ST.

VINCENT PALLOTTI SCHOOL

BESA, NAGPUR
Class-X Question Bank Sub-Biology
Ch. Our Environment
1. Which one of the following will undergo fastest bio-degradation?
(a) Mango seed
(b) Wood
(c) Mango peel
(d) Mango pulp

2. First link in any food chain is usually green plants because

(a) they are widely distributed
(b) they are fixed at one place in the soil
(c) they alone have the capacity to synthesise food using sunlight
(d) there are more herbivores than carnivores

3. In an ecosystem, herbivores represent

(a) producers
(b) primary consumers
(c) secondary consumers
(d) decomposers

4. Which of the following is non- biodegradable?

(a) Wool
(b) Nylon
(c) Animal bones
(d) Tea leaves
5. Ozone layer is damaged by-
(a) methane
(b) carbon-dioxide
(c) Sulphur-dioxide
(d) CFCs

6. A food chain always starts with

(a) respiration
(b) photosynthesis
(c) decay
(d) nitrogen fixation

7. A food chain comprising birds, green plants, fish and man.

The concentration of harmful chemical entering the food chain will be
maximum in
(a) green plants
(b) man
(c) birds
(d) fish

8. Which of the following limits the number of trophic levels in a food chain?
(a) water
(b) polluted air
(c) deficient food supply
(d) decrease in energy at higher trophic levels

9. Which of the following is a logical sequence of food chain

(a) producer → consumer → decomposer
(b) producer → decomposer → consumer
(c) consumer → producer → decomposer
(d) decomposer → producer → consumer

10. Excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation causes

(a) inflammation of liver
(b) cancer of skin
(c) damage to the lungs
(d) jaundice

11. Which of the following is an autotroph?

(a) Lion
(b) Insect
(c) Tree
(d) Mushroom

12. Trophic level in an ecosystem represents

(a) oxygen level
(b) water level
(c) energy level
(d) salt level

13. Which of the following is biodegradable?

(a) Plastic mugs
(b) Leather belts
(c) Silver foil
(d) Iron nails

14. Which of the following is non-biodegradable-

(a) paper
(b) wood
(c) cloth
(d) plastic

15. In the garden ecosystem, which of the following are producers?

(a) Insects
(b) Snakes
(c) Grasses
(d) Rabbits

16. Which of the following is biodegradable?

(a) Aluminium can
(b) Polythene bag
(c) Cowdung
(d) DDT

17. Which of the following is not a terrestrial ecosystem-

(a) forest
(b) desert
(c) aquarium
(d) grassland

18. Which one of the following pairs belong to the category of primary
consumers?
(a) Eagle and snake
(b) Grasshoppers & cattle
(c) Snake and frog
(d) Water beetles & fish

19. What will happen if all the deer are killed in the given food chain?
Grass → Deer → Lion
(a) The population of grass decreases.
(b) The population of lions increases.
(c) The population of lions remains unchanged.
(d) The population of lions decreases and grass increases.

20. The depletion of the ozone layer causes

(a) global wanning
(b) earthquakes
(c) increased UV radiations
(d) acid rain

21. Which of the following is an abiotic component of an ecosystem?

(a) Humus
(b) Bacteria
(c) Plants
(d) Fungi

22. Acid rain is caused by the oxides of

(a) carbon
(b) nitrogen only
(c) sulphur only
(d) sulphur and nitrogen

23. The decomposers in an ecosystem-

(a) convert organic material to inorganic forms
(b) convert inorganic material to simpler forms
(c) convert inorganic material into organic compound
(d) do not break down organic compound

24. Which of the two in the following sets belong to the same trophic level?
(a) Grass : Grasshopper
(b) Goat : Spider
(c) Hawk : Rat
(d) Frog : Lizard
25. The second trophic level is always of-
(a) herbivores
(b) autotrophs
(c) carnivores
(c) producers

26. The ecosystem of earth is known as-

(a) biome
(b) community
(c) biosphere
(c) association

27. The percentage of solar radiation absorbed by all the green plants for the
process of photosynthesis is about-
(a) 1%
(b) 8%
(c) 5%
(d) 10%

28. Flow of energy in an ecosystem is always-

(a) unidirectional
(b) bidirectional
(c) multidirectional
(d) no specific direction.

