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Reproduction PYQs – Biology, SSC & Railway

177 Reproduction (Biology) questions asked in recent SSC and Railway exams, newest first, with exam, date & shift, answers and solutions – page 2 of 2.

📚 177 questionsSSC 4 · Railway 173
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RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 26 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q101. Which of the following does NOT belong to the category of asexual reproduction?

  1. (a) Vegetative propagation
  2. (b) Spore formation
  3. (c) Regeneration
  4. (d) Fertilisation
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Fertilisation

Correct Answer: Option 4 — Fertilisation
Asexual reproduction needs only one parent, produces no gametes, and gives offspring that are genetically identical (clones) to the parent. Fertilisation, on the other hand, is the fusion of a male gamete with a female gamete to form a zygote — it is the central event of sexual reproduction, which normally needs two parents.
Because fertilisation mixes the DNA of two individuals, it creates genetic variation, which is the raw material of evolution. Asexual methods cannot do this.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Vegetative propagation — new plants grow from a root, stem or leaf of the parent, as in potato, ginger and Bryophyllum; only one parent is involved.
✗ Spore formation — hundreds of thick-walled spores made inside a sporangium each germinate into a new individual, as in Rhizopus and ferns.
✗ Regeneration — a cut or broken piece of the body grows into a complete organism, as in Planaria and Hydra; again no gametes are formed.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Modes of asexual reproduction: binary fission, multiple fission, budding, fragmentation, regeneration, spore formation and vegetative propagation.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, bacteria; Multiple fission — Plasmodium; Budding — yeast, Hydra.
• In humans, fertilisation takes place in the fallopian tube (oviduct).
• In flowering plants double fertilisation occurs — one male gamete forms the zygote, the other forms the endosperm.
• Sexual reproduction gives variation; asexual reproduction gives uniform clones but is faster.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 26 December 2024 Shift 3 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q102. After the process of fertilisation which part of the flower undergoes transformation to develop into a seed?

  1. (a) Ovule
  2. (b) Stigma
  3. (c) Style
  4. (d) Ovary
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Ovule

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Ovule
After pollination, the pollen grain germinates on the stigma and sends a pollen tube down through the style into the ovary, where the male gamete fuses with the egg cell inside the ovule. This fusion is fertilisation and it produces the zygote.
The zygote divides repeatedly to form the embryo, the integuments of the ovule harden into the seed coat, and food is stored as cotyledons or endosperm. Thus the whole ovule is transformed into the seed, while the ovary around it swells and ripens into the fruit.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Stigma — the sticky top of the pistil that receives the pollen grain; after fertilisation it withers away along with the style, sepals and petals.
✗ Style — the tube-like stalk joining the stigma to the ovary; it only provides the path for the pollen tube and is shed later.
✗ Ovary — it develops into the fruit, not into the seed; in a mango the fleshy part is the ovary and the stone contains the seed.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Ovule → Seed; Ovary → Fruit; Zygote → Embryo; Integument → Seed coat.
• A fruit formed without fertilisation is called a parthenocarpic fruit (e.g. seedless banana and grapes).
• A false fruit develops from the thalamus, as in apple, pear and cashew.
• Angiosperms show double fertilisation: one male gamete + egg → zygote; the other + two polar nuclei → triploid endosperm.
• Gram, pea and bean are dicot seeds with two cotyledons; maize and wheat are monocot seeds with one cotyledon.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 26 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q103. In which of the following modes of asexual reproduction if an individual is cut or broken into many pieces, many of these pieces grow into separate individuals?

  1. (a) budding
  2. (b) regeneration
  3. (c) spore formation
  4. (d) fission
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) regeneration

Correct Answer: Option 2 — regeneration
Regeneration is the ability of a simple organism to rebuild its whole body from a cut or broken piece. If Planaria (flatworm) or Hydra is cut into many pieces, most of the pieces grow into complete new individuals.
Regeneration is carried out by specialised (differentiated) cells which proliferate — they divide rapidly and then differentiate in an organised sequence to make the missing tissues and organs. It is possible only in animals with a simple body organisation; it is not the normal method of reproduction for them, because a complete organism cannot be produced from every cell of the body in complex animals.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ budding — a bud grows out of one spot on the parent body and separates as a new individual, as in yeast and Hydra; the parent is not cut into pieces.
✗ spore formation — hundreds of thick-walled spores are released from a sporangium, as in Rhizopus; no cutting of the body is involved.
✗ fission — a unicellular organism splits into two (binary fission, Amoeba) or many (multiple fission, Plasmodium) daughter cells; it applies to a single cell, not to a cut-up multicellular body.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Planaria, Hydra, starfish and earthworm are classic examples of regeneration.
• A starfish can grow a whole body from a single arm with a part of the central disc.
• A lizard regenerating its lost tail is partial regeneration, not reproduction.
• In humans, the liver has a remarkable power of regeneration.
• Hydra shows both budding and regeneration; Planaria is studied for regeneration through the work of T. H. Morgan.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 1 · Vegetative propagation

Q104. Which of the following parts of the plant is used in vegetative propagation?

  1. (a) Root and flowers
  2. (b) Fruits and leaves
  3. (c) Fruits and flowers
  4. (d) Leaves and stem
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Leaves and stem

Correct Answer: Option 4 — Leaves and stem
Vegetative propagation is a form of asexual reproduction in plants in which new plants arise from the vegetative parts — the root, stem, leaf or bud — without any fusion of gametes. Because only one parent is involved, the daughter plants are genetically identical to the parent and are together called a clone.
Of the choices given, leaves and stem are both genuine vegetative organs. Bryophyllum produces new plantlets from buds sitting in the notches of its leaf margin, while potato, ginger, sugarcane, rose and mint are propagated from stem tubers, rhizomes, cuttings and eyes.
Flowers and fruits are reproductive structures belonging to sexual reproduction, so they can never be used for vegetative propagation.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Root and flowers — roots (sweet potato, dahlia) can indeed propagate, but a flower is the sexual reproductive organ of the plant, so this pair is wrong.
✗ Fruits and leaves — the fruit develops from the ovary after fertilisation; it is a product of sexual reproduction and not a vegetative part.
✗ Fruits and flowers — both are sexual reproductive structures; neither takes any part in vegetative propagation.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Natural methods — runner (grass), tuber (potato), rhizome (ginger), bulb (onion), sucker (banana), leaf buds (Bryophyllum).
• Artificial methods — cutting, grafting, layering and tissue culture (micropropagation).
• Plants such as banana, orange, rose and jasmine have lost the ability to produce viable seeds and are grown only by vegetative propagation.
• Advantage — the plants flower and fruit earlier and every offspring retains the desirable parental characters.
• Disadvantage — there is no variation, so one disease can destroy the entire crop.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 1 · Human male reproductive system

Q105. Testes are located outside the abdominal cavity in scrotum because sperm formation requires:

  1. (a) higher temperature than the normal body temperature
  2. (b) lower temperature than the normal body temperature
  3. (c) normal body temperature
  4. (d) higher body temperature
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) lower temperature than the normal body temperature

Correct Answer: Option 2 — lower temperature than the normal body temperature
In human males the testes are not kept inside the abdomen; they hang outside it in a muscular pouch of skin called the scrotum. This is because spermatogenesis (sperm formation) needs a temperature about 2–3 °C lower than the normal body temperature of 37 °C. The scrotum, being outside the body, acts as a natural cooling chamber and its muscles pull the testes closer to the body in cold weather and let them hang lower in heat, thus maintaining the correct temperature.
The testes also perform an endocrine role — they secrete the hormone testosterone, which controls the male secondary sexual characters.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ higher temperature than the normal body temperature — a raised temperature damages the germinal epithelium of the seminiferous tubules and stops sperm production.
✗ normal body temperature — the 37 °C of the abdominal cavity is itself too warm for sperm formation; that is exactly why the testes descend into the scrotum.
✗ higher body temperature — the same defect; prolonged fever or very tight clothing is known to lower the sperm count.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Male reproductive organs — testes, epididymis, vas deferens, seminal vesicle, prostate gland, urethra and penis.
• The testis has a dual function — production of sperms and secretion of testosterone.
• Failure of the testes to descend into the scrotum is called cryptorchidism and causes sterility.
• Sperms plus the secretions of the seminal vesicle and prostate together form semen.
• In the female, the ovaries lie inside the abdomen and release one ovum about every 28 days.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 1 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q106. In which of the following life processes is the creation of a DNA copy, a basic event?

  1. (a) Circulation
  2. (b) Reproduction
  3. (c) Respiration
  4. (d) Excretion
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Reproduction

Correct Answer: Option 2 — Reproduction
Reproduction is the life process by which an organism produces new individuals of its own kind. Its most basic event at the molecular level is the creation of a DNA copy, a process called DNA replication. The DNA in the nucleus carries the blueprint of the body design, so before a cell divides it must first make an exact copy of its DNA; only then can each daughter cell receive a complete set of instructions.
DNA copying is remarkably accurate but never perfect. The tiny errors that creep in produce variations, and these inherited variations are the raw material on which natural selection works — which is why reproduction is the starting point of evolution.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Circulation — the transport of blood, gases, digested food, wastes and hormones by the heart and blood vessels; no copying of DNA is involved.
✗ Respiration — the breakdown of glucose to release energy as ATP; it supplies the energy for replication but is not itself a DNA-copying process.
✗ Excretion — removal of nitrogenous wastes such as urea and uric acid by the kidneys; it has nothing to do with genetic material.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is the hereditary material; its copying is called replication.
• The double helix model of DNA was proposed by Watson and Crick (1953).
• Reproduction is the only life process not necessary for the survival of the individual, but essential for the survival of the species.
• Modes of asexual reproduction — fission, budding, fragmentation, regeneration, spore formation and vegetative propagation.
• Variations produced during DNA copying are the basis of evolution and of biodiversity.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 1 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q107. Which of the following is correct about fertilisation in plants?

  1. (a) The male germ-cell produced by the ovary fuses with the female gamete present in the ovule.
  2. (b) The male germ-cell produced by the ovule fuses with the female gamete present in the pollen tube.
  3. (c) The male germ-cell produced by pollen grain fuses with the female gamete present in the ovule.
  4. (d) The male germ-cell produced by pollen grain fuses with the female gamete present in the stigma.
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) The male germ-cell produced by pollen grain fuses with the female gamete present in the ovule.

