Syllabus Edition

First teaching 2020

Last exams 2024

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Classification (CIE A Level Biology)

Exam Questions

1 hour8 questions
1a
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2 marks

Domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, and wolves belong to the family Canidae.

Complete Table 1 below to show the classification of the domestic dog.

Table 1

Kingdom Animalia
  Chordata
Class  
  Carnivora
Family Canidae
  Canis
   

1b
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2 marks

It is still debated as to whether dogs and wolves are entirely different species or subspecies. It has been suggested that some wolves have bred with domestic dogs to produce fertile offspring, which would make them the same species according to the biological species concept.

Name and briefly describe another species concept that biologists may use to help determine if two animals are different species.

1c
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2 marks

The classification seen in Table 1 is described as a hierarchical system.

Explain what is meant by this.

1d
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2 marks

Explain the term taxonomic rank and give an example of one.

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2a
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2 marks

The Archaea represent one of the domains of life on Earth.

Identify the other two domains.

2b
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4 marks

Describe the features of Archaea that mean they are classified as a distinct domain in the three domains system of classification.

2c
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3 marks

Fig. 2 below shows a bacterial cell and an animal cell as seen in a student's Biology textbook.

18-1-fig-2-1Fig. 2

Animal cells store their genetic material in a nucleus, whereas bacterial cells do not.

Give three other contrasts between bacterial cells and animal cells.

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3
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8 marks

Outline the characteristic features of organisms in the domain Bacteria.

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1a2 marks

Identify all the eukaryotic kingdoms that contain...

(i)
Autotrophic organisms

[1]

(ii)
Heterotrophic organisms

[1]

1b4 marks

Complete Table 1 below.

Table 1

Feature Protoctista Fungi Plantae Animalia
Cell walls Present in some species     X
Cell vacuoles   √    
Cilia/flagella Present in some species   X  
Motility (ability to move themselves) Present in some species   X  
Nervous coordination   X   √

1c3 marks

Fruit flies are a group of organisms within the kingdom Animalia. A student collected three different types of fruit fly to study. The three species of fruit fly were Ceratitis capitata, Dacus dorsalis and Dacus oleae.

What do these names suggest about the evolutionary relationships between these fruit fly species? Explain your answer.

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2a1 mark

Viruses are not included in the three-domain classification system.

Explain why.

2b5 marks

Discuss whether viruses should or should not be classed as living organisms.

2c2 marks

State the two main features that are used to classify viruses.

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3a
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3 marks

Archaea and Eukarya are two domains of life that exhibit distinct characteristics and evolutionary relationships.

Contrast the cellular structures of Archaea and Eukarya.

3b
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2 marks

Scientists compared four species from the kingdom Achaea. They compared the base sequence of their DNA to determine the evolutionary relationships between the species.

Their results are shown in Table 1. 

Table 1

Species The percentage similarity between non-coding multiple repeat base sequences
A B C D
A        
B 51.2      
C 48.3 48.3    
D 42.9 42.9 40.7  

Use the information in Table 1 to explain which two species are the closest evolutionary relatives.

3c
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3 marks

Archaea were previously classified as bacteria due to similarities in their features. 

Describe three features of archaea that led to their classification as a separate domain. 

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1a2 marks

Specimen A and specimen B are similar species of invertebrates that live in the same habitat.

Scientists wanted to determine whether specimen A and specimen B are different species of invertebrate, or different forms of the same species.

In order to do this, they caught large numbers of each specimen type and measured the body mass and length of each individual before calculating the means and standard deviations (SD). Their results are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Body measurement Specimen A Specimen B
Mean body mass / g (± SD) 0.68 (± 0.02) 0.67 (± 0.01)
Mean body length / mm (± SD) 21.4 (± 0.9) 19.2 (± 0.7)

Explain how the standard deviation can help with the interpretation of this data.

1b4 marks

The scientists hypothesised that the two specimens were different forms of the same invertebrate species.

Evaluate this hypothesis using the information provided in part (a).

1c1 mark

Fig. 1 below shows the classification of some animals with antlers and horns.

18-1-fig-5-1
Fig. 1

Identify the number of different orders that are present in Fig.1 above.

1d2 marks

The scientific names of three great apes are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2

Common Name Scientific Name
Orangutan Pongo pygmaeus
Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes
Bonobo Pan paniscus

Fig. 2 represents the hierarchical classification of these apes in the form of a diagram.

 

18-1-fig-5-2
Fig. 2

The orangutan also belongs to the Hominidae family. Use the information provided in Table 2 to sketch out Fig. 2 and add the orangutan. The orangutan should be represented by the letter X.

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2a
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1 mark

Part of the genome of many viruses is a gene for the enzyme reverse transcriptase. As its name suggests, this enzyme can synthesise DNA from an RNA template, which is the reverse reaction to transcription within most other organisms' cells. 

Suggest one advantage to the virus of producing the enzyme reverse transcriptase. 

2b
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4 marks

Give four reasons why viruses are not classified within the traditional three-domain system of Archaea, Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. 

2c
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3 marks

The number of fully assembled virus particles (virions) released from an individual host cell after an infection can vary from tens of virions to tens of thousands. For example, the HIV virus can burst out around 5 000 virions from a single infected host T-cell.

(i) Calculate the maximum theoretical number of T-cells that can be destroyed by a single host cell infection followed by one further cycle of infection.

(1)

(ii) Suggest the implications to a human of your answer to part (i) in the light of the fact that a healthy adult human possesses around 50 million T-cells.

(2)

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