29. In natural ecosystems, decomposers include-

(a) only bacteria and fungi
(b) only microscopic animals
(c) herbivores and carnivores
(d) both (b) and (c)

30. Assertion: Ozone layer is getting depleted at upper atmosphere which is a

cause of concern.
Reason: CFC reacts with ozone and breaks it.

31. Assertion: Vegetarian food habit is more beneficial to organisms.

Reason: Only 10% energy is available as food from one trophic level to next.

32. Assertion: Biodegradable waste and non biodegradable waste should be

discarded separately,
Reason: Biodegradable waste are not harmful.
Long answer
1. (a) What is biodiversity? What will happen if biodiversity of an area
is not preserved? Mention one effect of it.
(b) With the help of an example explain that a garden is an
ecosystem.
(c) Why only 10% energy is transferred to the next trophic level?
2. (a) How can we help in reducing the problem of waste disposal?
Suggest any three methods. [
(b) Distinguish between biodegradable and nonbiodegradable wastes.
3. What will be the amount of energy available to the organism of the
2nd trophic level of a food chain, if the energy available at the first
trophic level is 10,000 joules
4. The first trophic level in a food chain is always a green plant. Why?
5. The following organisms form a food chain. Which of these will have
the highest concentration of non-biodegradable chemicals? Name the
phenomenon associated with it.
Insects, Hawk, Grass, Snake, Frog.
6. What is an ecosystem? List its two main components. We do not
clean natural ponds or lakes but an aquarium needs to be cleaned
regularly. Why is it so? Explain.
7. “Energy flow in food chains is always unidirectional.” Justify this
statement. Explain how the pesticides enter a food chain and
subsequently get into our body.
8. What is ozone? How and where is it formed in the atmosphere?
Explain how does it affect ecosystem.
9. Your mother always through that fruit juices are very healthy for
everyone. One day she read in the newspaper that some brands of
fruit juices in the market have been found to contain certain level of
pesticides in them. She got worried as pesticides are injurious to our
health.
(а) How would you explain to your mother about fruit juices getting
contaminated with pesticides?
(b) It is said that when these harmful pesticides enter our body as
well as in the bodies of other organisms they get accumulated and
beyond a limit cause harm and damage to our organs.: Name the
phenomenon and write about it.
10.You have been selected to talk on “ozone layer and its protection” in
the school assembly on ‘Environment Day.’
(a) Why should ozone layer be protected to save the environment?
 (b) List any two ways that you would stress in your talk to bring in
awareness amongst your fellow friends that would also help in
protection of ozone layer as well as the environment.
11.What are decomposers? Write the role of decomposers in the
environment.
12.What are the problems caused by the non-biodegradable wastes that
we generate?
13.Show steps of food chains operating in:
(a) Forests
(b) Grasslands
(c) Ponds.
14.“Energy flow in a food chain is unidirectional”. Justify this
statement.
15.In a certain study conducted on occurrence of DDT along food chains
in an ecosystem, the concentration of DDT in grass was found to be
0.5 ppm (parts per million), in sheep it was 2ppm and in man it was
10 ppm. Why was the concentration of DDT maximum in case of
man?
16.Why is depletion of ozone layer a cause of concern?
17.Will the impact of removing all the organisms is a trophic level be
different for different trophic levels? Can the organisms of any
trophic level be removed without causing any damage to the
ecosystem?
18.What are top carnivores? Give two examples.
19.Name the radiations from the Sun that are absorbed by ozone layer.
Mention one harmful effect caused by them.
20.Mention any one advantage of using disposable paper cups over
disposable plastic cups. Mention of manner in which these paper cups
do not adversely affect the environment.
21.Describe how ozone present in the atmosphere is important for
sustaining the life on earth
22.(a) How do autotrophs prepare their food?
(b) In the following food chain, 500J of energy is available to plant.
How much energy will be available at I consumer and II consumer
levels?
Plant → Sheep → Man
23.State 10% law. Explain with an example how energy flows through
different trophic levels.
 24.hoose one consumer each that belongs to the second and third trophic
levels from the organisms given below:
Eagle, frog, tiger, rabbit, box.
25.Why only 10% energy and mass is transferred to next level in a food
chain?
26.How much energy of Sun can be converted into food energy by the
green plants?
Case study question
Case Study – 1
1.) Waste management is essential in today’s society. Due to an increase in
population, the generation of waste is getting doubled day by day. Moreover, the
increase in waste is affecting the lives of many people. Waste management is
the managing of waste by disposal and recycling of it. Moreover, waste
management needs proper techniques keeping in mind the environmental
situations. For instance, there are various methods and techniques by which the
waste is disposed of. You must have come across 5 R’s to save the environment:
refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle.
1) Recycling of paper is a good practice but recycled paper should not be used
as food packaging because
a) recycled papers take lots of space
b) recycled papers can’t cover food properly
c) recycled papers can cause infection
d) recycled papers are costly

2) Effective segregation of wastes at the point of generation is very important.