Correct Answer: Option 3 — The male germ-cell produced by pollen grain fuses with the female gamete present in the ovule.
In flowering plants the male germ-cell is produced inside the pollen grain, which is formed in the anther of the stamen. The female gamete (egg cell) lies inside the ovule, which is enclosed within the ovary of the pistil.
After pollination, the pollen grain lands on a suitable stigma and germinates. It puts out a pollen tube which grows down through the style and reaches the ovule inside the ovary. There the male germ-cell is discharged and fuses with the egg cell — this fusion is fertilisation, and it produces the zygote.
The zygote then divides repeatedly to form the embryo; the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary ripens into the fruit.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Option 1 — the ovary never produces the male germ-cell; it only encloses the ovules, which carry the female gamete.
✗ Option 2 — the ovule produces the female gamete, not the male one, and the pollen tube is only a passage, not a place where the egg waits.
✗ Option 4 — the stigma merely receives the pollen grain; the female gamete lies deep inside the ovule, far from the stigma.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma — self-pollination or cross-pollination (by wind, water, insects or birds).
• After fertilisation, zygote → embryo, ovule → seed, ovary → fruit; the other floral parts wither away.
• Angiosperms show double fertilisation — one male gamete forms the zygote (2n) and the other forms the endosperm (3n).
• Stamen (androecium) = anther + filament; Pistil (gynoecium) = stigma + style + ovary.
• Double fertilisation was discovered by S. G. Nawaschin; the pollen tube was described by G. B. Amici.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 1 · Fertilisation, embryo development and pregnancy

Q108. Match the following columns I and II.
Column I — Column II
A. Placenta — i. Nutrition
B. Fallopian tube — ii. Fertilization
C. Uterus — iii. Implantation

  1. (a) A-iii, B-ii, C-i
  2. (b) A-i, B-ii, C-iii
  3. (c) A-ii, B-i, C-iii
  4. (d) A-i, B-iii, C-ii
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) A-i, B-ii, C-iii

Correct Answer: Option 2 — A-i, B-ii, C-iii
A. Placenta – Nutrition. The placenta is a disc-like special tissue embedded in the wall of the uterus. It has finger-like villi on the embryo's side and blood spaces on the mother's side, so a large surface is available for the passage of glucose, oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the developing embryo, and for the removal of the embryo's waste into the mother's blood.
B. Fallopian tube – Fertilization. The fallopian tube (oviduct) carries the released ovum from the ovary. Sperms swim up and meet the ovum here, so fertilisation normally takes place in the fallopian tube, forming the zygote.
C. Uterus – Implantation. The zygote divides into a ball of cells while moving down, and this embryo gets attached to the thick, spongy lining (endometrium) of the uterus — this attachment is implantation, after which development continues in the uterus.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ A-iii, B-ii, C-i — wrongly links the placenta with implantation and the uterus with nutrition.
✗ A-ii, B-i, C-iii — fertilisation does not occur in the placenta, and the fallopian tube does not nourish the embryo.
✗ A-i, B-iii, C-ii — implantation is not a function of the fallopian tube, and fertilisation does not take place in the uterus.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• The human gestation period is about 280 days (nine months).
• The placenta also acts as a temporary endocrine gland, secreting HCG, oestrogen and progesterone.
• If the embryo implants in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus, it is called an ectopic pregnancy.
• If the ovum is not fertilised, the uterine lining breaks down and is shed as menstruation, roughly every 28 days.
• Ovulation — release of an ovum from the ovary — usually occurs around the 14th day of the menstrual cycle.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 2 · Vegetative propagation

Q109. Which of the following parts of a plant does NOT take part in vegetative propagation?

  1. (a) Leaves
  2. (b) Stem
  3. (c) Root
  4. (d) Flower
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Flower

Correct Answer: Option 4 — Flower
Vegetative propagation is a kind of asexual reproduction in which a new plant develops from a vegetative part of the parent — the root, stem, leaf or bud. No gametes and no fertilisation are involved, so the new plants are clones, genetically identical to the parent.
The flower is the sexual reproductive organ of an angiosperm. It carries the stamen (which makes pollen grains) and the pistil (which holds the ovules), and it works through pollination and fertilisation. Since it is a reproductive and not a vegetative organ, the flower never takes part in vegetative propagation.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Leaves — a true vegetative part; Bryophyllum grows new plantlets from buds present in the notches of its leaf margin.
✗ Stem — the most widely used vegetative part; potato (tuber), ginger (rhizome), sugarcane, rose and mint are all propagated from stem pieces or cuttings.
✗ Root — sweet potato, dahlia, asparagus and Dalbergia develop new shoots from adventitious buds on roots.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Natural methods — runner (grass), tuber (potato), rhizome (ginger), bulb (onion), sucker (banana), leaf buds (Bryophyllum).
• Artificial methods — cutting, grafting, layering and tissue culture (micropropagation).
• Banana, orange, rose and jasmine have lost the ability to form viable seeds and are grown only vegetatively.
• Advantage — earlier flowering and fruiting, and all offspring keep the parental characters.
• Disadvantage — no variation, so the whole crop can be wiped out by a single disease.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 2 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q110. Select the correct statement related to sexual reproduction in flowering plants.

  1. (a) After fertilisation, ovary develops into a seed.
  2. (b) On a suitable stigma pollen tubes grow out of the pollen grain and travel through the style and reach the ovary.
  3. (c) After fertilisation, an embryo is formed without any division in zygote.
  4. (d) After fertilisation, ovule develops into fruit.
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) On a suitable stigma pollen tubes grow out of the pollen grain and travel through the style and reach the ovary.

Correct Answer: Option 2 — On a suitable stigma pollen tubes grow out of the pollen grain and travel through the style and reach the ovary.
In flowering plants sexual reproduction begins with pollination — the transfer of pollen grains from the anther to the stigma. When a pollen grain falls on a suitable (compatible) stigma, it germinates and puts out a pollen tube. This tube grows downward through the tissue of the style, enters the ovary and reaches an ovule through the micropyle.
The male germ-cell is then released and fuses with the egg cell (female gamete) inside the ovule. This fusion is fertilisation, and it produces a zygote. The zygote divides repeatedly to build the embryo.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Option 1 — after fertilisation the ovary develops into the fruit, not into a seed.
✗ Option 3 — the zygote must divide again and again (mitosis) to form the embryo; an embryo can never form without division.
✗ Option 4 — the ovule develops into the seed, while the ovary becomes the fruit; this statement interchanges the two.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Self-pollination occurs within the same flower or plant; cross-pollination is between two flowers of different plants of the same species.
• Agents of cross-pollination — wind (anemophily), water (hydrophily), insects (entomophily), birds (ornithophily).
• After fertilisation — zygote → embryo, ovule → seed, ovary → fruit; sepals, petals and stamens usually wither.
• Angiosperms show double fertilisation: zygote (2n) and endosperm (3n) are formed together.
• A seed has seed coat, cotyledons and embryo (plumule + radicle); the plumule forms the shoot and the radicle the root.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q111. Which of the following statements is true with respect to regeneration?

  1. (a) Regeneration and reproduction are the same process with different names in all organisms.
  2. (b) Regeneration is not the same as reproduction.
  3. (c) No organism on earth has the ability to regenerate.
  4. (d) Regeneration gives rise to totally new organism.
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Regeneration is not the same as reproduction.

Correct Answer: Option 2 — Regeneration is not the same as reproduction.
Regeneration is the ability of a simple organism to grow back a lost or damaged body part, or to develop a complete organism from a broken piece of its body. It is carried out by specialised cells which proliferate and then differentiate into different tissues and organs in a definite sequence.
NCERT clearly states that regeneration is not the same as reproduction, because most organisms that can regenerate do not normally multiply by breaking themselves into pieces. Regeneration is basically a repair and survival mechanism; reproduction is a deliberate process of producing new individuals to continue the species.
Hydra and Planaria are the classic examples of regeneration.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Option 1 — regeneration and reproduction are different processes; calling them the same in all organisms is wrong.
✗ Option 3 — many organisms can regenerate — Hydra, Planaria, starfish, and even the human liver and a lizard's tail.
✗ Option 4 — regeneration usually only restores a lost part; it does not, as a rule, create a totally new independent organism.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Hydra and Planaria regenerate fully; Hydra also reproduces by budding.
• Starfish can regrow a lost arm; a lizard can regrow its tail (autotomy).
• The liver is the only human organ with a strong power of regeneration.
• Other modes of asexual reproduction — binary fission (Amoeba), multiple fission (Plasmodium), fragmentation (Spirogyra), spore formation (Rhizopus), budding (yeast).
• Regeneration was first studied in Hydra by Abraham Trembley.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 2 · Human male reproductive system

Q112. Which of the following are parts of the male reproductive system?

