GCSE Evaluate Questions
GCSE Evaluate Questions
Q1.
A food web contains several food chains.
Figure 1
(a) The animals in Figure 1 get their energy by eating other organisms.
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(2)
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(1)
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(1)
(d) The different food chains in Figure 1 have different numbers of organisms.
Complete Figure 2 to show a food chain in Figure 1 with five organisms, including
the human.
Figure 2
(1)
The biomass of mackerel is much less than the combined biomass of krill and squid.
One reason for this is that the mackerel cannot digest all parts of the krill and squid.
1 ________________________________________________________________
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2 ________________________________________________________________
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(2)
Figure 3 shows how the biomass of adult herring in the North Sea has changed between
1950 and 2010.
Figure 3
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(f) Calculate the percentage decrease in the biomass of herring between 1960 and
1977.
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(g) Too many herring were caught by fishermen between 1960 and 1977.
Herring can live for up to 12 years and begin to reproduce when 3 to 4 years old.
Figure 4
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Figure 3 is repeated below.
Figure 3
Use data from Figure 3 and information from Figure 4 in your answer.
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(6)
(Total 17 marks)
Q2.
It is important to keep the blood glucose concentration within narrow limits.
(a) A person eats a meal containing a lot of carbohydrate. This causes an increase in
the person’s blood glucose concentration.
Explain how the hormones insulin and glucagon control the person’s blood glucose
concentration after the meal.
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(5)
(b) The body cells of a person with Type 2 diabetes do not respond to insulin.
A person with Type 2 diabetes often has a higher blood insulin concentration than a
non-diabetic person.
Explain why.
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(3)
Metformin is a drug used for treating people who have Type 2 diabetes.
Scientists investigated the effects of metformin and two other drugs, A and B.
The scientists wanted to see how the drugs affected the blood glucose concentrations of
220 people with Type 2 diabetes.
2. Treat each group with a different drug or combination of drugs for several weeks.
4. Measure the blood glucose concentration of each person 30 minutes after the meal and
again 3 hours after the meal.
(c) Suggest three variables that the scientists should have controlled in the
investigation.
1 _________________________________________________________________
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2 _________________________________________________________________
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3 _________________________________________________________________
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(3)
The scientists recorded their results as a mean value for each group.
The scientists calculated the ‘standard deviation’ for each group’s result.
Standard deviation is a measure of the spread of the individual results above or below (±)
the mean value.
The larger the standard deviation, the greater is the spread of results around the mean.
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Mean = 177.2 ± 15.4
(1)
The following table and the figure show the scientists’ results.
Metformin Metformin
Drugs used Metformin A B
+A +B
Number of people 60 40 25 65 30
Mean blood
glucose
concentration 30
177.2 182.5 171.6 205.2 206.5
minutes after the
± 15.4 ± 18.2 ± 16.3 ± 19.4 ± 19.6
meal in mg/100 cm3
± standard
deviation
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In the table and the figure some standard deviations of results overlap.
• An overlap of standard deviations shows the difference between the means is not
significant.
(e) A student looked at the scientists’ method and the results in the table and figure
above.
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(6)
(Total 18 marks)
Q3.
Professor John Lawton researches into the problem of controlling the spread of bracken.
Bracken is a fern which threatens upland farms, partly because it poses a health risk to
people and animals.
The Secretary of State has to decide whether the Conservular caterpillar can be released.
The article printed below describes some of the problems faced by the Secretary of State.
Yorkshire farmer Maurice Cottrill has just forked out £500 to have a helicopter
hover over his land and spew out gallons of chemicals aimed at destroying
one of the most pervasive and dangerous weeds known to man – bracken. In
a little box in a laboratory near Ascot, Berkshire, lies a tiny caterpillar which
could have done the job for nothing.
Whether or not that caterpillar and thousand of its chums will ever be let loose
on the massive carpet of bracken that is sweeping over Britain at the rate of
53 square kilometres a year has to be decided by the Secretary of State for
the Environment.
