Sample Paper 15 Stage III Excellence Level 1

Sample Question Paper 15

(Detailed Explanations)

Biology
CBSE Class 12th
1. (a) Parents who are both carrier of an autosomal 11. (b) A disease, which can be easily transmitted from
recessive disorder have a 25% chance of producing one person to another is called infectious disease.
an offspring affected by the disease. [1] Infectious diseases are also known as transmissible
disease or communicable disease. [1]
2. (d) North Indian Plains are not included in the
biodiversity hotspots of India. [1] 12. (b) The type of pedigree given is autosomal
recessive. It can be explained by the detailed
3. (a) Condom is a mechanical barrier which is used to pedigree chart given below
block the path through which egg and sperm can
meet. [1] Let ‘a’ be the recessive autosomal allele.
Aa aa
4. (c) Rice is a staple food in many countries, but does
not contain vitamin-A. By inserting two genes from
daffodil and one gene from a bacterial species into AA
aa or Aa
rice plants, researchers have produced rice capable aa Aa or Aa Aa Aa
of synthesising b-carotene, the precursor of
vitamin-A. This rice is called ‘Golden rice’. [1] AA aa
AA Aa Aa
or Aa AA
5. (d) Elephantiasis is caused by a number of worms like Aa or or
Wuchereria bancrofti and W. malayi. They affect Aa Aa
lymphatic vessels of the lower limbs. [1]
aa aa AA or Aa
[1]
6. (d) Age distribution is percentage of individuals of a
given age or age group. A population at any given 13. (a) Both Assertion and Reason are true and Reason is
time is composed of individuals of different ages.[1] the correct explanation of Assertion.
7. (d) Methanogens growing anaerobically on cellulosic The structures related to sexual reproduction in
material produce methane, carbon dioxide and flowering plants are flowers. This is because
hydrogen. [1] embryological processes during sexual reproduction
occur in ovary, which is a part of a flower. [1]
8. (a) Smallest amount of energy transfer takes place at
arrow marked as 2 because as we go up in a food 14. (c) Assertion is true, but Reason is false.
chain majority of the energy is lost in the atmosphere InF2-generation, both the parental traits of a character
and only 10% of it is actually transferred to the are expressed in the ratio of three dominant to one
organisms of the next trophic level (here, from primary recessive.
to secondary consumers). While the largest energy
The contrasting traits do not blend at F2 stage. Such
loss is denoted by arrow 3 because plants absorb
blending occurs in case of incomplete dominance.
only 1% of the energy available from the sun and give [1]
off the rest (i.e. maximum) of the energy to the
atmosphere. [1] 15. (b) Both Assertion and Reason are true, but Reason is
not the correct explanation of Assertion.
9. (b) The area of Brazil is characterised by high Repetitive sequences make up a large portion of
biodiversity. Brazil’s large area comprises different
human genome. These sequences are nucleotide
ecosystems, which together sustain some of the
sequences that are repeated many times, sometimes
world’s greatest biodiversity. [1]
hundred to thousand times.
10. (b) Egg has much larger size than a sperm. The They have no direct coding function, but provide
number of eggs produced are few thousands, while informations about chromosome structure,
sperms are produced in billions. [1] dynamics and evolution. [1]
2 Stage III Excellence Level
16. (a) Both Assertion and Reason are true and Reason is
the correct explanation of Assertion.
The correct explanation can be given as
When a species become extinct, the plant and animal
species associated with it in an obligatory way also
become extinct. [1]
17. The surgical or sterilisation methods is advised to
them as a effective means of birth control which
include
(i) Vasectomy (in males) A sterilisation method in
which a small portion of vas deferens is removed
or tied up through a cut or incision on scrotum,
thus blocking the transport of sperms from the
testes to the copulatory organ.
(ii) Tubectomy (in females) A sterilisation method in
which small part of Fallopian tube is removed or
tied up through incision in abdomen or through
vagina. It blocks the passage of ova from ovary to
the site of fertilisation. [2]
18. (i) The two replicating strands are leading strand and
lagging strand. [1]
(ii) Two different types of parent strands function as
template strands. On the template strand with
3¢ ® 5¢ polarity, the new strand synthesised is
called continuous strand or leading strand. On the
template strand with 5¢ ® 3¢ polarity, the new
strand is synthesised from the point of replication
fork in short stretches called Okazaki fragments
and this strand is called lagging strand. [1]
19. The graph shows intraspecific competition which is
the competition among individuals of same species.
