nutrition-in-animals MCQs for UPSC Prelims

26 practice questions on nutrition-in-animals from the Life Processes in Animals section of the UPSC Prelims syllabus. 26 come with a written explanation. Try the sample set below - the answer stays hidden until you ask for it.

9 Easy 12 Medium 5 Hard

Sample questions

Q1
medium

Why does a cow swallow grass quickly and chew it properly only later?

  1. A it has no teeth at all in its mouth to chew grass with
  2. B it can crop a lot of grass quickly in the open field and chew the stored grass at rest
  3. C chewing grass while standing would make it too tired to walk
  4. D it is unable to swallow food that has already been chewed
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: B - it can crop a lot of grass quickly in the open field and chew the stored grass at rest

A grazing animal is safest when it can gather food fast and then move away, so it swallows grass almost unchewed and chews the stored cud later while resting. A cow does have grinding teeth, and it swallows the chewed cud a second time, so the other options contradict what a cow is seen to do.

Q2
easy

Which of these animals swallows its prey whole, without chewing it?

  1. A a goat
  2. B a squirrel
  3. C a snake
  4. D a cow
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: C - a snake

A snake opens its jaws very wide and takes the whole animal in at once, because its teeth cannot cut food into pieces. A goat and a cow grind plant food with flat teeth, and a squirrel gnaws hard seeds with sharp front teeth, so all three chew their food.

Q3
medium

Grass is made largely of a substance called cellulose. A cow can live on grass because

  1. A it drinks large amounts of water along with the grass
  2. B helpful microbes living in its food canal break down the cellulose
  3. C cellulose is already a simple substance and needs no breaking down
  4. D its teeth grind the grass so fine that no digestion is needed at all
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: B - helpful microbes living in its food canal break down the cellulose

Cellulose is very hard to break down, and a cow manages it with the help of tiny living things in its food canal that do the work for it. Grinding only makes smaller pieces without changing the substance, cellulose is a complex substance, and water alone cannot break it down.

Q4
hard

A mosquito and a housefly both live on liquid food, but only one of them can reach blood from under the skin. Which statement is correct?

  1. A Neither of them is able to take in liquid food
  2. B A housefly pierces the skin, while a mosquito sucks liquid from a surface
  3. C A mosquito pierces the skin and sucks blood, while a housefly mops up liquid food lying on a surface
  4. D Both pierce the skin, but only the housefly sucks blood
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: C - A mosquito pierces the skin and sucks blood, while a housefly mops up liquid food lying on a surface

A mosquito has a sharp needle-like mouth part that passes through the skin and reaches blood. A housefly's mouth part is soft and spongy, so it can only soak up liquid lying on a surface and cannot pierce anything. Both live entirely on liquids, so the last option is wrong as well.

Q5
medium

Rahul plays football for two hours while his sister reads a book for two hours. Rahul feels much hungrier afterwards. The best reason is that

  1. A hunger depends only on the time of the day
  2. B playing outdoors makes the stomach grow bigger
  3. C reading uses no energy from the body at all
  4. D running about uses up far more energy, and food is needed to replace it
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: D - running about uses up far more energy, and food is needed to replace it

Muscles working hard spend a great deal of energy, and that energy has to be replaced by food, so a player feels hungry sooner. Reading also uses energy, only much less of it. Hunger follows how much energy has been spent rather than the clock, and the stomach does not change size with play.

Q6
easy

A butterfly feeds at a flower by

  1. A sucking nectar through a long tube-like mouth part
  2. B biting off pieces of the petals
  3. C swallowing the whole flower
  4. D scraping the flower with strong front teeth
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: A - sucking nectar through a long tube-like mouth part

A butterfly has a long tube-like mouth part that stays coiled and unrolls to reach nectar deep inside a flower. It has no teeth to bite or scrape with, and its narrow mouth could never take in anything solid, so sucking is the only way it can feed.

Q7
medium

Read these two statements. (i) Food gives an animal the energy it needs to move and to grow. (ii) Food supplies the animal with the oxygen it needs. Which of them is correct?

  1. A Only (ii)
  2. B Only (i)
  3. C Neither (i) nor (ii)
  4. D Both (i) and (ii)
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: B - Only (i)

Statement (i) is correct, because food provides both energy and the materials for growth. Statement (ii) is wrong: oxygen enters the body from the air during breathing, and food gives up its energy only after meeting that oxygen inside the body. So the first statement alone is correct.

Q8
easy

Amoeba takes in a food particle by

  1. A sucking it in through a long tube
  2. B pushing out finger-like extensions that surround the particle
  3. C biting it with a row of tiny teeth
  4. D letting it stick to a mouth on its head
Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: B - pushing out finger-like extensions that surround the particle

Amoeba changes its shape and pushes out finger-like extensions that close around a food particle and carry it inside. Being made of a single unit of living matter, it has no tube, no teeth and no mouth in a fixed place.

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