CAPE UNIT 1 BIOLOGY

YEAR: 2012
PAPER 2
Question 1:
Properties of Water Examples of water’s importance to life
High cohesion Helps leaves to pull water upwards from the roots
Solubility Dissolves oxygen, carbon dioxide and nutrients for
aquatic organisms. And, aids in nutrient
transportation
High Specific Heat Capacity Helps to stabilize the temperature of organisms and
the environment
 Graph showing the water potential of a leaf at incrementing hours

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-0.5

-1
Water potential (MPa)

-1.5

-2

-2.5

-3

-3.5

Time (hours)
  Account for the shape of the graph: As the day becomes warmer, transpiration also increase, causing
the water potential to become more negative due to there being less water in the leaves. As the day
becomes cooler, the water potential becomes less negative

 The structures are:

o A- Glycerol (head)
o B- Fatty acids tail
 The line between the structure labelled A and B.
 They triglyceride molecule have a higher proportion of hydrogen in their fatty acid tails and thus they
store more energy than carbohydrates.

Question 2:
 Description of the steps:
o 1- Unwinding of the double stranded helix: The enzyme Topoisomerase is used to unwind the
helix
o 2- Unzipping the DNA: The enzyme helicase unwinds the DNA helix by splitting the hydrogen
bonds between the base groups of the nucleotides.
o 3- Hydrogen bonding and winding: DNA ligase is used to form hydrogen bonds between the
basses of the new strand and the template strand, then Topoisomerase winds the new strand and
template strand into the double helix shape.
 This is because in this method the two stands of the original DNA molecule is used as the template
strands for two new strands and as such the old strands are reused.

Question 3:
Paper 1 Paper 1
Year: 2010 Year: 2011
1. –
2. –
3. –
4. –
5. A
6. C
7. D
8. A
9. B
10. B
11. D
12. B
13. D
14. A
15. B
16. C
17. –
18. A
19. A
20. C
21. B
22. D
23. –
24. D
25. B
26. A
27. B
28. D
29. A
30. A
31. D
32. A
33. C
34. D
35. D
36. C
37. C
38. A
39. C
40. C
41. C
42. C
43. ?
44. D
45. D
Paper 2
Year: 2011