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NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 10 .1 — In-text Questions

Book page 185 & 18610 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Which characteristics help you in differentiating yourself from a car? For instance, a car does not grow. Does it mean it is non-living? Now, which characteristics have you used to classify a car as non-living?
Answer

The characteristics that separate me from a car are growth, nutrition, respiration, excretion, response to stimuli, reproduction and death.

“A car does not grow — does it mean it is non-living?” Not by that one fact alone. Many living beings also stop growing: a full-grown neem tree and a grown-up adult hardly change in size any more. So “does not grow” by itself proves nothing.

The characteristics I actually used to call the car non-living:

  • It never grew from a smaller car — it came out of a factory in its final size.
  • It does not take food; petrol or diesel is fuel that is burnt, not food that builds a body.
  • It does not respire — no air is used to release energy from food inside it.
  • It does not excrete body waste.
  • It does not respond on its own to heat, light or touch.
  • It cannot reproduce.
  • It does not die — it is simply scrapped.
Why the question is worded this way: the book is training you to be careful. One missing characteristic is enough to say “non-living”, but you must be sure the characteristic is really absent, not just paused. Growth pauses in an adult; it was never present in a car.
Q2.
What are some common characteristics that make living beings very different from the non-living things?
Answer

The chapter lists eight. Learn them as one string — it is the backbone of the whole chapter.

Movement → Nutrition → Growth → Respiration → Excretion → Response to stimuli → Reproduction → Death
CharacteristicHow you can show itIn an animalIn a plant
MovementWatch it change position, or watch a part of it moveA sparrow flying off the wireA lotus opening in the morning; a lauki tendril coiling round a stick
NutritionSee what it takes in as foodA goat eating leavesGreen leaves making food in sunlight; Drosera trapping insects
GrowthMeasure the same individual after some weeksA puppy outgrowing its collarA gram seedling on wet cotton, measured daily
RespirationCount breaths, or watch the abdomen moveA cow's flank rising and fallingAir moving in and out through stomata on leaves
ExcretionLook for the waste that leaves the bodySweat patches on a shirt; urineDroplets of water on grass and rose leaves early in the morning
Response to stimuliGive a gentle stimulus and watchYou pull your foot back from a thornChhui-mui folding its leaves at a touch
ReproductionLook for young ones of the same kindA hen with chicksA bean pod full of seeds
DeathAll these activities stop for goodA dead insect on the window sillA bean plant that yellows and dries after fruiting
Q3.
Can we consider movement as one of the characteristics to differentiate between the living and the non-living? List five things around you that can move on their own. Do you think that all five things that you have listed can be considered as living just because they can move on their own?
Answer

Yes, movement is one characteristic — but it can never be used alone.

Five things around me that move on their own:

  1. A street dog running across the road
  2. An ant in a line on the kitchen shelf
  3. A ceiling fan (once the switch is on)
  4. A river or a stream of rainwater in the drain
  5. A clock's second hand (or a wind-up toy car)

Are all five living? No — only two.

ThingLiving?Why
DogLivingEats, grows, breathes, has puppies
AntLivingCarries food, grows from an egg, responds instantly to touch
FanNon-livingMoves only because electricity is supplied; never grows or reproduces
RiverNon-livingFlows because the land slopes; water is pulled downhill
Clock handNon-livingMoves on a wound spring or a cell
The real difference: a living being moves because of a force generated inside its own body, using energy from its food. A fan, a river and a clock all need a push from outside — electricity, gravity, a spring.
Q4.
However, unlike animals, plants do not move from one place to another. Do you consider them as living?
Answer

Yes — plants are certainly living. They do not walk, but they show plenty of movement, and they show every other characteristic of life.

Movements you can actually watch in plants:

  • Flowers opening and closing. A lotus and a sunflower open in the morning sun; raat ki rani opens after dark.
  • Insectivorous plants. Drosera has saucer-shaped leaves covered with many hair-like projections of unequal length with sticky ends. When an insect enters the saucer, the hairs move inward and trap it with their sticky tips. Drosera depends on insects for its nutrition.
  • Climbers. A lauki, karela or money-plant tendril winds itself around any object placed near it.
  • Sleeping leaves. Chhui-mui folds at a touch; amla and tamarind leaflets close after sunset.
  • Growth movements. The shoot bends towards light, the root turns downwards (you will prove this in Activity 10.3).
Why plants stay put: a plant makes its own food from sunlight, air and water — all of which come to it where it stands. An animal must go looking for its food, so it needs to travel. Staying rooted is not a sign of being non-living; it is a different way of living.
Q5.
Try to observe the mechanism of movement in other insectivorous plants.
Answer

Insectivorous plants grow in soil that is poor in nitrogen, so they get that part of their nutrition from insects. Each one traps in its own way.

PlantWhat the trap looks likeThe movement you can observe
Drosera (sundew)Saucer-shaped leaf with many hair-like projections of unequal length, sticky at the tipsThe hairs bend inward and hold the insect with their sticky ends
Nepenthes (pitcher plant, found in Meghalaya)A leaf shaped like a jug with a lid on topThe lid closes over the mouth; the insect slips down the slippery inner wall
Utricularia (bladderwort, in ponds)Tiny bladders under water with a trap doorThe door snaps open and sucks in the tiny creature in a fraction of a second
Venus flytrap (grown in pots)Two hinged halves of a leaf with stiff bristlesThe two halves shut like a book when the bristles are touched twice
Check it yourself: If a pitcher plant or a sundew is grown in your school garden, touch a leaf gently with a matchstick and watch for a few minutes. Do not feed the plant repeatedly — a trap that closes uselessly wastes the plant's energy.
Q6.
Compare yourself with the picture of your childhood. Can you wear the dress that you used to wear four years ago?
Answer

No. The dress will be far too short and too tight now.

The reason is growth. In four years my arms and legs have become longer, my shoulders wider and my whole body heavier. This increase in size did not come from outside — my body built the new parts itself, from the food I ate.

What changedThen (age 7)Now (age 11)
Heightabout 120 cmabout 143 cm
Shoe sizesmalltwo or three sizes bigger
Teethmilk teethmost replaced by permanent teeth
Why growth is a mark of life: a body cannot make new parts out of nothing. Food supplies both the raw material and the energy for building. A shirt hanging in the cupboard for four years is exactly the same size — it has no way to make more of itself.
Try This: Mark your height on the door frame with a pencil and the date beside it. Do it again after six months. The gap between the two marks is growth you have measured yourself.
Q7.
Plants and other living beings also grow. Can we consider growth as a characteristic of living beings?
Answer

Yes. Growth is one of the characteristics of living beings — every living thing grows at some stage of its life.

  • A gram seed on wet cotton becomes a seedling in three days and a plant with several leaves in three weeks.
  • A mango sapling planted in the courtyard becomes a tree taller than the house.
  • A calf becomes a cow; a tadpole becomes a frog.
But be careful — “getting bigger” is not always growth. A sand dune, an icicle and a crystal of copper sulphate in a saucer of solution all get bigger. That happens by material sticking on from outside. In a living being the new material is taken in as food, changed inside the body and built into the body itself. That is why the growth of a living thing is permanent and follows a fixed pattern, while a heap of sand can be blown away again in a day.
Tip for the exam: if a question says “X grows, so X is living”, check the type of growth first. Growth from inside → living. Addition from outside → non-living.
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