  1. (a) Vas deferens and scrotum
  2. (b) Fallopian tube and penis
  3. (c) Uterus and Vagina
  4. (d) Vas deferens and oviduct
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Vas deferens and scrotum

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Vas deferens and scrotum
Both structures named in this option belong to the male reproductive system.
• The scrotum is a muscular pouch of skin hanging outside the abdominal cavity that holds the testes. It keeps them 2–3 °C cooler than the body, the temperature needed for sperm formation.
• The vas deferens (sperm duct) is the tube that carries sperms from the epididymis of each testis and joins the urethra, through which semen finally leaves the body.
The complete male system is testes → epididymis → vas deferens → seminal vesicle and prostate → urethra → penis.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Fallopian tube and penis — a mixed pair; the fallopian tube (oviduct) is a female organ where fertilisation occurs, though the penis is male.
✗ Uterus and Vagina — both are purely female organs; the uterus houses the developing embryo and the vagina is the birth canal.
✗ Vas deferens and oviduct — again mixed; the oviduct is simply another name for the fallopian tube, a female structure.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Testes have a dual role — production of sperms and secretion of the hormone testosterone.
• Semen = sperms + secretions of the seminal vesicle and prostate gland, which nourish sperms and ease their transport.
• Female reproductive organs — ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix and vagina.
• The human ovum is the largest cell in the body; the sperm is the smallest and is motile with a tail.
• Vasectomy in males and tubectomy in females are surgical methods of family planning.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q113. Animals like hydra and planaria can be cut into any number of pieces and each piece grows into a complete organism. This is known as:

  1. (a) fragmentation
  2. (b) regeneration
  3. (c) binary fission
  4. (d) budding
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) regeneration

Correct Answer: Option 2 — regeneration
Regeneration is the ability of a fully differentiated organism to give rise to new individual organisms from its body pieces. If Hydra or Planaria is cut into many pieces, each piece grows into a complete organism.
It is carried out by specialised cells in the body. These cells proliferate by repeated cell division, and the mass of cells then undergoes differentiation — different cells change into different tissues and organs in an organised sequence, until the whole body plan is rebuilt. Regeneration is not the same as reproduction, because most organisms do not depend on being cut into pieces in order to multiply.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Fragmentation — the body of a simple multicellular organism breaks up on its own into fragments that grow into new individuals, e.g. Spirogyra; here the cutting is deliberate, not spontaneous.
✗ Binary fission — a unicellular organism splits into two daughter cells, e.g. Amoeba, Leishmania, bacteria; Hydra and Planaria are multicellular.
✗ Budding — a small bud develops on the parent body from regenerative cells and detaches after maturing, e.g. Hydra, yeast; this is a different process from cutting into pieces.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Planaria is a flatworm famous for its very high power of regeneration.
• The starfish can regenerate a lost arm; the lizard can regenerate its tail (autotomy).
• In humans, the liver shows the greatest power of regeneration.
• Hydra shows both budding and regeneration.
• Regeneration is carried out by specialised (stem-like) cells, and the process needs cell division followed by differentiation.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q114. Use of regenerative cells in the process of budding is present in:

  1. (a) Planaria
  2. (b) Hydra
  3. (c) Spirogyra
  4. (d) Amoeba
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Hydra

Correct Answer: Option 2 — Hydra
Hydra is a simple multicellular freshwater animal that reproduces asexually by budding. NCERT states that Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction in the process of budding.
A small outgrowth called a bud appears on the side of the parent body. It is produced by repeated cell division of these specially set-aside regenerative cells. The bud develops its own mouth and tentacles, remains attached to the parent while it grows, and finally detaches as a new, independent Hydra. Since only one parent is involved and no gametes are formed, the offspring is a genetic copy of the parent.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Planaria — a flatworm; it reproduces by regeneration from cut body pieces, not by forming buds.
✗ Spirogyra — a filamentous green alga; it multiplies by fragmentation, in which the filament simply breaks into pieces.
✗ Amoeba — a unicellular protozoan; it reproduces by binary fission, splitting into two daughter cells.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Budding — Hydra and yeast (yeast is a unicellular fungus).
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Leishmania, Paramoecium, bacteria; Multiple fission — Plasmodium.
• Fragmentation — Spirogyra; Regeneration — Hydra and Planaria; Spore formation — Rhizopus.
• Hydra belongs to the phylum Coelenterata (Cnidaria) and shows regeneration as well.
• In asexual reproduction only one parent takes part, and variations are very few.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q115. Which of the following is the tiny blob-on-a-stick structures in fungi that are involved in reproduction?

  1. (a) Spermatogonia
  2. (b) Sporophyte
  3. (c) Sporangia
  4. (d) Gametophyte
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Sporangia

Correct Answer: Option 3 — Sporangia
On the bread mould Rhizopus, the tiny blob-on-a-stick structures seen on the cottony threads are the sporangia. NCERT describes them exactly in these words while explaining spore formation.
Each sporangium is a swollen knob-like sac raised on an upright hypha called the sporangiophore. Inside it, hundreds of tiny spores are produced. Each spore is covered by a thick protective wall that lets it survive unfavourable conditions such as heat and dryness. When the sporangium bursts, the spores are carried away by air, and on reaching a moist surface such as bread, each spore germinates into a new Rhizopus. This is asexual reproduction by spore formation.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Spermatogonia — the germ cells in the testes of animals that divide to form sperms; they have nothing to do with fungi.
✗ Sporophyte — the diploid, spore-producing generation of a plant body in the alternation of generations; it is a whole plant stage, not a blob-on-a-stick.
✗ Gametophyte — the haploid, gamete-producing generation in plants such as mosses and ferns.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Spore formation is seen in Rhizopus, Mucor, ferns, mosses and bacteria.
• Spores have thick walls that protect them until favourable conditions return.
• Rhizopus is the common bread mould; Mucor is another well-known bread fungus.
• Yeast is a unicellular fungus that reproduces by budding.
• Alternation of sporophyte and gametophyte generations is typical of bryophytes and pteridophytes.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 3 · Human female reproductive system and menstrual cycle

Q116. Which of the following carries egg from the ovary to the womb?

  1. (a) Fallopian tube
  2. (b) Placenta
  3. (c) Cervix
  4. (d) Vagina
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Fallopian tube

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Fallopian tube
The Fallopian tube, also called the oviduct, is a narrow muscular tube that carries the egg (ovum) from the ovary to the uterus (womb). Its funnel-shaped mouth has finger-like fimbriae that sweep the released egg into the tube, and the wall pushes the egg forward by ciliary action and peristalsis.
The Fallopian tube is also the site where fertilisation normally takes place. The sperm, deposited in the vagina, travels up and fuses with the egg in the upper (ampulla) part of the tube, forming a zygote. The zygote then moves down and is implanted in the thick lining of the uterus, where it develops into an embryo.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Placenta — a disc-like special tissue formed after implantation; it supplies glucose and oxygen to the embryo and removes its wastes, but it does not transport the egg.
✗ Cervix — the narrow neck of the uterus that opens into the vagina; it dilates during childbirth.
✗ Vagina — the muscular canal that receives the sperm during copulation and acts as the birth canal; it lies below the uterus, not between ovary and uterus.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• The ovary produces the ovum and the hormones oestrogen and progesterone.
• A woman releases usually one egg per month (ovulation), and the menstrual cycle is about 28 days.
• Fertilisation occurs in the Fallopian tube; implantation and development occur in the uterus.
• The placenta contains villi that greatly increase the surface area for exchange.
• Human gestation period is about 9 months (280 days); tying the Fallopian tubes (tubectomy) is a contraceptive method.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 24 December 2024 Shift 3 · Vegetative propagation

Q117. Which plant species does NOT reproduce through vegetative propagation?

  1. (a) Papaya
  2. (b) Banana
  3. (c) Sugarcane
  4. (d) Rose
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Papaya

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Papaya
Vegetative propagation is a type of asexual reproduction in plants in which new plants are produced from the vegetative parts — root, stem, leaf or bud — without the formation of seeds or gametes.
Papaya is normally grown from seeds, which are formed only after pollination and fertilisation, i.e. by sexual reproduction. It is therefore the odd one out. Banana is raised from suckers (and is generally seedless), sugarcane from stem cuttings bearing nodes and buds, and rose from stem cuttings and grafting — all three are classic examples of vegetative propagation.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Banana — propagated vegetatively by underground suckers/rhizomes; cultivated bananas are seedless and cannot be grown from seed.
✗ Sugarcane — propagated by planting stem cuttings (setts); the buds at the nodes sprout into new plants.
✗ Rose — propagated by cutting, layering, budding and grafting, which keeps the flower colour and quality identical to the parent.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Advantages — plants bear fruit earlier, seedless varieties can be grown, and all offspring are genetically identical (a clone) to the parent.
• Bryophyllum reproduces from buds on the leaf margins; potato from eyes (buds) of the tuber.
• Layering — jasmine, strawberry; Grafting — mango, apple; Cutting — rose, sugarcane, bougainvillea.
• Tissue culture (micropropagation) grows whole plants from a few cells in a nutrient medium; this ability is called totipotency.
• Onion, ginger, turmeric and dahlia propagate through bulb, rhizome and tuberous roots.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 1 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q118. In which simple multi-cellular organism does sporangia develop on hyphae and spore formation occurs in sporangia?

  1. (a) Rhizopus
  2. (b) Yeast
  3. (c) Amoeba
  4. (d) Leishmania
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Rhizopus

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Rhizopus
Rhizopus is a simple multicellular fungus that grows as a cottony mass of thread-like hyphae on moist bread. Some hyphae grow upright and their tips swell into tiny knob-like structures called sporangia. Inside each sporangium, spores are produced by spore formation, a method of asexual reproduction.
Each spore is covered by a thick protective wall that lets it survive drought and unfavourable conditions. When the sporangium bursts, the spores are carried by air, and on reaching a moist surface each spore germinates into a new Rhizopus.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Yeast — a unicellular fungus that reproduces by budding; it has no hyphae and forms no sporangia.
✗ Amoeba — a unicellular protozoan that reproduces by binary fission, splitting into two daughter cells in any plane.
✗ Leishmania — a unicellular flagellated protozoan (causes kala-azar) that divides by binary fission in a definite longitudinal orientation.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Spore formation — Rhizopus, *Mucor*, ferns and mosses; Budding — Hydra and yeast.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Paramecium, Leishmania; Multiple fission — Plasmodium.
• Fragmentation — Spirogyra; Regeneration — Planaria and Hydra.
• Rhizopus is commonly called bread mould; the black dots seen on stale bread are its sporangia.
• Asexual reproduction involves only one parent and produces genetically identical clones.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 1 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q119. All of the following are signals that sexual maturation is taking place, EXCEPT:

  1. (a) different patterns of hair growth
  2. (b) increased size and shape of breast or penis
  3. (c) blue colour of eyes
  4. (d) girls begin to menstruate at around this time
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) blue colour of eyes