Select the appropriate statements giving the importance of waste segregation.
i) less waste goes to the landfills
ii) better for public health and the environment
iii) help in reducing the waste
iv) resulting in deterioration of a waste picker’s health
a) both i) and ii)
b) both i) and iii)
c) both ii) and iii)
d) both i) and iv)

Case Study – 2
1.) Food chains are very important for the survival of most species. When only
one element is removed from the food chain it can result in extinction of a
species in some cases. The foundation of the food chain consists of primary
producers. Primary producers, or autotrophs, can use either solar energy or
chemical energy to create complex organic compounds, whereas species at
higher trophic levels cannot and so must consume producers or other life that
itself consumes producers. Because the sun’s light is necessary for
photosynthesis, most life could not exist if the sun disappeared. Even so, it has
recently been discovered that there are some forms of life, chemotrophs, that
appear to gain all their metabolic energy from chemosynthesis driven by
hydrothermal vents, thus showing that some life may not require solar energy to
thrive.

1) If 10,000 J solar energy falls on green plants in a terrestrial ecosystem, what

percentage of solar energy will be converted into food energy?
a) 10,000 J
b) 100 J
c) 1000 J
d) It will depend on the type of the terrestrial plant.

2) Matter and energy are two fundamental inputs of an ecosystem. Movement of

a) Energy is bidirectional and matter is repeatedly circulating.
b) Energy is repeatedly circulation and matter is unidirectional.
c) Energy is unidirectional and matter is repeatedly circulating.
d) Energy is multidirectional and matter is bidirectional.
3) Mr. X is eating curd/yogurt. For this food intake in a food chain he should be
considered as occupying
a) First trophic level
b) Second trophic level
c) Third trophic level
d) Fourth trophic level

4 Which of the following limits the number of trophic levels in a food chain?
a) Decrease in energy at higher trophic levels
b) Less availability of food
c) Polluted air
d) Water

5) The decomposers are not included in the food chain. The correct reason for
the same is because decomposers:

a) Act at every trophic level of the food chain

b) Do not breakdown organic compounds
c) Convert organic material to inorganic forms
d) Release enzymes outside their body to convert organic material to inorganic
forms

Case Study – 3

Food chains are very important for the survival of most species.
1) Which of the following limits the number of trophic levels in a food chain?
a) Decrease in energy at higher trophic levels
b) Less availability of food
c) Polluted air
d) Water

2) If Ravi is consuming curd/yogurt for lunch , which trophic level in a food

chain he should be considered as occupying ?
a) First trophic level
b) Second trophic level
c) Third trophic level
d) Fourth trophic level

3) Matter and energy are two fundamental inputs of an ecosystem. Movement of

a) Energy is bidirectional and matter is repeatedly circulating.
b) Energy is repeatedly circulation and matter is unidirectional.
c) Energy is unidirectional and matter is repeatedly circulating.
d) Energy is multidirectional and matter is bidirectional.

4) If 10,000 J solar energy falls on green plants in a terrestrial ecosystem, what

percentage of solar energy will be converted into food energy ?
a) 10,000 J
b) 100 J
c) 1000 J
d) It will depend on the type of the terrestrial plant.

5) The decomposers are not included in the food chain. The correct reason for
the same is because decomposers:
a) Act at every trophic level of the food chain
b) Do not breakdown organic compounds
c) Convert organic material to inorganic forms
d) Release enzymes outside their body to convert organic material to inorganic
forms

Case study – 4

In Kunjpura village, located in Karnal district, Haryana, Aditya Aggarwal and

his older brother Amit Aggarwal run Tee Cee Industries, a steel plant set up by
their ancestors in 1984. Along with this, they also run a gaushala that houses
1,200 cows that can no longer produce milk. The cow shelter was manageable
but running the steel plant was turning out to be expensive because they spent a
whopping Rs 5 lakh every month on electricity. The brothers struck upon an
idea. Why not run the factory with the biogas produced from cow dung from the
shelter and other gaushalas, along with bio and agriled Aditya and Amit to start
Amrit Fertilizers, a biogas project, in 2014, without any government support.