Weed control through the release of imported insects has never been tried in
Britain before. If the Secretary of State permits the experiment, the caterpillar
is in for the feast of its life, because five years of painstaking research have
proved that bracken is its only food. However, is that the full story? Will the
beast stop there, or will it go on, wreaking unforeseen devastation. Can
scientists predict what will happen when imported insects are released into
the wild?
Bracken is poisonous – more than 20 000 sheep and 1 000 cattle suffer
poisoning each year. Its spores are carcinogenic, posing a threat to hill
walkers. Bracken costs a depressing £4m a year to control while rendering
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useless grazing land valued at £5m annually. “Bracken is one factor which is
leading to hill farming becoming uneconomic”, says the director of the
Ramblers Association. “We are worried about that because, the more
uneconomic hill farms become, the more prospect there is of the forestry
industry taking over.”
The National Farmers Union are concerned about the consequences of the
caterpillar getting out of control. What if it started consuming garden ferns?
What if it loved potatoes? On the other hand, the caterpillar might help to
preserve important uplands where wildlife flourishes when bracken is kept at
bay. However, the experiment takes the scientists into unknown territory.
Upland farms are artificial ecosystems, created and maintained mainly for the rearing of
sheep and cattle. These farms are being threatened by the spread of bracken. Up to now
the only treatment for bracken has been to use herbicides.
Use the article to explain, as fully as you can, what advice you would give the Secretary of
State.
Explain the arguments for and against that lead to your decision.
You will not receive marks for simply copying extracts from the article.
(Total 8 marks)
Q4.
Some students wanted to estimate the number of plantain plants in a grassy field.
The students:
• chose areas where plantains were growing
• placed 10 quadrats in these areas
• counted the number of plantains in each of the 10 quadrats.
Quadrat Number of
number plantain plants
1 2
2 1
3 4
4 1
5 3
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6 2
7 4
8 1
9 1
10 1
(a) Complete the following calculation to estimate the number of plantain plants in the
field.
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(3)
(b) The students’ method would not give a valid estimate of the number of plantain
plants in the field.
For each improvement, give the reason why your method would produce more valid
results than the students’ method.
Improvement 1 ______________________________________________________
Reason ____________________________________________________________
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Improvement 2 ______________________________________________________
Reason ____________________________________________________________
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Improvement 3 ______________________________________________________
Reason ____________________________________________________________
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(3)
(Total 6 marks)
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Q5.
Gases enter and leave the blood by diffusion.
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(1)
(b) Name the main gases that diffuse into and out of the blood in the lungs.
Emphysema causes the walls of the air sacs in the lungs to break down
Explain how this will affect the diffusion of gases into and out of the blood.
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(2)
Table 1 shows the World Health Organisation categories for birth mass.
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Table 1
Table 2
B 1345
C 991
(2)
Figure 2 shows data from a study about pregnancy and smoking in women in the UK.
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(e) Sampling from the whole UK population would not be appropriate for this study.
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(1)
(f) Give three conclusions that can be made about smoking in pregnant women
compared with non-pregnant women.
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2. _________________________________________________________________
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3. _________________________________________________________________
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(3)
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Other factors can also be linked to low birth mass.
Figure 3 shows the relationship between four of these factors and the risk of low birth
mass.
Bar graph
Histogram
Line graph
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Scatter graph
(1)
A B C D
(1)
(i) A student concluded that the longer a woman spends giving birth, the greater the
risk of low birth mass.
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(1)
(Total 13 marks)
Q6.
The limpet is a snail-like animal that lives attached to a rock on the seashore.
Some students investigated variation in the size of limpets living on two seashores:
• one shore was in a sheltered bay
• the other shore was exposed to the full force of the sea.
The students measured the heights (H) and widths (W) of 60 limpets on each shore.
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(a) On each shore, the students measured a large number of limpets at random
locations.
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Random locations:
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(2)
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(b) Complete the table above.
(1)
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(c) Complete Figure 2.
(1)
(d) Compare the patterns in the results for the exposed shore and the sheltered shore.
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(3)
Figure 3 shows how the students measured the width of a limpet with a vernier calliper.