According to the graph, competition for water in a
population leads to more root weight (mg) per leaf
area (cm 2). In order to drive more water from the pot
compared to individuals who are growing alone. [2]
20. (i) Restriction enzyme EcoRI would be used,
because the restriction site for this enzyme is
present in our target site, i.e. amp R region. [1]
(ii) Other enzymes like Bam HI, Sal I and Pvu II cannot
be used because their restriction site is not
present in amp R region, but in tet R region. [1]
21. (i) Cannabinoids are a group of chemicals which
interact with the cannabinoid receptors in the
brain. This drug represents cannabinoids and the
organs affected are heart and cardiovascular
system. [1]
(ii) Modes of consumption of these drugs are
inhalation or oral ingestion. [1]
Biology Class 12
Or (i) Heroin is obtained from the poppy plant Papaver
somniferum. It is extracted from the latex of the
plant. [1]
(ii) Heroin is a depressant and it can slow down body
function. [1]
22. (i) X here represent testis. It is located outside the
abdominal cavity within a pouch called scrotum.
[1]
(ii) Y is the seminal vesicle. It produces an alkaline
secretion rich in fructose and constitutes 60% of
the volume of the semen. [1]
(iii) Z represent epididymis. It stores the sperms and
secretes a fluid which helps in the maturation of
sperms. [1]
23. (i) Menstrual phase The menstrual cycle starts with
menstrual phase. It lasts for about 3-5 days. The
menstrual flow results due to the breakdown of
endometrial lining of the uterus and its blood
vessels that come out through vagina. [1]
(ii) Follicular phase It lasts about 13th day of
menstrual cycle. In this phase, the primary follicles
in the ovary grow to become a fully mature
Graafian follicle.
The secretion of gonadotropins (LH and FSH)
from anterior pituitary increases gradually during
the follicular phase. They stimulate follicular
development as well as secretion of oestrogen by
the growing follicles. [1]
(iii) Luteal phase This phase lasts for about 10-14
days. In this phase, the ruptured Graafian follicle
transforms into corpus luteum. It secretes large
amount of progesterone which is essential to
maintain endometrium. [1]
24. (i) In male heterogamety, males produce two
different types of gametes. In humans and
Drosophila, the males have one X and one
Y-chromosome. Thus, the males of these
organisms show male heterogamety as they
produce two types of gametes some either with or
without X-chromosome (e.g. grasshopper) and
some gametes with X-chromosome and some
with Y-chromosome, e.g. Drosophila. [2]
(ii) In some organisms, females produce two different
types of gametes. This is termed as female
heterogamety. In birds and some reptiles the
female has two different sex chromosomes (one Z
and one W-chromosome) whereas the male has a
pair of same chromosome (a pair of
Z-chromosome). [1]
 Sample Paper 15 Stage III Excellence Level 3

25. (i) (a) Cocaine is obtained from Erythroxylum coca. Or

(b) Marijuana is obtained from the latex of
Papaver somniferum. [1]
(ii) Some of the effects of commonly used drugs are
(a) Cocaine It is a stimulant and produce a sense
of euphoria and increased energy.
(b) Morphine It is a depressant, which slows
down the body function.
(c) Marijuana it affects cardiovascular system of
the body. [2]
26. Sticky ends on DNA are formed by the action of
enzymes restriction endonucleases. These enzymes
cut the strand of DNA a little away from the centre of
the palindrome sequence between the same two
bases on both the strands.
This results in single-stranded stretches on both the
complementary strands at their ends. These
overhanging stretches are called sticky ends as they
form hydrogen bonds with the complementary base
pair sequences. [2]
Importance of the sticky ends These are produced
from hydrogen bonds with their complementary cut
counterparts. The stickiness of the ends facilitates the
action of the enzyme DNA ligase which helps to rejoin
the cut DNA.
27. (i) Earlier, insulin was extracted from pancreas of
slaughtered pigs and cattle animals.
But now this insulin is not used by diabetic
patients as these sources caused some allergy or
other type of reaction to the foreign protein. [1]
(ii) The American company Eli Lilly produced insulin
via recombinant DNA technology in 1983.
Insulin production by using recombinant DNA
technology is shown in flowchart below
DNA sequences corresponding to the two
polypeptides, i.e. A and B-chains of insulin are
synthesised in vitro.
¯
They are introduced into plasmid DNA of E. coli
¯
The two chains are produced separately.
¯
They are extracted and combined by creating
disulphide bridge to form the assembled mature
molecule of insulin. [1]
(iii) The insulin produced by rDNA has A and
B-polypeptides, while insulin produced by human
pancreas has three polypeptides, i.e. A, B and
C-chains before maturing. The insulin produced
by rDNA directly synthesises mature hormone,
while insulin produced by human pancreas
undergoes processing to form mature and
functional hormone. [1]
(i) Bioreactor provides optimum conditions for the
growth of the desired product. These conditions
include temperature, pH, substrate, oxygen, salts
and vitamins. [1]
(ii) In a continuous culture system, the used medium
is drained out from one side and fresh medium is
added from the other side to maintain the cells in
their physiologically active state. [1]
(iii) Components of a bioreactor include the following
(a) an agitator system
(b) an oxygen delivery system
(c) foam control system
(d) temperature control system
(e) pH control system
(f) sampling ports to withdraw the culture
The most commonly used bioreactors are of stirring
type which are of two types, i.e.