Correct Answer: Option 3 — blue colour of eyes
The blue colour of the eyes is an inherited trait decided by the genes received from the parents — it is present from birth and has nothing to do with sexual maturation. All the other choices are genuine signs of puberty.
Puberty is the age (about 10–14 years) at which the reproductive organs mature and secondary sexual characters appear, under the control of hormones — testosterone from the testes in boys and oestrogen from the ovaries in girls, both triggered by the pituitary gland.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ different patterns of hair growth — thick hair in the armpits and genital area, and a beard and moustache in boys, are classic signs of puberty.
✗ increased size and shape of breast or penis — enlargement of the breasts in girls and of the penis in boys is a direct sign of sexual maturation.
✗ girls begin to menstruate at around this time — the first menstruation (menarche) marks the start of the reproductive phase in girls.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Secondary sexual characters are controlled by testosterone (male) and oestrogen (female).
• The menstrual cycle is of about 28 days; menopause is its permanent stopping at about 45–50 years.
• Fertilisation in humans occurs in the fallopian tube (oviduct); the embryo implants in the uterus.
• The placenta supplies the foetus with nutrition and oxygen and removes its wastes; gestation lasts about 9 months (280 days).
• Eye colour, hair colour and blood group are hereditary traits, fixed by genes at the time of fertilisation.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 2 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q120. The pollen grains have to be transferred from the stamen to the stigma. If the transfer of pollen occurs in the same flower, then this event is known as:

  1. (a) Spore formation
  2. (b) Self-pollination
  3. (c) Fertilisation
  4. (d) Cross-pollination
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Self-pollination

Correct Answer: Option 2 — Self-pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther of the stamen to the stigma of the pistil. When this transfer happens within the same flower, or between two flowers borne on the same plant, it is called self-pollination (autogamy).
Self-pollination is common in bisexual flowers such as pea, wheat, rice and tomato. It needs no external agent, so it is very reliable, but it produces little variation because both gametes come from the same parent. Pollination is only the first step; the actual fusion of gametes that follows inside the ovule is fertilisation.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Spore formation — a method of asexual reproduction seen in *Rhizopus*, ferns and mosses, where spores in a sporangium grow into new individuals without any fusion.
✗ Fertilisation — the fusion of the male gamete with the egg to form a zygote; it happens after pollination, inside the ovule.
✗ Cross-pollination — transfer of pollen to the stigma of a different plant of the same species, carried by wind, water, insects or birds; it creates genetic variation.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Stamen = anther + filament; Pistil = stigma + style + ovary.
• After fertilisation the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit.
• Pollination by wind is anemophily, by water hydrophily, by insects entomophily.
• Angiosperms show double fertilisation, discovered by S. G. Nawaschin.
• Unisexual flowers (papaya, watermelon) can show only cross-pollination.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q121. The mode of reproduction of different organisms depends upon _________.

  1. (a) the respiratory pigment of the organism
  2. (b) the nervous system of the organism
  3. (c) the nutrition strategy of the organism
  4. (d) the body design of the organism
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) the body design of the organism

Correct Answer: Option 4 — the body design of the organism
The method an organism uses to reproduce is decided by how its body is built. Organisms with a simple body design — a single cell or a loose mass of similar cells — can reproduce by simply splitting or budding, because any part of the body can grow into a new individual.
Thus Amoeba and Leishmania divide by fission, Hydra and yeast by budding, *Planaria* by regeneration, and *Rhizopus* by spore formation. Organisms with a complex body design, where cells are specialised into tissues and organs, cannot do this; they need specialised reproductive organs and adopt sexual reproduction, as in higher plants and animals.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ The respiratory pigment — molecules such as haemoglobin only carry oxygen in the blood; they have nothing to do with how an organism reproduces.
✗ The nervous system — it controls response and coordination; many organisms that reproduce successfully, such as bacteria and plants, have no nervous system at all.
✗ The nutrition strategy — being autotrophic or heterotrophic decides how food is obtained, not whether the organism divides, buds or forms gametes.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Binary fission — *Amoeba, Paramecium, bacteria*; multiple fission — *Plasmodium*.
• Budding — *Hydra, yeast*; Regeneration — *Planaria*; Fragmentation — *Spirogyra*.
• Vegetative propagation — potato by eyes, ginger by rhizome, *Bryophyllum* by leaf buds.
• Asexual reproduction gives clones (no variation); sexual reproduction creates variation, the raw material of evolution.
• DNA copying is the basic event common to every mode of reproduction.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q122. An organism simply splits into two equal halves during cell division. What is it known as?

  1. (a) Binary fission
  2. (b) Regeneration
  3. (c) Spore formation
  4. (d) Budding
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Binary fission

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Binary fission
Binary fission is the simplest kind of asexual reproduction, seen in unicellular organisms. The parent cell first duplicates its DNA, the nucleus divides, and then the cytoplasm splits, so that the body is divided into two equal daughter individuals. The parent body does not survive as a separate individual — it becomes the two offspring.
*Amoeba* divides in any plane, *Leishmania* divides in a definite plane along the whip-like flagellum, and *Bacteria* and *Paramecium* also multiply this way. In *Plasmodium*, the malarial parasite, the parent splits into many daughter cells at once — that is multiple fission.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Regeneration — a fully new organism grows from a cut piece of the body, as in *Planaria* and *Hydra*; the pieces are not equal halves formed during cell division.
✗ Spore formation — thick-walled spores made inside a sporangium, as in *Rhizopus*, germinate into new individuals when conditions are right.
✗ Budding — a small bud appears on the parent, grows while attached and then detaches, as in yeast and Hydra; the two bodies are unequal.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Binary fission — *Amoeba, Paramecium, Leishmania, Bacteria*; multiple fission — *Plasmodium*.
• Fragmentation in *Spirogyra*; regeneration in *Planaria*; budding in yeast and Hydra.
• Asexual reproduction needs one parent and produces genetically identical clones.
• *Plasmodium* causes malaria, spread by the female Anopheles mosquito.
• Leishmania causes kala-azar, spread by the sandfly.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 2 · Human male reproductive system

Q123. Which of the following statements is related to the male reproductive system?

  1. (a) Formation of sperms requires a temperature higher than the normal body temperature.
  2. (b) The testes secrete the hormone testosterone.
  3. (c) Sperms are produced in the seminal vesicles.
  4. (d) The testes are located in the abdominal cavity.
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) The testes secrete the hormone testosterone.

Correct Answer: Option 2 — The testes secrete the hormone testosterone.
The testes are the primary sex organs of the male. They perform two jobs at once: they produce the male gamete, the sperm, and they secrete the male sex hormone testosterone.
Testosterone controls the development of the male reproductive organs and brings about the secondary sexual characters at puberty — a deeper voice, growth of facial, armpit and pubic hair, broadening of the shoulders and enlargement of the muscles. It also regulates the production of sperms itself. The testes are held outside the body in a pouch called the scrotum, which keeps them about 2–2.5 °C cooler than the body.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Higher temperature for sperm formation — the opposite is true; sperm formation needs a lower temperature, which is exactly why the testes lie outside the abdomen.
✗ Sperms are produced in the seminal vesicles — wrong; sperms are made in the seminiferous tubules of the testes. The seminal vesicle and prostate gland only add fluid that nourishes the sperms and makes their transport easier.
✗ The testes are located in the abdominal cavity — wrong; they descend before birth into the scrotum, outside the abdominal cavity.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Male reproductive system — testes, vas deferens, seminal vesicle, prostate gland, urethra, penis.
• Sperm + fluid of the accessory glands = semen.
• The female sex hormone from the ovary is oestrogen; the pregnancy hormone is progesterone.
• Sperm production begins at puberty and is controlled by FSH and LH from the pituitary gland.
• In humans the male gamete decides the sex of the child — an X-bearing sperm gives a girl, a Y-bearing sperm gives a boy.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 23 December 2024 Shift 3 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q124. If future shoot hidden in a germinating seed is called plumule, then future root of the germinating seed would be _______.

  1. (a) sepal
  2. (b) radicle
  3. (c) cotyledon
  4. (d) petal
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) radicle

Correct Answer: Option 2 — radicle
Inside a seed lies the embryo, the tiny future plant. The embryo has three parts: the plumule, which grows into the shoot (stem and leaves), the radicle, which grows into the root, and one or two cotyledons (seed leaves) that store food for the young seedling.
During germination the radicle emerges first, pushes down into the soil and anchors the seedling while absorbing water and minerals; the plumule then grows upward into the light. Germination needs the right supply of water, oxygen and a suitable temperature.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Sepal — the green outermost whorl of a flower; it protects the flower bud and is part of the flower, not of the embryo.
✗ Cotyledon — the seed leaf that stores food for the germinating embryo; it is neither the future root nor the future shoot.
✗ Petal — the coloured, often scented whorl of a flower whose work is to attract insects for pollination.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Monocots have one cotyledon (maize, wheat, rice); dicots have two (gram, pea, bean).
• After fertilisation, the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit.
• The seed coat has two layers — the outer testa and the inner tegmen.
• A fruit formed without fertilisation is a parthenocarpic fruit, e.g. seedless banana.
• The food store of a maize grain is the endosperm; in gram it is the cotyledons.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 20 December 2024 Shift 2 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q125. Which reproductive part(s) is/are essential for fertilisation?

  1. (a) Sepal
  2. (b) Thalamus
  3. (c) Petals
  4. (d) Pollen grain and ovule
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Pollen grain and ovule

Correct Answer: Option 4 — Pollen grain and ovule
Fertilisation is the fusion of the male gamete with the female gamete. In flowering plants:
• The pollen grain, produced in the anther of the stamen (male part), carries the male gamete.
• The ovule, present inside the ovary of the pistil/carpel (female part), contains the egg cell (female gamete).
• After pollination, the pollen grain germinates on the stigma and grows a pollen tube down the style to reach the ovule, where fusion (fertilisation) takes place and a zygote is formed.
Without these two, fertilisation is simply not possible — hence they are the essential reproductive parts.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Sepal — the green outermost whorl; only protects the flower bud. It is a non-essential (accessory) whorl.
✗ Thalamus — the swollen tip of the flower stalk on which all floral whorls are attached; it takes no part in fusion.
✗ Petals — coloured and scented; they only attract insects for pollination, so they are also accessory parts.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Stamen = anther + filament; Pistil/Carpel = stigma + style + ovary.
• Essential whorls — androecium (stamens) and gynoecium (pistil); accessory whorls — calyx (sepals) and corolla (petals).
• After fertilisation, the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit.
• Bisexual flower — both stamen and pistil present (e.g. hibiscus); unisexual flower — only one present (e.g. papaya, watermelon).
• In angiosperms double fertilisation occurs — one male gamete forms the zygote, the other forms the endosperm.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 20 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q126. The splitting of the two cells during division can take place in any plane. Such patterns of fission have been observed in which protozoan?

