FSc Part 1 Biology chapter 5: Variety of life MCQs with answers

By Team Megalecture · Updated 4 Nov 2026

21 exam-style questions on Variety of life, each with the answer and a short explanation. Ten of them are below to try. The chapter test draws ten fresh questions each time and is marked the moment you finish, with your score by topic.

21 questions · 2 topics · 10 per test

Test this chapter freeAll FSc Part 1 Biology chapters

What chapter 5 covers

Ten Variety of life questions with answers

Try each one, then open the answer. These ten stay the same; the test draws new ones every time.

1. Kingdom Protista was proposed by Ernst Haeckel mainly to accommodate

  1. A
    viruses and other acellular particles that infect living cells
  2. B
    microorganisms like Euglena that are neither plants nor animals
  3. C
    fungi and moulds that absorb food from dead matter
  4. D
    all prokaryotes together with the viruses
Show answer

Answer: B. Haeckel (1866) created Protista for microorganisms like Euglena that show both plant and animal features.

2. HIV weakens the immune system mainly by destroying

  1. A
    B lymphocytes only, leaving T cells unharmed
  2. B
    red blood cells that carry oxygen
  3. C
    platelets needed for clotting
  4. D
    helper T lymphocytes
Show answer

Answer: D. HIV attacks helper T cells (CD4 cells), which coordinate immune responses, so the body cannot fight other infections.

3. In which kingdom of the five-kingdom system are viruses placed?

  1. A
    Prokaryotae
  2. B
    Protista
  3. C
    Fungi
  4. D
    in none of the five kingdoms
Show answer

Answer: D. Viruses are acellular and are not included in any kingdom of the five-kingdom system.

4. In the scientific name of the onion, Allium cepa, the word cepa is the

  1. A
    genus name
  2. B
    family name
  3. C
    specific epithet (species name)
  4. D
    name of the scientist who named it
Show answer

Answer: C. The first word is the genus (capital letter) and the second is the specific epithet (small letter); both are printed in italics or underlined when handwritten.

5. In the five-kingdom system as modified by Margulis and Schwartz, the main basis for placing bacteria in Kingdom Prokaryotae is

  1. A
    their cell organisation, with no nuclear envelope
  2. B
    their small size, since all are under 1 µm
  3. C
    their habitat, since all live in soil or water
  4. D
    their mode of nutrition, since all are heterotrophs
Show answer

Answer: A. Prokaryotae are separated from the four eukaryotic kingdoms by their prokaryotic cell organisation.

6. Who first crystallised tobacco mosaic virus, showing that viruses can behave like non-living chemicals?

  1. A
    Iwanowsky
  2. B
    Beijerinck
  3. C
    Louis Pasteur
  4. D
    W.M. Stanley
Show answer

Answer: D. W.M. Stanley crystallised TMV in 1935. A crystal that can still infect cells shows viruses lie at the border of living and non-living.

7. Hepatitis D virus can cause infection only in a person who is already infected with

  1. A
    hepatitis A virus
  2. B
    hepatitis B virus
  3. C
    hepatitis E virus
  4. D
    HIV
Show answer

Answer: B. Hepatitis D (delta) is a defective virus that needs the coat of hepatitis B virus to replicate.

8. A culture of bacteria carrying phage DNA grows normally for many generations without lysis. After exposure to ultraviolet light, many cells burst and release new phages. Before the treatment the phage DNA was present as

  1. A
    RNA copies stored on the bacterial ribosomes
  2. B
    free virions floating in the culture medium
  3. C
    protein capsids that contained no nucleic acid
  4. D
    a prophage inserted into the bacterial chromosome
Show answer

Answer: D. In the lysogenic state phage DNA is integrated into the host chromosome as a prophage and copied with it. UV light can trigger it to leave the chromosome and enter the lytic cycle, so the cells burst.

9. A bacteriophage such as T4 consists of

  1. A
    a head containing RNA and a lipid envelope
  2. B
    a cell wall and plasma membrane
  3. C
    a head containing DNA, a tail and tail fibres
  4. D
    a nucleus and ribosomes
Show answer

Answer: C. T4 phage has a polyhedral head with DNA, a contractile tail and tail fibres used to attach to the bacterium.

10. Viruses are called obligate intracellular parasites because they

  1. A
    can grow on any nutrient medium
  2. B
    always kill their host
  3. C
    can reproduce only inside a living host cell
  4. D
    contain both DNA and RNA
Show answer

Answer: C. Viruses have no metabolic machinery of their own and use the host cell to make new viruses.

Start the chapter testAbout the FSc Part 1 Biology test

Read the notes for this chapter

Ways to practise this chapter

Variety of life: questions students ask

How many Variety of life MCQs are there?

21, each with the answer and a short explanation, across 2 topics: Classification, nomenclature and the kingdom systems, Viruses. Every chapter test draws ten of them, so you can take it many times.

Is the FSc Part 1 Biology chapter 5 test free?

Yes. The test, the answers and the explanations are free and need no sign-up. Sign in only if you want your scores kept across devices.

How is the chapter test marked?

The moment you press Finish: your score, the right answer and an explanation for every question, and the ones you got wrong saved in My mistakes to retry.

Can I read the explanations in Urdu?

Yes. In practice mode and on your results you can switch the explanations to Urdu.

Keep going

← Chapter 4: The cellChapter 6: Kingdom Prokaryotae →All chaptersStuck? Ask a question