(a) Simple stirred tank bioreactor
(b) Sparged stirred tank bioreactor [1]
28. India is one of the twelve megadiversity regions of the
world with 8.1% of genetic resources of the world.
Since, India is placed in the tropical part of the world it
[1]
exhibits more species diversity than the regions of
temperate zones.
India, with much of its land area in the tropical
latitudes, has more than 1200 species of birds.
Norway is away from tropics, so it exhibits less
biodiversity. [1½]
Differences between genetic and species biodiversity
are as follows
Genetic diversity Species diversity
It is related to the number It is related to the
of genes and their alleles number and distribution
found in organisms. of species found in an
area.
It is a trait of a species. It is a trait of community.
It influences adaptability It influences biotic
and distribution of species interactions and stability
in diverse habitats. of the community.
[1½]
Common Mistake
Generally the students get confused between the
genetic diversity and species diversity. Where the
former is a trait of species, while the latter is the trait
of community.
29. (i) (a) The gases contained were methane,
ammonia, hydrogen and water vapour. [½]
(b) In flask ‘A’, electric discharge was created
using electrodes. [½]
4 Stage III Excellence Level
(ii) The organic molecule collected in water at ‘B’
was acids. [1]
(iii) He concluded that life could have come from
pre-existing non-living organic molecules and
their formation was preceeded by chemical
evolution. [2]
Or
(iii) The theory of biogenesis was proposed by
Oparin and Haldane. SL Miller conducted an
experiment to prove this theory. They created the
conditions of primitive earth, i.e. high
temperature, volcanic storms, reducing
atmospheres containing CH 4, NH 3, etc. at
laboratory scale. Electric discharge was
stimulated in a closed flask containing
CH 4, H 2, NH 3 and water vapour at 800°C. They
then observed the formation of amino acids. [2]
30. (i) In the younger generation, i.e. from the age of
6-19 years, majority of the males were affected
by the cholera disease. [1]
(ii) Vibrio cholerae is mainly transmitted through
ingestion of contaminated food and water. [1]
(iii) Citizen should take following measures to
prevent the spread of cholera
(a) To drink only bottled water or beverages.
(b) Only eating freshly prepared cooked foods.
(c) Washing hands after using lavatory and
before eating.
(d) Ensuring basic hygiene and an improved
access to sanitation facilities. [2]
Or
(iii) Few public health solutions for the global
problem of epidemic cholera are
(a) Improved sanitation even including more
effective latrines.
(b) An effective vaccine.
(c) Improved standard of living. [2]
31. (i) Dryopithecus
Time of origin 20-25 mya
General features ape-like, hairy, ate soft fruits
and leaves. Arms and legs of same length, large
brain.
(ii) Homo habilis (Handy man)
Time of origin 1.2-1.5 mya
General features Fossils found in East Africa,
first hominid, i.e. human-being like brain capacity
650-800 cc, did not eat meat.
(iii) Ramapithecus
Time of origin 14-15 mya
General features More man-like, walked more
erect, teeth like modern man.
Biology Class 12
(iv) Australopithecus
Time of origin 2 mya
General features Probably lived in East African
grasslands and ate fruits, hunted with stones,
weapons, brain capacity was 400-600 cc.
(v) Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
Time of origin 1,00,000-40,000 years ago.
General features Known as Neanderthal man.
Fossils found in East and Central Asia, brain size
1400 cc, used hides to protect body, buried their
dead. They became exitnct 25000 years ago.
[1 ´ 5]
Or
Frederick Griffith in 1928, carried out a series of
experiments with Streptococcus pneumoniae
(a bacterium that causes pneumonia). He observed that
when these bacteria (Streptococcus pneumoniae)
were grown on a culture plate, some of them produced
smooth, shiny colonies (S-type), whereas others
produced rough colonies (R-type).
This difference in appearance of colonies
(smooth/rough) is due to the presence of mucus
(polysaccharide) coat on S-strains, but not on
R-strains. In his experiments, he first infected two
separate groups of mice. The mice that were infected
with the S-strain died from pneumonia as S-strains are
the virulent strains causing pneumonia.
S-strain (virulent strain) ® Injected into mice
® Mice died.
The mice that were infected with the R-strain did not
develop pneumonia and they lived.
R-strain (non-virulent strain) ® Injected into mice
® Mice lived.