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(e) One student recorded
The student’s teacher stated that the data did not justify such a high number of
decimal places.
Give the two mean values corrected to an appropriate number of decimal places.
(f) A limpet clings to a rock on the sea shore using its muscular ‘foot’, as shown in
Figure 1.
Scientists have found that limpets can exert a force of 2 newtons / cm2 of ‘foot’.
To remain attached to its rock, a limpet must exert a force at least as large as the
force of the waves.
Calculate the maximum wave force the limpet shown in Figure 3 could withstand
without being knocked off its rock.
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Take the value of π to be 3.14.
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(g) Suggest two reasons why your answer to Question (e) might not be very accurate.
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2. _________________________________________________________________
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(2)
(h) Suggest biological reasons for the lower mean values for limpets on the exposed
shore.
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(3)
(Total 17 marks)
Q7.
Stem cells can be used to treat some diseases.
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(2)
(b) Give one way a malignant tumour differs from a benign tumour.
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(1)
Scientists can treat the patient’s tumour by replacing the trachea with a plastic trachea.
The plastic trachea has a layer of the patient’s own stem cells covering it.
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(c) In Step 3 the cells are left for 48 hours to divide.
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(1)
Name two other substances the cells need so they can grow and divide.
1. _________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________
(2)
(e) Give two advantages of using the stem cell trachea compared with a trachea from a
dead human donor.
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2. _________________________________________________________________
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(2)
Suggest how a stent in the trachea helps to keep the patient alive.
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(2)
Evaluate the use of stem cells from a patient’s own bone marrow instead of stem
cells from an embryo.
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(6)
(Total 16 marks)
Q8.
A virus called RSV causes severe respiratory disease.
(a) Suggest two precautions that a person with RSV could take to reduce the spread of
the virus to other people.
1. _________________________________________________________________
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2. _________________________________________________________________
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(2)
(b) One treatment for RSV uses monoclonal antibodies which can be injected into the
patient.
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(3)
(c) Describe how injecting a monoclonal antibody for RSV helps to treat a patient
suffering with the disease.
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(2)
A trial was carried out to assess the effectiveness of using monoclonal antibodies to treat
patients with RSV.
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(1)
A number of patients had to be admitted to hospital as they became so ill with RSV.
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The results are shown in the table below.
(e) Calculate the total number of patients admitted to hospital with RSV during the trial.
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(f) Evaluate how well the data in the table above supports the conclusion:
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(2)
(Total 12 marks)
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Mark schemes
Q1.
(a) from light / sunlight
ignore sun unqualified
1
(c) algae
1
(d) 1 algae
2 krill or copepod
3 squid
4 mackerel
(5 Human)
all correct for 1 mark
1
95.65217.....
allow answer from correct substitution of
incorrect values from Figure 3
1
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96
allow student’s calculated answer correctly
rounded to the nearest whole number
1
Level 2: Some logically linked reasons are given. There may also be a simple
judgement.
3−4
Level 1: Relevant points are made. They are not logically linked. 1–2
1−2
No relevant content
0
Indicative content
figures may be given without units (million tonnes) throughout
points for:
• small fish are not caught so can live long enough to reproduce
• biomass / stocks have generally increased after these laws introduced
• ’77-’81 law (total ban) resulted in increase in biomass, eg 0.1 to 0.48 or
to 0.9 by ’84
• ’84 law (mesh size) resulted in increase in biomass, eg 0.9 to 1.8 (by
’90)
• ’97 law (quotas) resulted in increase, eg 1.15 to 1.25
• ’98 law (ban in breeding season) resulted in increase, eg 1.25 to 2.5
points against:
• could be a cause other than the law or correlation does not necessarily
indicate causal relationship or other factors
• laws superimposed so can’t necessarily tell the effect of each
• each law results in an increase followed by a decrease
• quotas lead to dead fish being thrown back into sea
For Level 3 points both for and against must be considered together with
appropriate use of data
[17]
Q2.
(a)
ignore incorrect organ secreting insulin /
glucagon
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1
allow glucose converted to glycogen in cells /
liver / muscles for 2 marks
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linked.