1) Raw material used in bio gas plant is

(a) Animal dung

(b) crop residue
(c) Food waste
(d) All of the above

2) Biogas is a better fuel than animal dung cake because

(i) Biogas has lower calorific value.

(ii) Animal dung cake has higher calorific value.
(iii) Biogas has high heating capacity.
(iv) Biogas burns without smoke.
(a) (i) only
(b) (ii) only

(c) (iii) and (iv)

(d) (i) and (ii)

3) Biogas is formed in the

(a) presence of air only.

(b) presence of water only.

(c) absence of air only.

(d) presence of water and absence of air.

4) Biogas is a mixture of the following gases.

(a) Ethane,Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen and Butane

(b) Methane,Hydrogen,Carbon dioxide and Nitrogen

(c) Butane,Carbon monoxide,Propane and Hydrogen

(d) Carbon monoxide,Sulphur dioxide and Hydrogen

CASE STUDY : 5
We are an integral part of the environment. Changes in the environment affect
us and our activities change the environment around us Ozone (O3 ) is a
molecule formed by three atoms of oxygen. While O2 , which we normally refer
to as oxygen, is essential for all aerobic forms of life. Ozone, is a deadly poison.
However, at the higher levels of the atmosphere, ozone performs an essential
function. It shields the surface of the earth from ultraviolet (UV) radiation from
the Sun.

i) How does ozone is formed?

ii) In which layer of atmosphere does ozone is present?

iii) What are the causes for ozone depletion?

iv) Write the chemical reaction for the formation of ozone?

v) What are the effects of UV radiations?

CASE STUDY : 6
In our daily activities, we generate a lot of material that are thrown away. What
are some of these waste materials? What happens after we throw them away?
Let us perform an activity to find answers to these questions.
Collect waste material from your homes. This could include all the waste
generated during a day, like kitchen waste (spoilt food, vegetable peels, used tea
leaves, milk packets and empty cartons), waste paper, empty medicine
bottles/strips/bubble packs, old and torn clothes and broken footwear.
Bury this material in a pit in the school garden or if there is no space available,
you can collect the material in an old bucket/ flower pot and cover with at least
15 cm of soil.
Keep this material moist and observe at 15-day intervals.
What are the materials that remain unchanged over long periods of time?
What are the materials which change their form and structure over time?
Of these materials that are changed, which ones change the fastest?
We have seen in the chapter on ‘Life Processes’ that the food we eat is digested
by various enzymes in our body. Have you ever wondered why the same
enzyme does not break-down everything we eat? Enzymes are specific in their
action, specific enzymes are needed for the break-down of a particular
substance. That is why we will not get any energy if we try to eat coal! Because
of this, many human-made materials like plastics will not be broken down by
the action of bacteria or other saprophytes. These materials will be acted upon
by physical processes like heat and pressure, but under the ambient conditions
found in our environment, these persist for a long time.

i) What is biodegradable substances?

ii) What are the examples of non- biodegradable substances?

iii) what are the ways through which we can reduce pollution especially the
non- biodegradable waste?

iv) What are the effects of biodegradable substances on our environment?

v) What are the non- biodegradable on environment?

cattles due to ingestion of these waste.

CASE STUDY : 7
The food we eat acts as a fuel to provide us energy to do work. Thus the
interactions among various components of the environment involves flow of
energy from one component of the system to another. As we have studied, the
autotrophs capture the energy present in sunlight and convert it into chemical
energy. This energy supports all the activities of the living world. From
autotrophs, the energy goes to the heterotrophs and decomposers.

i) What is food chain?

ii) Give a example of one terrestrial food chain.

iii) What are the feature of food chain?

iv) What do you meant by biological magnification?

v) What is the average value for the amount of organic matter that is present at
each step and reaching the next level of consumers?

CASE STUDY : 8
All organisms such as plants, animals, microorganisms and human beings as
well as the physical surroundings interact with each other and maintain a
balance in nature. All the interacting organisms in an area together with the non-
living constituents of the environment form an ecosystem. Thus, an ecosystem
consists of biotic components comprising living organisms and abiotic
components comprising physical factors like temperature, rainfall, wind, soil
and minerals.
i) What is natural ecosystem?
ii) what are the examples of artificial ecosystem?
iii) what are consumers?
iv) What are the type of consumers?
v) What are producers?