In the next set of experiments, Griffith killed bacteria by
heating them. The mice that were injected with
heat-killed S-strain bacteria did not die and lived.
S-strain (heat-killed)® Injected into mice® Mice lived.
Whereas, on injecting a mixture of heat-killed S-strain
and live R-strain bacteria, the mice died. Moreover,
living S-bacteria was recovered from the dead mice.
S-strain (heat-killed) + R-strain (live)
® Injected into mice ® Mice died.
From all these observations Griffith concluded that the
live R-strain bacteria had been transformed by the
heat-killed S-strain bacteria, i.e. some ‘transforming
principle’ had transferred from the heat-killed S-strain,
which helped the R-strain bacteria to synthesise a
smooth polysaccharide coat and thus become
virulent.
However, he was not able to define the biochemical
nature of genetic material, which was further defined
by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty.
[5]
 Sample Paper 15
For getting maximum marks,
following value point should be
included in the answer
Mention the conclusion he drived
Value Points from the experiment. Also mention
Griffith’s failure in defining the
biochemical nature of genetic
material and who were the further
discoverers.
32. (i) Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) involves
various techniques through which a couple would
be assisted to have children. The technology
includes fertility treatments, which help couples
with difficulties in conceiving.
The limitation of ART is that the facilities for ART
are available only in few centres in the country and
are quite expensive, i.e. they cannot be afforded
by poor people. [2]
(ii) (a) Intracytoplasmic sperm injection can be
helpful for male, in which sperm is directly
injected into the ovum.
(b) Gamete Intra Fallopian Transfer (GIFT) can be
helpful for female, in which an ovum is
collected from a donor and transferred into
Fallopian tube of another female. [2]
(iii) Zygote or early embryo with upto 8-blastomeres
can be transferred in Fallopian Tube (ZIFT) and
embryo with more than 8-blastomere is
transferred in uterus (IUT). [1]
Or
(i) The success rate of surrogacy with donor eggs are
higher due to the fact that donor eggs are
generally obtained from young, healthy women
after undergoing rigorous screening. [1]
(ii) In each of surrogacy, the surrogate mother has
successfully fulfilled every surrogacy criteria for
the successfull birth of a child, making the
chances of successful pregnancy higher.
Whereas, in IVF the mother does not fulfill the
fertility criteria making the success rates go down.
(iii) (a) False, often female is blamed for the couple
being childless, but more often the problem
lies in male partner.
(b) Causes of infertility could be
l
Sexually transmitted diseases either in
males or females.
l
Drugs, immunological or physiological
factors are some other reasons of infertility.
[½ + ½]
33. Biotechnology has helped in generating plant
varieties against the pests that destroy the cotton
Stage III Excellence Level 5
balls, i.e. cotton bollworms and cotton borer.
Bt cotton is created by using some strains of a
bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt is short form).
(i) This bacterium produces protein that kills certain
insects such as lepidopterans (tobacco budworm
and armyworm), coleopterans (beetles) and
dipterans (flies and mosquitoes).
(ii) Bacillus thuringiensis forms protein crystals during
a particular phase of their growth. These crystals
contain a toxic insecticidal protein.
(iii) Bt toxin protein exists as inactive protoxin in
bacteria, but once an insect ingests this toxin, it
gets converted into its active form due to the
alkaline pH of the gut, which solubilises the
crystals.
(iv) The activated toxin binds to the surface of midgut
epithelial cells and creates pores that cause cell
swelling and lysis leading to death of the insect.
Specific Bt toxin genes are isolated from Bacillus
thuringiensis and are incorporated into several
crop plants.
Most Bt toxins are insect-group specific. The toxin
is coded by a gene named cry. For example, the
proteins encoded by the genes cry IAc and cry
IIAb control the cotton bollworms and cry IAb
controls corn borer. [5]
Or
In enzyme replacement therapy, the patient is given
functional ADA (Adenosine Deaminase) by injection.
Hereditary disease can be corrected by gene therapy.
It is a collection of methods that allows correction or
replacement of defective genes. The first gene
therapy was given in 1990 to a 4 year old girl with
Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) deficiency. It is caused
due to the deletion of gene for adenosine deaminase.
[2]
The treatment involves following steps
(i) Lymphocytes from the blood of patient are grown
on culture outside the body.
(ii) A functional ADA, cDNA (using a retroviral vector)
[2] is then introduced into these lymphocytes.
(iii) Such genetically engineered lymphocytes are
returned to the blood of patient.
[1]
(iv) Periodic infusion of such genetically engineered
lymphocytes is required by the patient. [2]
Disadvantages
(i) The patient does not completely recover from the
disease.
(ii) It needs periodic injections of the enzyme to the
patients. [1]