The Living Organisms Characteristics and Habitats | Chapter 9 | Class 6 | Science | NCERT
1. What is a habitat?
Answer: The place where organisms live is called the habitat. Habitat means a dwelling place (a home). The habitat provides food, water, air, shelter and other needs to organisms.
2. How is a cactus adapted to survive in a desert?
Answer:
Adaptations of a cactus are as follows:
- The leaf is replaced by the spine to reduce transpiration
- Stems carry out photosynthesis
- A thick waxy layer surrounds the leaf to retain water
- The roots of a cactus are deeply rooted inside the soil to absorb water
3. Fill in the blanks
(a) The presence of specific features, which enable a plant or an animal to live in a particular habitat, is called ————.
(b) The habitats of the plants and animals that live on land are called ———— habitat.
(c) The habitats of plants and animals that live in water are called ————habitats.
(d) Soil, water and air are the ———— factors of a habitat.
(e) Changes in our surroundings that make us respond to them are called ————.
Answer:
(a) The presence of specific features, which enable a plant or an animal to live in a particular habitat, is called adaptation.
(b) The habitats of the plants and animals that live on land are called terrestrial habitats.
(c) The habitats of plants and animals that live in water are called aquatic habitats.
(d) Soil, water and air are the abiotic factors of a habitat.
(e) Changes in our surroundings that make us respond to them are called stimuli.
4. Which of the things in the following list are nonliving?
Plough, mushroom, sewing machine, radio, boat, water hyacinth, earthworm
Answer:
Plough, sewing machine, radio and boat are nonliving things
5. Give an example of a nonliving thing which shows any two characteristics of living things.
Answer: Example: car
Features
- It can move like living beings
- It needs energy to do work
6. Which of the nonliving 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 and rubber were once part of a living thing.
7. List the common characteristics of living things.
Answer: Common characteristics of living things are as follows:
i) Respiration
ii) Food intake
iii) Respond to stimuli
iv) Excretion
v) Movement
vi) Reproduction
vii) Grow and die
8. 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 grassland habitats.)
Answer: Speed is important for survival in the grasslands for animals to avoid predation from their predators. For example, a tiger eats deer; to survive, the deer has to run faster than the tiger.
NCERT Class 6 Science
Chapter 1: Food: Where Does It Come From?
Chapter 4: Sorting Materials and Groups
Chapter 5: Separation of Substances
Chapter 7: Getting to Know Plants
Chapter 9: The Living Organisms and Their Surroundings
Chapter 10: Motion and Measurement of Distances
Chapter 11: Light, Shadows and Reflections