  1. (a) Leishmania
  2. (b) Amoeba
  3. (c) Hydra
  4. (d) Plasmodium
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Amoeba

Correct Answer: Option 2 — Amoeba
Amoeba is a unicellular protozoan with an irregular, constantly changing body shape. Because it has no definite plane of symmetry, its binary fission can occur in any plane — the nucleus divides first (karyokinesis) and then the cytoplasm (cytokinesis), producing two identical daughter cells.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Leishmania — has a whip-like flagellum at one end, giving the cell a definite orientation, so binary fission occurs in a definite (longitudinal) plane.
✗ Hydra — not a protozoan; it is a multicellular cnidarian that reproduces asexually by budding and regeneration.
✗ Plasmodium — the malarial parasite; it reproduces by multiple fission (schizogony), producing many daughter cells at once, not simple binary fission in any plane.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Binary fission — one parent divides into two; multiple fission — one parent divides into many.
• Amoeba moves and captures food using pseudopodia (false feet); its mode of nutrition is holozoic.
• Leishmania causes kala-azar; Plasmodium causes malaria; Entamoeba histolytica causes amoebic dysentery.
• Budding — Hydra, yeast; Fragmentation — Spirogyra; Regeneration — Planaria; Spore formation — Rhizopus.
• Asexual reproduction produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent (clones).
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 20 December 2024 Shift 3 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q127. Which of the following grows rapidly and ripens to form a fruit?

  1. (a) Ovary
  2. (b) Pollen tube
  3. (c) Stigma
  4. (d) Anther
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Ovary

Correct Answer: Option 1 — Ovary
After fertilisation, the zygote formed inside the ovule divides repeatedly to form the embryo. The ovule then develops a tough coat and becomes the seed, while the ovary of the flower grows rapidly and ripens to form the fruit. The remaining floral parts — sepals, petals, stamens, style and stigma — usually wither and fall off.
The ovary is the swollen basal part of the pistil (carpel), the female reproductive organ of the flower. The wall of the ovary thickens into the pericarp, the fleshy or hard covering of the fruit that protects the seeds and helps in their dispersal.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Pollen tube — grows out of a germinating pollen grain and travels down the style only to deliver the male gamete to the ovule; it is consumed in the process and never becomes a fruit.
✗ Stigma — the sticky top of the pistil that receives pollen grains during pollination; it dries up after fertilisation.
✗ Anther — the pollen-bearing part of the stamen (male whorl) that produces pollen grains; it plays no role in fruit formation.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Ovary → fruit and ovule → seed after fertilisation — a classic PYQ pairing.
• Pistil / Carpel = stigma + style + ovary; Stamen = anther + filament.
• A fruit formed without fertilisation is a parthenocarpic fruit, e.g. banana.
• Fruits developing from parts other than the ovary are false fruits, e.g. apple (from the thalamus).
• Angiosperms show double fertilisation — one male gamete makes the zygote, the other makes the endosperm.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 20 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q128. In which of the following organisms is fragmentation common?

  1. (a) In all unicellular organisms
  2. (b) Only in few unicellular organisms
  3. (c) Only a few multicellular organisms
  4. (d) In all multicellular organisms
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Only a few multicellular organisms

Correct Answer: Option 3 — Only a few multicellular organisms
Fragmentation is a method of asexual reproduction in which the body of a multicellular organism breaks up into two or more fragments on maturing, and each fragment then grows into a new complete individual.
It is possible only in a few multicellular organisms with a simple body organisation, such as the filamentous alga Spirogyra and in Planaria. In organisms with complex body design and specialised organ systems — like human beings or higher plants — a broken piece cannot rebuild the whole body, so fragmentation does not occur. Unicellular organisms have only one cell, so they reproduce by binary or multiple fission, not by fragmentation.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ In all unicellular organisms — unicellular forms such as Amoeba, Paramecium and bacteria divide by fission, not fragmentation.
✗ Only in few unicellular organisms — fragmentation is by definition a multicellular phenomenon; a single cell has nothing to fragment into new bodies.
✗ In all multicellular organisms — complex multicellular organisms with specialised tissues and organs (e.g. mammals) cannot reproduce by fragmentation.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Spirogyra simply breaks into smaller pieces on maturation — the textbook example of fragmentation.
• Regeneration (Planaria, Hydra) differs from fragmentation — it restores a lost body part from specialised cells.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Leishmania (longitudinal); Multiple fission — Plasmodium.
• Budding — Hydra and yeast; Spore formation — Rhizopus; Vegetative propagation — potato, Bryophyllum.
• Asexual reproduction produces clones — offspring genetically identical to the parent.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 20 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q129. Which organism uses regenerative cells for reproduction in the process of budding?

  1. (a) Leishmania
  2. (b) Hydra
  3. (c) Yeast
  4. (d) Amoeba
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Hydra

Correct Answer: Option 2 — Hydra
Hydra is a simple multicellular animal that reproduces asexually by budding. It uses regenerative cells — undifferentiated, actively dividing cells of its body wall — to produce a bud, which appears as a small outgrowth on one side of the parent body.
The bud grows, develops a mouth and tentacles, and finally detaches from the parent to live as a new independent individual. Since the bud is formed from the parent's own body cells, the new Hydra is genetically identical to the parent.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Leishmania — a unicellular protozoan (causes kala-azar) that reproduces by binary fission in a definite longitudinal orientation with respect to its whip-like flagellum.
✗ Yeast — a unicellular fungus that also shows budding, but it uses a simple nuclear division of its single cell, not regenerative cells of a multicellular body.
✗ Amoeba — reproduces by binary fission, splitting into two daughter cells in any plane; it does not bud.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Budding — Hydra, yeast, *Sycon*; Regeneration — Hydra and Planaria.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Paramecium, Leishmania; Multiple fission — Plasmodium (causes malaria).
• Spore formation — Rhizopus (bread mould); Fragmentation — Spirogyra.
• Hydra belongs to the phylum Coelenterata (Cnidaria) and also reproduces sexually in unfavourable conditions.
• Regeneration is carried out by specialised cells that proliferate and differentiate into various cell types.
RRB Technician Grade III 2024-25 – 20 December 2024 Shift 3 · Flower structure and sexual reproduction in plants

Q130. The reproductive parts of angiosperms are located in the flower, where the female reproductive part is made of three parts, stigma, style and ovary and is known as:

  1. (a) stamen
  2. (b) sepal
  3. (c) pistil (carpel)
  4. (d) petal
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) pistil (carpel)

Correct Answer: Option 3 — pistil (carpel)
In angiosperms (flowering plants) the reproductive parts are contained in the flower. The female reproductive part is the pistil or carpel, which occupies the centre of the flower and is made of exactly three parts:
• Stigma — the sticky top that receives the pollen grains during pollination.
• Style — the slender tube through which the pollen tube grows down.
• Ovary — the swollen base containing the ovules, each with an egg cell (female gamete).
All the pistils of a flower together form the gynoecium. After fertilisation the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit.
❌ Why the other options are incorrect
✗ Stamen — the male reproductive part, made of anther + filament; the anther produces pollen grains. All stamens together form the androecium.
✗ Sepal — the green, outermost accessory whorl (calyx) that only protects the flower bud before it opens.
✗ Petal — the brightly coloured accessory whorl (corolla) that attracts insects and birds for pollination.
📌 SSC & Railway Exam Facts
• Pistil/Carpel = stigma + style + ovary; Stamen = anther + filament.
• Essential whorls — androecium and gynoecium; accessory whorls — calyx and corolla.
• A flower with both stamens and pistil is bisexual (hibiscus, mustard); with only one it is unisexual (papaya, watermelon).
• Pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma — self- or cross-pollination.
• Angiosperms show double fertilisation, first described by S. G. Nawaschin.
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 2 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q131. What is the process of fusion of the male and female gametes called in plants?

  1. (a) Fertilisation
  2. (b) Germination
  3. (c) Pollination
  4. (d) Propagation
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Fertilisation

Answer: Option 1 — Fertilisation
The fusion of the male gamete (from the pollen) with the female gamete (egg in the ovule) is fertilisation; it forms the zygote.
Revision note — Sexual reproduction in flowering plants
• Pollination: transfer of pollen from anther to stigma — comes before fertilisation.
• Self-pollination = same flower or plant; cross-pollination = another plant (by wind, water, insects, birds).
• The pollen grows a pollen tube through the style to reach the ovule in the ovary.
• Fertilisation happens inside the ovule; zygote → embryo.
• After fertilisation: ovule → seed, ovary → fruit; petals, sepals, stamens usually wither.
• Germination = seed growing into a seedling; propagation = producing new plants (e.g. vegetative propagation by stem, root, leaf).
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination moves pollen to the stigma; fertilisation fuses the gametes.
Also asked from this topic: the analogy Pollination : transfer of pollen :: Fertilisation : ? (fusion of gametes); what gametes are (haploid reproductive cells that fuse to form a zygote).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q132. Which among the following organisms reproduce by regeneration method?

  1. (a) Yeast
  2. (b) Bryophyllum
  3. (c) Planaria
  4. (d) Rhizopus
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Planaria

Answer: Option 3 — Planaria
In regeneration, a fully formed organism is cut into pieces and each piece grows into a complete organism.
Planaria and Hydra show this; it is carried out by specialised cells that divide and differentiate.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Binary fission: Amoeba, Paramecium, bacteria; Leishmania divides in a definite plane.
• Multiple fission: Plasmodium (malaria parasite).
• Budding: Yeast and Hydra — a bud grows out and detaches.
• Fragmentation: Spirogyra — the body simply breaks into pieces, each grows.
• Spore formation: Rhizopus (bread mould) — spores in sporangia.
• Vegetative propagation: Bryophyllum (buds on leaf margins), potato, rose, banana, sugarcane.
• All asexual modes involve one parent and no fusion of gametes.
Do not mix these up
• Regeneration vs fragmentation — in regeneration the organism has to be cut, and specialised cells rebuild it; in fragmentation the body breaks up on its own at maturity.
Also asked from this topic: what Amoeba, yeast and Hydra reproducing with one parent shows (no fusion of gametes); the incorrect statement on vegetative propagation (new plants from seed-bearing structures).
Hydra does both — budding and regeneration — but yeast only buds.
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q133. In Amoeba, the splitting during fission can occur _______.

