Living Beings & Habitat NCERT Exercise Solution
Fill in the blanks:
- The presence of specific features, which enable a plant or an animal to live in a particular habitat, is called……………….
Answer: Adaptation - The habitats of the plants and animals that live on land are called ………………habitat.
Answer: Terrestrial - The habitats of plants and animals that live in water are called ……………habitat.
Answer: Aquatic - Soil, water and air are the ———— factors of a habitat.
Answer: Abiotic - Changes in our surroundings that make us respond to them, are called……………….
Answer: Stimuli
Answer the following questions:
Question 1: What is a habitat?
Answer: The surrounding in which a living being lives is called its habitat. The dictionary meaning of habitat is home.
Question 2: How is a cactus adapted to survive in a desert?
Answer: A cactus to shows following adaptations to survive in a desert:
- Leaves are modified into spine-like structures. It helps in preventing loss of water through transpiration.
- Stem is modified into leaf-like structures. These are spongy and have waxy coating on the surface. The wax coating helps in preventing water loss due to heat. The spongy portion stores lot of water.
- Roots are very deep and thus can access water from great depths.
Question 3: Which of the things in the following list are nonliving? (Plough, Mushroom, Sewing machine, Radio, Boat, Water hyacinth, Earthworm)
Answer: Plough, sewing machine, radio, boat
Question 4: Give an example of a non-living thing, which shows any two characteristics of living things.
Answer: Clouds (show growth) and car (shows motion).
Question 5: Which of the non-living things listed below, were once part of a living thing? (Butter, Leather, Soil, Wool, Electric bulb, Cooking oil, Salt, Apple, Rubber)
Answer: Butter, leather, wool, cooking oil, apple, rubber
Question 6: List the common characteristics of the living things.
Answer: Nutrition, Growth, Respiration, Response to Stimuli, Excretion and Reproduction
Question 7: Explain, why speed is important for survival in the grasslands for animals that live there. (Hint: There are few trees or places for animals to hide in grasslands habitats.)
Answer: The grassland is a place where very few trees or places are available for an animal to hide. Let us take example of a cheetah and a deer to understand the importance of speed for survival in the grassland. The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth. The deer is also very fast, but not as fast as a cheetah. But a cheetah does not have stamina to run long distances and it easily gets tired. If a cheetah is able to catch a deer in a short span of time, it gets food and can live for another day. Many a times, a cheetah dies after running several short sprints in the pursuit of a deer. A deer, on the other hand, can run long distances. If it is able to run quickly so as not to be caught by a cheetah it can live for another day. The examples of these two animals show the importance of speed for survival in the grasslands.
Extra Questions:
Question 1: What is a terrestrial habitat?
Answer: The habitat on land is called terrestrial habitat.
Question 2: What is an aquatic habitat?
Answer: The habitat in water is called aquatic habitat.
Question 3: What do you understand by biotic components?
Answer: The living beings make the biotic component of a habitat. Plants and animals are examples of biotic components.
Question 4: What do you understand by abiotic components?
Answer: The non-living things make the abiotic component of a habitat. Soil, air, water, temperature are the abiotic components.
Question 5: What is adaptation?
Answer: The presence of some specific features and certain habits which allow an organism to live in its habitat is called adaptation.
Question 6: What is acclimatization?
Answer: The changes which happen in the body of a single organism over a short duration; due to sudden changes in its surroundings is called acclimatization.