HKCEE Biology 5.

1 Detecting environmental conditions (eyes and ears)

1. 1992/I/3b
(i) The circular muscle contracts (1), so that the pupil becomes smaller. (1)
This action avoids large amount of light entering the eyeball. (1)
which may damage the light sensitive cells on retina. (1)

(ii) The ciliary muscles relax (1), so the suspensory ligaments become taut (1),
which in turn makes the lens become thinner (1).
This enables it to focus on objects far away.

(iii) The man with short-sightedness looking at far away bus stop sign: Parallel light
rays (1), light rays focus at a point in front of the retina (1)

(iv) Voluntary action.

2. 1996/I/1c
(i) (1) Short-sightedness.
(2) The eyeballs are too long (1) or the lens are too thick (1)

(ii) parallel light rays (1), light rays focus at a point in front of retina (1), title: Path of
light rays from the bus 10m away entering the boy’s eye (1)

(iii) By wearing concave lens for correcting short-sightedness. (1)

(iv) Cone cells defect. Cone cells which are responsible for colour vision (1), are unable to
function properly in dim light. (1)

3. 1998/I/4a
(i) Diagram:

(ii) Light-sensitive cells (rod cells and cone cells) on the retina were first stimulated. (1)
Then nerve impulses were set up (1) and transmitted to the cerebral cortex (1) along
the optic nerve for interpretation into vision. (1)

(iii) Lens became more convex (1) as ciliary muscles contracted (1) and suspensory
ligaments relaxed. (1)

(iv) Long-sightedness: diverging light rays from near object (1), convex lens (1), light rays
able to focus at a point on retina after vision correction (wearing glasses) (1)
4. 2000/I/2bi,ii,iv
(i) When the light intensity is between 1 to 5 (arbitrary units), the higher the light
intensity, the smaller the size of pupil. (1)
When the light intensity is greater than 5 (arbitrary units), the size of pupil
remains unchanged when the increasing light intensity. (1)

(ii) The size of pupil reduces to admit less light entering eyes (1), thus protecting the
light-sensitive cells on the retina from being overstimulated and damaged by
strong light. (1)

iv. Pupil is a hole through which the retina and the choroid layer can be seen. The
retina and the choroid absorb light with the presence of a dark pigment (1), and
prevent the light reflection (1). So the pupil always appears to be black.

5. 2001/I/2a
(i) A (choroid) absorbs light to reduce the light reflection side eyeball (1) It contains
black pigments (1) / It supplies nutrients and oxygen to eyeball structures (1), It is
networked with capillaries (1)

(ii) The small object can be seen if the image forms on spot C but not on spot B
(blind spot). (1) No light sensitive cells at spot B while spot C contains light-
sensitive cells. (1)

Further info: Blind spot where the nerve fibers of the retina leave the eyeball to optic nerve.
Image is not detected there and no signal is sent to the brain. But on spot C, the image can
be detected by light-sensitive cells and the signal is sent to the brain.

(iii) Structure D (lens) become thinner. (1) The ciliary muscles relax. (1) Tension in the
suspensory ligaments increases (1)

(iv) Parallel light rays (1) light rays focus at a point in front of retina (1) title: ray
diagram showing the path of light rays entering a short-sighted eye (1)

6. 2003/I/3ai,ii(1),iii
(i) (1) Blood capillaries block light; their absence allows light to pass through
without being blocked.
(2) Aqueous humour/choroids (1)

(ii) (1) To reduce the amount of light entering the eye (1) to prevent the retina from
damage. (1)

(iii) When wearing sunglasses, much of the visible light is filtered, so the pupil reflex will not
be in action due to the lack of strong light stimulus. (1) Thus, the pupil will not constrict as it
does without sunglasses. (1) More UV light enters the eye and falls onto the retina,
damaging it. (1)
7. 2007/I/7a
(i) (1) Ciliary muscles.

(2) 老花：例如睇報紙睇唔清楚 D 字要帶老花眼鏡 When an elderly views a nearby

object, the weak ciliary muscles fail to contract sufficiently (1), so the lens thickness
do not increase much. (1) The suspensory ligaments are not loosened adequately (1),
and the lens will not be curved enough to effectively converge the light rays reflected
from the nearby object. (1) Thus, the image of the nearby object will form behind the
retina and is blurred.

(ii) Short-sightedness: lens become too thick

Long-sightedness: lens become too thin
Cataract: lens changed from transparent to opaque

(iii) Layer C (choroid) which is richly supplied with blood vessels. Falling off of layer B
(retina) from layer C will deprive the light-sensitive cells (cone cells and rod cells)
from supply of nutrients and oxygen (1), and lead to waste accumulation (1). The
light-sensitive cells (photoreceptors) will die off (1) and no nerve impulses can be
generated upon stimulation by light (1). This leads to blindness.

Summary of phototropism
- Shoot tip is the part detecting light sources and bending towards light
- Shoots (枝條) /plumules (胚芽) show positive phototropism to ensure light
absorption for photosynthesis
- Roots (根)/radicles (胚根) show negative phototropism to ensure anchorage into soil
for support
- High auxin concentrations promote shoot growth but inhibit root growth
- Unilateral light (單側光) causes auxins to be transported from the bright side to the
dark side of the shoot/root (by active transport) => shoot bends towards light ***not
uniform light which causes even distribution of auxin concentration => shoot growth
upwards without bending***

Which coleoptiles will bend towards the light source?

Factors to be considered:
1. Unilateral light source? Uniform light source? (direction of bending)
2. metal foil (金屬片), mica plate (雲母片) : impermeable to auxins
3. Plain agar block (without auxin): no; Agar block with auxin: yes
4. Agar block with auxin being placed on right/left hand side? (conc. of auxins: direction
of bending)

Experiments related to phototropism in history: correlated with natures of science

thinking direction: e.g. learnt from previous scientists and based on their work?
collaboration of scientists? Science is refutable?