  1. (a) in a definite orientation related to a structure
  2. (b) in any plane
  3. (c) only along a fixed plane
  4. (d) only in one specific plane
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) in any plane

Answer: Option 2 — in any plane
Amoeba has no fixed shape and no fixed structure to guide the split.
So during binary fission its body can divide in any plane.
Revision note — Fission and other asexual methods
• Binary fission — one cell splits into two: Amoeba, Paramecium, bacteria.
• Leishmania (causes kala-azar) splits in a definite orientation, set by its whip-like flagellum.
• Multiple fission — one cell splits into many: Plasmodium (malarial parasite).
• Budding — Hydra, yeast; fragmentation — Spirogyra; spore formation — Rhizopus (bread mould).
• Regeneration — a whole body grows from a piece: Planaria, Hydra.
• All these involve a single parent and no gametes; offspring are near copies of the parent.
Do not mix these up
• Amoeba vs Leishmania — Amoeba splits in any plane; Leishmania in a definite plane related to its flagellum.
Also asked from this topic: what Amoeba, yeast and Hydra reproducing with one parent shows (asexual reproduction occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 2 · Vegetative propagation

Q134. Which of the following is an example of regeneration in plants?

  1. (a) Reproduction in humans
  2. (b) Budding in hydra
  3. (c) Binary fission in bacteria
  4. (d) Growth of a new plant from a cutting
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Growth of a new plant from a cutting

Answer: Option 4 — Growth of a new plant from a cutting
A piece of stem (a cutting) grows new roots and shoots and rebuilds a whole plant.
Regrowing a complete body from a part is regeneration; in plants it is used as vegetative propagation.
The other three are not plants at all.
Revision note — Vegetative propagation
• New plants grow from roots, stems or leaves of one parent — no seeds, no gametes.
• Stem cutting — rose, sugarcane, money plant; layering — jasmine; grafting — mango, citrus.
• Leaf buds — Bryophyllum grows new plants from notches on its leaf margins.
• Plants such as banana, orange, rose, jasmine that have lost the capacity to make seeds are grown this way.
• Offspring are genetically identical to the parent, and the plant bears flowers and fruits sooner than one raised from seed.
• Tissue culture — many plants from a few cells of the growing tip; used for orchids and ornamentals.
Do not mix these up
• Regeneration vs budding — in regeneration a cut piece grows into a whole body (Planaria); in budding an outgrowth detaches from an intact parent (Hydra).
Also asked from this topic: why cutting, grafting and layering are used by gardeners (they produce genetically identical plants).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q135. Why is asexual reproduction advantageous for single-celled organisms?

  1. (a) It prevents overcrowding.
  2. (b) It allows rapid reproduction in favourable conditions.
  3. (c) It requires a mate.
  4. (d) It increases genetic variability.
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) It allows rapid reproduction in favourable conditions.

Answer: Option 2 — It allows rapid reproduction in favourable conditions.
Asexual reproduction needs only one parent and no gametes.
So a single-celled organism can simply divide again and again and build a large population quickly while food and conditions are good.
Revision note — Asexual reproduction
• One parent, no fusion of gametes, offspring are clones — nearly identical to the parent.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Paramecium, bacteria; multiple fission — Plasmodium (malaria parasite).
• Budding — yeast, Hydra; fragmentation — Spirogyra; regeneration — Planaria, Hydra.
• Spore formation — Rhizopus (bread mould); spores have thick walls that survive bad conditions.
• Drawback: little variation, so a population is less able to survive a changed environment.
• Sexual reproduction needs two parents and increases variation — useful for evolution.
Do not mix these up
• Variation comes from sexual reproduction, not asexual — and needing a mate is a feature of sexual reproduction.
Also asked from this topic: what Amoeba, yeast and Hydra reproducing with one parent shows (asexual reproduction occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q136. Which of the following modes of asexual reproduction is used by unicellular organisms exclusively?

  1. (a) Binary fission
  2. (b) Fragmentation
  3. (c) Regeneration
  4. (d) Sporulation
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Binary fission

Answer: Option 1 — Binary fission
In binary fission the single cell divides into two daughter cells.
Only a unicellular organism can do this — the whole body is one cell.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Binary fission: Amoeba (any plane), Leishmania (definite plane, due to its flagellum), Paramecium, bacteria.
• Multiple fission: one cell divides into many daughter cells — Plasmodium (malaria parasite).
• Fragmentation: a filament breaks into pieces that each grow — Spirogyra (multicellular).
• Regeneration: specialised cells rebuild the whole body from a piece — Planaria, Hydra.
• Budding: a bud grows on the parent — yeast (unicellular), Hydra (multicellular).
• Spore formation: sporangia release spores — Rhizopus (bread mould).
Do not mix these up
• Fragmentation vs regeneration — fragmentation is a normal way of reproducing (Spirogyra); regeneration rebuilds a body from any cut piece (Planaria) and needs specialised cells.
Also asked from this topic: the feature shown by Amoeba, yeast and Hydra reproducing with one parent (no fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Vegetative propagation

Q137. Which of the following plants propagates through runners?

  1. (a) Strawberry
  2. (b) Rose
  3. (c) Jasmine
  4. (d) Potato
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Strawberry

Answer: Option 1 — Strawberry
A runner is a thin stem that creeps along the soil surface; at its nodes it strikes roots and a new plant grows — the strawberry spreads this way.
Revision note — Vegetative propagation
• New plants grow from root, stem or leaf of one parent — asexual, so offspring are genetically identical (clones).
• Runners / stolons — strawberry, doob grass, Oxalis.
• Stem tuber — potato (new plants from the eyes); rhizome — ginger, turmeric; bulb — onion.
• Root tuber — sweet potato, dahlia; leaf buds — Bryophyllum.
• Artificial methods — cutting (rose, sugarcane), layering (jasmine), grafting (mango), tissue culture (orchids).
• Useful for plants that give no viable seeds (banana, orange, rose) and to keep good traits of the parent.
Also asked from this topic: the key feature of vegetative propagation (new plants from roots, stems or leaves, not seeds); why farmers prefer cutting, grafting and tissue culture (they give genetically identical plants).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q138. Which of the following is the female germ cell in plants?

  1. (a) Cell opposite to egg cell in an ovule
  2. (b) Cells outside the ovule
  3. (c) Egg cell
  4. (d) Cells in the centre of ovule
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Egg cell

Answer: Option 3 — Egg cell
The ovule inside the ovary holds the embryo sac, and the egg cell in it is the female germ cell (gamete) that fuses with the male gamete.
Revision note — Sexual reproduction in flowering plants
• Stamen (anther + filament) is the male part; pistil / carpel (stigma, style, ovary) is the female part.
• Anther makes pollen grains, which carry the male gametes.
• Ovary contains ovules; each ovule has an egg cell.
• Pollination — transfer of pollen from anther to stigma; the pollen tube grows through the style to the ovule.
• Fertilisation — male gamete + egg cell ⇒ zygote ⇒ embryo.
• After fertilisation: ovule ⇒ seed, ovary ⇒ fruit; petals, sepals and stamens wither.
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination is transfer of pollen; fertilisation is fusion of gametes.
Also asked from this topic: pollination : transfer of pollen :: fertilisation : (fusion of gametes); the name for reproductive cells made by meiosis (gametes); pollen tube growing towards the ovule (chemotropism).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Fertilisation, embryo development and pregnancy

Q139. Nita is pregnant, but loves to eat junk food. Her doctor advised her to eat salads and fruits. The reason for this advice is:

  1. (a) junk food is tasty, but leads to obesity
  2. (b) the nutrients in the mother's blood nourishes the growing baby
  3. (c) the mother's blood has no role in the growth of a baby
  4. (d) junk food is costly in comparison to salad and fruits
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) the nutrients in the mother's blood nourishes the growing baby

Answer: Option 2 — the nutrients in the mother's blood nourishes the growing baby
The embryo gets its food from the mother's blood through the placenta.
So whatever the mother eats decides the nutrients reaching the baby — salads and fruits give vitamins, minerals and fibre.
Revision note — Nourishment of the embryo (Class 10)
• The zygote divides to form an embryo, which gets implanted in the wall of the uterus.
• The placenta is a disc-like tissue embedded in the uterine wall that links mother and embryo.
• Villi on the embryo's side of the placenta give a large surface area for exchange.
• Glucose and oxygen pass from the mother's blood to the embryo; wastes pass back to the mother's blood.
• The time from fertilisation to birth in humans is about nine months.
• A pregnant woman needs extra protein, iron, calcium, folic acid and vitamins.
Also asked from this topic: the immunity a foetus gets from antibodies crossing the placenta (passive natural immunity).
Option 3 states the opposite of the truth — the mother's blood is the baby's only supply line.
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q140. Which of the following is NOT true about fragmentation?

  1. (a) Each fragment can grow into a complete individual.
  2. (b) It requires the organism to be multicellular.
  3. (c) It is a form of sexual reproduction.
  4. (d) It involves breaking of the organism into parts.
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) It is a form of sexual reproduction.

