer: D – A species is a group of organisms that can reproduce to produce fertile offspring.
Q13. In the binomial system, what do the two parts of a scientific name show?
- (A) The kingdom and the family
- (B) The genus and the species
- (C) The habitat and the diet
- (D) The order and the class
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Answer: B – In the binomial system the scientific name is made up of two parts showing the genus and the species.
Q14. Why is the binomial system described as internationally agreed?
- (A) Because it gives each species one scientific name used internationally
- (B) Because every country uses the same local names for each species
- (C) Because it is written in the language of each country where it is used
- (D) Because it changes with each new discovery
Show Answer
Answer: A – The binomial system is an internationally agreed system, so the same scientific name is understood in different countries.
Q15. A key gives two opposite choices at each step, and the user follows the choice that matches the organism until only one possibility remains. What is this type of key called?
- (A) A branching diagram
- (B) A dichotomous key
- (C) A food web
- (D) A classification table
Show Answer
Answer: B – A dichotomous key is constructed from identifiable features and offers a pair of choices at each step.
Q16. Two organisms are placed in the same genus but are different species. What does this tell you about them?
- (A) They cannot reproduce together at all in any circumstances
- (B) They belong to different kingdoms
- (C) They have identical DNA base sequences
- (D) They share many features but are different species
Show Answer
Answer: D – Sharing a genus means sharing many features, while being different species means they are distinct groups that do not produce fertile offspring together.
Q17. Classification systems aim to reflect which of the following?
- (A) Evolutionary relationships between organisms
- (B) The order in which organisms were discovered
- (C) The usefulness of organisms to humans
- (D) The habitats in which organisms live
Show Answer
Answer: A – Classification systems aim to reflect evolutionary relationships.
Q18. How can the sequences of bases in DNA be used in classification?
- (A) They help compare organisms and judge how closely related they are
- (B) They show the age of an individual organism and how long it will live
- (C) They replace the need for giving an organism a scientific name
- (D) They show whether an organism is alive
Show Answer
Answer: A – Sequences of bases in DNA are used as a means of classification.
Kingdoms and groups within kingdoms
Q19. Two groups of organisms share a recent common ancestor, while another pair share only a distant ancestor. How would their DNA base sequences most likely compare?
- (A) The more closely related pair would have less similar base sequences
- (B) Both pairs would have identical base sequences
- (C) Base sequences would be unrelated to ancestry
- (D) The more closely related pair would have more similar base sequences
Show Answer
Answer: D – Groups that share a more recent ancestor have base sequences in DNA that are more similar than those sharing only a distant ancestor.
Q20. Which list gives the five kingdoms used in the syllabus classification?
- (A) Animal, plant, virus, bacterium, fungus
- (B) Animal, plant, fungus, prokaryote, protoctist
- (C) Mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian groups of vertebrates
- (D) Animal, plant, insect, fungus, bacterium
Show Answer
Answer: B – The five kingdoms are animal, plant, fungus, prokaryote and protoctist.
Q21. A virus is not placed in any of the five kingdoms. Which feature of viruses best explains this?
- (A) A virus has a nucleus and chloroplasts like a plant cell
- (B) A virus is too small to be classified
- (C) A virus has no genetic material
- (D) A virus has a protein coat and genetic material only
Show Answer
Answer: D – Viruses are limited to a protein coat and genetic material, and they do not carry out the life processes independently like organisms in the five kingdoms.
Q22. Which group is one of the main groups of vertebrates?
- (A) Myriapods
- (B) Crustaceans
- (C) Amphibians
- (D) Arachnids
Show Answer
Answer: C – The main groups of vertebrates are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
Q23. Which group is one of the main groups of arthropods?
- (A) Arachnids
- (B) Fish
- (C) Reptiles
- (D) Amphibians
Show Answer
Answer: A – The main groups of arthropods are myriapods, insects, arachnids and crustaceans.
Q24. Within the plant kingdom, which two groups are named in the syllabus?
- (A) Mosses, liverworts and other small non-flowering plants
- (B) Algae and fungi
- (C) Ferns and flowering plants
- (D) Conifers and mosses
Show Answer
Answer: C – Within the plant kingdom the syllabus limits groups to ferns and flowering plants.
Q25. Flowering plants are divided into which two groups in the syllabus?
- (A) Ferns and mosses, the non-flowering plant groups
- (B) Dicotyledons and monocotyledons
- (C) Annuals and perennials
- (D) Trees and shrubs
Show Answer
Answer: B – Flowering plants are divided into dicotyledons and monocotyledons.
Q26. A student is asked to classify an organism using its observable features. Which approach matches the syllabus method?
- (A) Guess from its habitat alone without checking any features
- (B) Use its size alone
- (C) Use the features identified for its kingdom and group
- (D) Use only its scientific name
Show Answer
Answer: C – Organisms are classified using the features identified for their kingdom and group.
Q27. A new organism is found that shares features with flowering plants but not with ferns. Where would it most sensibly be placed within the plant kingdom?
- (A) With the flowering plants
- (B) With the ferns
- (C) With the animal kingdom, despite its plant features
- (D) With the prokaryotes
Show Answer
Answer: A – Classification groups organisms by shared features, so shared flowering-plant features place it with the flowering plants.
Q28. Why might two organisms that look similar still be placed in different species?
- (A) Because they cannot produce fertile offspring together
- (B) Because they live in different places and never meet in nature
- (C) Because they have the same genus
- (D) Because they share a recent ancestor
Show Answer
Answer: A – A species is defined by the ability to reproduce to produce fertile offspring, so appearance alone does not decide species membership.
Q29. Which statement about classification and DNA is correct?
- (A) Organisms with a distant common ancestor have more similar DNA base sequences than closely related organisms
- (B) DNA base sequences are not used in classification
- (C) Organisms sharing a recent ancestor have more similar DNA base sequences
- (D) All organisms in one kingdom have identical DNA
Show Answer
Answer: C – Groups sharing a more recent ancestor have more similar base sequences in DNA than groups sharing only a distant ancestor.
Q30. A dichotomous key asks whether an organism has wings or no wings, then whether it has six legs or eight legs. What happens at each step of the key?
- (A) Both choices are followed at once until the key runs out
- (B) The organism is given a new scientific name
- (C) The organism is placed in a kingdom immediately
- (D) One of two opposite choices is selected at each step
Show Answer
Answer: D – A dichotomous key works by choosing between a pair of opposite, identifiable features at each step.
Work through any questions you missed, relearn the definitions in your own words, and then try the set again until the seven characteristics and the classification groups feel automatic.