1–2
No relevant content
0
Indicative content
Pro:
• Met + A gives larger (%) reduction (in blood glucose) than Met alone
• so statement is supported
• Met + B gives larger (%) reduction (in blood glucose) than Met alone
• so statement is supported
Con:
• Met + B SD overlaps with Met SD
• so difference is not significant
• difference in results could be due to chance
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• number of people used is not very large
• number of people in each group is different
• so may not be representative or may not be repeatable / reproducible
• so anomalies will have a bigger impact on smaller groups
Q3.
Cogently argued based on biological principles, for and
against introduction of caterpillar
maximum of 4 pros e.g.
fewer chemicals used therefore less expense
less chemical damage to other plants
consequent benefits to food chains
fewer farm animals poisoned therefore more economic
countryside more varied therefore more attractive to tourists
tourists bring economic advantages
greater variety of habitats therefore greater variety of species
any 4 for 1 mark each
4
cons e.g.
danger to livelihoods if crops destroyed by caterpillar
relatively low chance of success since only one third of schemes
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effective world-wide
unlikely to be natural predators therefore ecological balance affected
any 2 for 1 mark each
2
Q4.
(a) 160 000
if incorrect answer / no answer:
allow max. 2 for method:
1 mark for mean = total number ÷ area of ten quadrats
eg or or or 32
1 mark for final answer = mean × field area
eg mean × 5000
3
Q5.
(a) movement of particles from (an area of) high concentration to (an area of) low
concentration
allow movement of particles down a concentration gradient
do not accept along / across a concentration gradient
1
(b) oxygen
allow O2
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carbon dioxide
allow CO2
in this order only
both needed for 1 mark
1
(h) B
1
Q6.
(a) large number – more representative and so more valid (mean can be calculated)
allow more reliable
1
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random – avoid bias
1
sheltered shore:
accept converse for exposed shore
• wider range or use of figures – e.g. approx 0.26 to 0.70 cf 0.21 to 0.55
• higher mode or use of figures – e.g. 0.41 to 0.45 cf 0.36 to 0.40
allow ecf for figures from (b)
• there are no limpets at 0.21 to 0.25
allow there are no limpets on exposed shore at 0.56 to 0.70
3
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• foot may not be circular
• foot may be larger / smaller than outside of shell
• scientists’ value is approximate
• variation between limpets / described
e.g. re muscle development or greater ‘awareness’ of some
limpets
• variation in rock surface texture
2
Q7.
(a) an undifferentiated / unspecialised cell
1
that can differentiate / become / change into (many) other cell types
1
(b) (malignant tumours) invade / spread to other tissues via the blood (benign don’t)
or
(malignant tumours) form secondary tumours in other organs
ignore cancer unqualified
allow converse
allow metastasises
1
(c) mitosis
correct spelling only
1
(d) glucose
answers in any order
ignore sugar
1
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surrounding the use of tissue from another / dead person
1
Level 0
No relevant content
Indicative content
embryos advantages
• can create many embryos in a lab
• painless technique
• can treat many diseases / stem cells are pluripotent / can become any type of
cell (whereas bone marrow can treat a limited number)
embryos disadvantages
• harm / death to embryo
• embryo rights / embryo cannot consent
• unreliable technique / may not work
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Q8.
(a) any two from:
• regular hand washing
or
use hand sanitiser / alcohol gel
• cover nose / mouth when coughing / sneezing
allow wear a face mask
• put used tissues (straight) in the bin
• don’t kiss uninfected people
allow isolate patient from others
or
don’t share cutlery / cups / drinks with uninfected people
• clean / disinfect / sterilise surfaces regularly
ignore responses referring to infected people
2
(d) as a control
or
to see / compare the effects of the treatment (vs. no treatment)
1
114
an answer of 114 scores 2 marks
allow 228 for 1 mark
1
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or
other factors may have affected those admitted to hospital
allow correct named factor e.g. age / gender / other illness
or
don’t know if it was a double blind trial
1
[12]
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