Answer: Option 3 — It is a form of sexual reproduction.
Fragmentation is asexual — one parent simply breaks into pieces and each piece grows into a new individual.
No gametes are formed and no fertilisation takes place.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Fragmentation: body breaks into pieces, each grows into a new organism — Spirogyra, many filamentous algae.
• Regeneration: a cut piece rebuilds the whole body using specialised cells — Planaria, Hydra.
• Fission: binary in Amoeba, Paramecium; multiple in Plasmodium (malaria parasite).
• Budding: a bud grows out and detaches — Hydra, yeast.
• Spore formation: Rhizopus (bread mould) — spores in sporangia.
• Vegetative propagation: new plants from roots, stems, leaves — Bryophyllum (leaf), potato (stem tuber).
Do not mix these up
• Fragmentation vs regeneration — fragmentation is a normal way of reproducing; regeneration is rebuilding after an injury and is not the usual reproduction method.
Also asked from this topic: what single-parent reproduction in Amoeba, yeast and Hydra shows (it occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Vegetative propagation

Q141. A gardener wants to grow potato plants. He had put a potato with buds (eyes) in the soil. He succeeded to get a new potato plant because:

  1. (a) potatoes can be grown by root cuttings
  2. (b) there was no animal to eat the potato buds
  3. (c) there are no other plant species in that area
  4. (d) vegetative propagation is by buds (eyes)
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) vegetative propagation is by buds (eyes)

Answer: Option 4 — vegetative propagation is by buds (eyes)
A potato is a stem tuber; its eyes are buds that sprout into new shoots.
Growing a new plant from such a part without seeds is vegetative propagation.
Revision note — Vegetative propagation
• An asexual method: new plants grow from root, stem or leaf of one parent — no seeds, no gametes.
• Stem tuber: potato (eyes = buds); rhizome: ginger, turmeric; bulb: onion; runner: grass, strawberry.
• Leaf buds: Bryophyllum forms buds on the leaf margin that fall and grow into plants.
• Artificial methods: cutting (rose, sugarcane), layering (jasmine), grafting (mango), tissue culture (orchids, banana).
• Advantages: plants are genetically identical to the parent, bear flowers and fruits earlier, and seedless plants (banana, orange, grape, rose) can be grown.
Do not mix these up
• Potato vs sweet potato — potato is a modified stem (it has eyes/buds); sweet potato is a modified root.
Also asked from this topic: why farmers use cutting and grafting (identical plants); the wrong statement about vegetative propagation ("new plants develop from seed-bearing structures").
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q142. What does Family Planning aim at?

  1. (a) Population growth
  2. (b) Increasing pollution
  3. (c) Preventing all pregnancies by recommending abortion
  4. (d) Population control
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Population control

Answer: Option 4 — Population control
Family planning helps couples decide the number and spacing of children by using contraceptive methods.
Its main national aim is to check population growth.
Revision note — Reproductive health and contraception
• Barrier methods: condom, diaphragm — stop sperm reaching the egg; condoms also protect against STDs.
• Hormonal methods: oral pills change the hormonal balance so eggs are not released.
• IUCDs: Copper-T or loop placed in the uterus to prevent pregnancy.
• Surgical methods: vasectomy (vas deferens blocked in males) and tubectomy (fallopian tubes blocked in females).
• Female foeticide after prenatal sex determination is illegal in India.
• India launched the world's first government National Family Planning Programme in 1952.
Do not mix these up
• Family planning vs abortion — family planning prevents unwanted pregnancy by contraception; it does not recommend abortion.
Also asked from this topic: the year India introduced its Family Planning Programme (1952); the number of high-focus states first covered by Mission Parivar Vikas (7).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 18 December 2024 Shift 3 · Vegetative propagation

Q143. A rose plant with white flowers was planted in soil by stem cutting without any grafting. The new plant produced similar white flowers. What does it indicate?

  1. (a) Stem cutting is a type of sexual reproduction, so there was no variation.
  2. (b) White flowers are the only type of variety available in rose.
  3. (c) Stem cutting is a type of asexual reproduction, so there was no variation.
  4. (d) White flowers look good so gardeners plant such roses.
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Stem cutting is a type of asexual reproduction, so there was no variation.

Answer: Option 3 — Stem cutting is a type of asexual reproduction, so there was no variation.
A stem cutting grows from one parent without any fusion of gametes.
Its DNA is a copy of the parent's, so the new plant bears the same white flowers.
Revision note — Asexual reproduction and variation
• Asexual reproduction: one parent, no gametes; offspring are clones of the parent.
• Only tiny variations arise, from small errors in DNA copying.
• Sexual reproduction combines DNA from two parents, so it produces more variation.
• Variation helps a species survive changes in its surroundings.
• Stem cutting is used for rose, sugarcane, money plant; grafting for mango; layering for jasmine.
• Gardeners use cutting and grafting to keep a desired trait (flower colour, fruit quality) unchanged.
Do not mix these up
• Cutting vs grafting — a cutting grows on its own roots; in grafting a scion is joined to the stock of another plant.
Also asked from this topic: why farmers prefer cutting and grafting (identical plants); the wrong statement about vegetative propagation ("new plants develop from seed-bearing structures").
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 1 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q144. Pollen grains are transferred to which part of pistil?

  1. (a) Style
  2. (b) Ovary
  3. (c) Ovule
  4. (d) Stigma
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Stigma

Answer: Option 4 — Stigma
In pollination, pollen grains move from the anther to the stigma, the sticky tip of the pistil that receives them.
Revision note — Pistil and pollination
• Pistil (carpel) = stigma (receives pollen) + style (tube) + ovary (holds ovules).
• Stamen = anther (makes pollen) + filament.
• Self-pollination: pollen reaches the stigma of the same flower; cross-pollination: of another flower.
• Agents of cross-pollination: wind, water, insects, birds.
• On the stigma the pollen grain grows a pollen tube down the style to the ovule.
• Fertilisation = fusion of the male gamete with the egg inside the ovule.
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination is transfer of pollen; fertilisation is fusion of gametes.
Also asked from this topic: Pollination : transfer of pollen :: Fertilisation : ? (fusion of gametes); the female reproductive part of a flower (gynoecium or pistil).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 1 · Flower structure and sexual reproduction in plants

Q145. What is the role of the ovary in the process of fertilisation in plants?

  1. (a) To provide nutrients to the pollen grains
  2. (b) To store the male gametes
  3. (c) To produce the egg cell
  4. (d) To produce pollen
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) To produce the egg cell

Answer: Option 3 — To produce the egg cell
The ovary holds the ovules, and each ovule carries the egg cell — the female gamete.
The male gamete from the pollen tube fuses with this egg in fertilisation.
Revision note — Parts of the pistil and what they become
• Anther makes pollen grains (male gametes); the ovary holds ovules with the egg.
• Pollen tube grows through the style into the ovule — it is guided chemically (chemotropism).
• Zygote → embryo; ovule → seed; ovary → fruit; ovary wall → pericarp.
• Petals, sepals, stamens, style and stigma usually wither and fall after fertilisation.
• A unisexual flower (papaya, watermelon) has either stamens or pistil; a bisexual one (hibiscus, mustard) has both.
Do not mix these up
• Ovary vs ovule — the ovary becomes the fruit; the ovule inside it becomes the seed.
Also asked from this topic: Pollination : transfer of pollen :: Fertilisation : ? (fusion of gametes); the tropism shown by a pollen tube growing towards the ovule (chemotropism).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 1 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q146. Seeds that are dispersed by animals often:

  1. (a) have hooks or edible flesh
  2. (b) can float easily in water
  3. (c) are very small and light weight
  4. (d) have wings or parachutes
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) have hooks or edible flesh

Answer: Option 1 — have hooks or edible flesh
Animals carry seeds in two ways: hooked or spiny fruits cling to their fur, and fleshy fruits are eaten and the seeds passed out.
Revision note — Dispersal of seeds
• Why disperse: avoids competition with the parent plant for light, water and minerals; lets the plant reach new places.
• Animals: hooks or spines — Xanthium, Urena; fleshy edible fruits — mango, guava, berries.
• Wind: small, light, winged or hairy seeds — drumstick, maple, madar (aak), sunflower, cotton.
• Water: light, spongy or fibrous coats that float — coconut, lotus.
• Explosion: fruits burst and fling seeds — castor, balsam.
• After fertilisation the ovary becomes the fruit and the ovules become seeds.
Wings or parachutes mean wind, floating means water — hooks or flesh mean animals.
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 1 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q147. In which process multicellular organisms break into smaller pieces upon maturation?

  1. (a) Fragmentation
  2. (b) Sporulation
  3. (c) Fission
  4. (d) Regeneration
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Fragmentation

Answer: Option 1 — Fragmentation
In fragmentation, a simple multicellular organism breaks into smaller pieces on maturing.
Each piece grows into a new individual — e.g. the filamentous alga Spirogyra.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Fission — a single-celled organism divides; binary fission in Amoeba, Paramecium; multiple fission in Plasmodium (malaria parasite).
• Budding — a bud grows out and detaches; Hydra and yeast.
• Fragmentation — mature body breaks into pieces on its own; Spirogyra.
• Regeneration — a cut or broken part regrows into a full organism; Planaria, Hydra. It needs specialised cells.
• Spore formation — spores inside sporangia; Rhizopus (bread mould).
• Vegetative propagation — new plants from root, stem or leaf; Bryophyllum leaves, potato tubers.
Do not mix these up
• Fragmentation vs regeneration — fragmentation happens naturally on maturation; regeneration follows an accidental cut or injury.
Also asked from this topic: what Amoeba, yeast and Hydra reproducing from a single parent shows about asexual reproduction (it occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 1 · Vegetative propagation

Q148. In the process of vegetative propagation, which part of the plant is used in grafting?

  1. (a) Stem
  2. (b) Seed
  3. (c) Leaf
  4. (d) Root
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Stem

Answer: Option 1 — Stem
In grafting, a stem piece of one plant (scion) is joined to the rooted stem of another (stock).
The two grow together as one plant.
Revision note — Vegetative propagation
• New plants from vegetative parts — root, stem or leaf — without seeds.
• Natural: potato (stem tuber), ginger (rhizome), Bryophyllum (buds on leaf margins), sweet potato (root).
• Artificial: cutting (rose, sugarcane), layering (jasmine), grafting (mango, apple, citrus).
• In grafting, the scion gives the fruit quality; the stock gives the root system.
• Advantages: plants genetically identical to the parent, fruit earlier, and plants that have lost the ability to make seeds — banana, rose, jasmine — can be grown.
Do not mix these up
• Scion vs stock — scion is the upper shoot put on top; stock is the lower, rooted part.
Also asked from this topic: why farmers prefer cutting, grafting and tissue culture (genetically identical plants); the false claim about vegetative propagation (new plants grow from seed-bearing structures).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 1 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q149. How do hormonal contraceptives prevent pregnancy?

  1. (a) By changing the hormonal balance to prevent egg release
  2. (b) By increasing sperm production
  3. (c) By blocking the fallopian tubes
  4. (d) By creating a physical barrier
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) By changing the hormonal balance to prevent egg release

Answer: Option 1 — By changing the hormonal balance to prevent egg release
Hormonal contraceptives such as oral pills change the body's hormonal balance so that eggs are not released from the ovary.
With no egg, fertilisation cannot take place.
Revision note — Methods of contraception
• Barrier methods — condom, diaphragm, cervical cap stop sperm reaching the egg; the condom also protects against STDs.
• Hormonal (chemical) methods — oral pills; they may have side effects.
• Intra-uterine devices (IUCD) — loop or Copper-T placed in the uterus; they may cause irritation.
• Surgical methods — vasectomy blocks the vas deferens (male); tubectomy blocks the fallopian tubes (female).
• Surgery prevents pregnancy but gives no protection against STDs such as gonorrhoea, syphilis, warts and HIV-AIDS.
Do not mix these up
• Hormonal vs barrier — pills stop egg release; condoms and diaphragms physically block sperm.
Also asked from this topic: the limitation of surgical contraception (it does not prevent sexually transmitted infections); the technique used when a woman's oviducts are blocked (in vitro fertilisation).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q150. What develops into fruit after fertilisation?

  1. (a) Stigma
  2. (b) Anther
  3. (c) Style
  4. (d) Ovary
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Ovary

Answer: Option 4 — Ovary
After fertilisation the ovary grows and ripens into the fruit.
The ovules inside it become the seeds.
Revision note — Post-fertilisation changes in a flower
• Ovary → fruit; ovule → seed; zygote → embryo; ovary wall → pericarp (fruit wall).
• Petals, sepals, stamens, style and stigma usually wither and fall off.
• The female part is the pistil (carpel) = stigma + style + ovary.
• The male part is the stamen = anther (makes pollen) + filament.
• Pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma; fertilisation is the fusion of the male and female gametes to form a zygote.
• The pollen tube grows through the style to reach the ovule in the ovary.
Do not mix these up
• Ovary vs ovule — the ovary becomes the fruit; the ovule becomes the seed.
Also asked from this topic: the female reproductive part of a flower (gynoecium / pistil); the meaning of fertilisation (fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q151. Which of the following diseases can be prevented by using a mechanical barrier contraceptive method?

  1. (a) TB
  2. (b) Typhoid
  3. (c) AIDS
  4. (d) Malaria
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) AIDS

Answer: Option 3 — AIDS
A mechanical barrier (condom) stops the exchange of body fluids, so it prevents sexually transmitted infections such as AIDS (HIV).
TB, typhoid and malaria spread by air, contaminated food/water and mosquitoes — a barrier cannot stop them.
Revision note — Contraceptive methods (Class 10)
• Barrier (mechanical): condom, diaphragm, cervical cap — the only group that also protects against STDs.
• Chemical / hormonal: oral pills change hormonal balance so eggs are not released.
• IUCDs: copper-T and loop placed in the uterus.
• Surgical: vasectomy (vas deferens blocked in males) and tubectomy (fallopian tube blocked in females) — permanent, no STD protection.
• STDs: bacterial — gonorrhoea, syphilis; viral — warts, HIV-AIDS.
• Spread of disease: TB — air (bacterium); typhoid — food and water (bacterium); malaria — female Anopheles mosquito (protozoan Plasmodium).
Also asked from this topic: a limitation of surgical contraception (it does not prevent sexually transmitted infections).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q152. Which of the following is true about asexual reproduction?

  1. (a) It requires complex reproductive organs.
  2. (b) It requires fertilisation.
  3. (c) It involves two parent organisms.
  4. (d) It results in offspring genetically identical to the parent.
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) It results in offspring genetically identical to the parent.

Answer: Option 4 — It results in offspring genetically identical to the parent.
Asexual reproduction uses a single parent and no gametes, so the offspring are copies (clones) of the parent.
The other three options describe sexual reproduction.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Fission: binary in Amoeba, Paramecium; multiple in Plasmodium.
• Budding: Hydra, yeast.
• Fragmentation: Spirogyra; regeneration: Planaria, Hydra.
• Spore formation: Rhizopus (bread mould) — spores in sporangia.
• Vegetative propagation: potato (stem), Bryophyllum (leaf), sugarcane, rose (cutting).
• No fertilisation, no meiosis — so little variation; variation arises only from small DNA copying errors.
Do not mix these up
• Asexual vs sexual — one parent, no gametes, identical offspring vs two parents, gametes fuse, variation.
Also asked from this topic: what Amoeba, yeast and Hydra reproducing with one parent shows (no fusion of gametes); a benefit of vegetative propagation (genetically identical plants).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q153. Besides being a barrier method of contraception, condoms also serve which of the following purposes?

  1. (a) Help in transmission of STDs such as gonorrhoea
  2. (b) Prevent diseases that spread through skin-to-skin contact
  3. (c) Decrease sexual desire
  4. (d) Prevent transmission of STDs such as gonorrhoea
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Prevent transmission of STDs such as gonorrhoea

Answer: Option 4 — Prevent transmission of STDs such as gonorrhoea
A condom forms a physical barrier between partners, so it blocks sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV-AIDS.
Revision note — Sexually transmitted diseases
• Bacterial STDs: gonorrhoea, syphilis.
• Viral STDs: genital warts, HIV-AIDS.
• Condom — the only contraceptive that gives dual protection: against pregnancy and STDs.
• Copper-T, oral pills and surgery prevent pregnancy but give no protection against STDs.
• HIV attacks the immune system (helper T-cells); spread by unsafe sex, infected blood, shared needles, and from mother to child.
Also asked from this topic: a limitation of surgical contraception (it does not prevent sexually transmitted infections).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q154. The special reproductive structures in fungi like Rhizopus, which germinate to form new individuals, are called:

  1. (a) Gemmules
  2. (b) Pollens
  3. (c) Spores
  4. (d) Anthers
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Spores

Answer: Option 3 — Spores
In Rhizopus (bread mould) the tiny blob-on-a-stick structures are sporangia, which contain spores. Each spore germinates into a new Rhizopus on a moist surface.
Revision note — Spore formation
• Seen in fungi (Rhizopus, Mucor, Penicillium) and in ferns and mosses.
• Spores are covered by a thick protective wall — they survive until they reach a moist surface.
• Warm and moist conditions favour spore germination — that is why bread moulds in the rainy season.
• Yeast reproduces mainly by budding, not spores.
• Spore formation is asexual — one parent, no gametes.
Do not mix these up
• Gemmules vs spores — gemmules are the internal buds of sponges; spores are the reproductive bodies of fungi.
• Pollen and anthers belong to flowering plants — pollen grains form in the anther of the stamen.
Also asked from this topic: the organism that does not reproduce by spore formation (yeast — it buds); conditions that favour fungal spore germination (warm and moist).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q155. Which of the following is a primary reason why all multi-cellular organisms do not reproduce by fragmentation?

  1. (a) Their cells are loosely organised.
  2. (b) They have a random arrangement of cells.
  3. (c) They have specialised cells organised into tissues and organs.
  4. (d) They are unicellular.
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) They have specialised cells organised into tissues and organs.

Answer: Option 3 — They have specialised cells organised into tissues and organs.
A complex multicellular body is not a random collection of cells. Its specialised cells form tissues, and tissues form organs, each at a fixed place.
A broken fragment lacks most of these, so it cannot grow into a whole organism.
Revision note — Asexual reproduction in multicellular organisms
• Fragmentation: a simple multicellular body breaks into pieces and each piece grows into a new individual — Spirogyra.
• Regeneration: a cut part rebuilds the whole body using specialised cells that divide and differentiate — Planaria, Hydra.
• Budding: an outgrowth forms from regenerative cells and detaches — Hydra; in unicellular yeast too.
• Spore formation: sporangia release spores — Rhizopus (bread mould).
• Vegetative propagation in plants — roots, stems or leaves (Bryophyllum leaf buds, potato, sugarcane, rose).
• Complex organisms therefore rely on specialised reproductive cells and systems instead of simple fragmentation.
Also asked from this topic: what single-parent reproduction in Amoeba, yeast and Hydra shows (no fusion of gametes); why multicellular organisms need specialised systems (inner cells lack contact with the outside).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 2 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q156. In surgical procedures for contraception in males, sperm transfer gets prevented if which of the following is blocked?

  1. (a) Testes
  2. (b) Ovary
  3. (c) Vas deferens
  4. (d) Fallopian tubes
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Vas deferens

Answer: Option 3 — Vas deferens
In the male surgical method (vasectomy) the vas deferens is cut and tied, so sperms made in the testes cannot reach the urethra.
Ovary and fallopian tubes belong to the female system.
Revision note — Contraception and the male reproductive system (Class 10)
• Vasectomy — vas deferens blocked (male); tubectomy — fallopian tube (oviduct) blocked (female).
• Barrier methods — condoms; the only methods that also protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
• Hormonal methods — oral pills change the hormonal balance so that eggs are not released.
• Copper-T / loop — placed in the uterus to prevent pregnancy.
• Testes make sperms and testosterone; they lie in the scrotum because sperm formation needs a temperature lower than body temperature.
• Sperms travel through the vas deferens to the urethra; seminal vesicles and the prostate gland add fluid that makes up the semen.
Do not mix these up
• Vasectomy vs tubectomy — "vas" = male (vas deferens); "tube" = female (fallopian tube).
Also asked from this topic: a limitation of surgical contraception (it does not prevent sexually transmitted diseases); the structure that is not part of the male reproductive system (fallopian tube).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q157. Contraception is one of the main goals of which health care programme?

  1. (a) Mental Health Programme
  2. (b) Pulse Polio Programme
  3. (c) Indradhanush Immunisation Programme
  4. (d) Reproductive Health Programme
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Reproductive Health Programme

Answer: Option 4 — Reproductive Health Programme
India's Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme aims at a reproductively healthy society, and family planning through contraception is one of its main goals.
Revision note — Reproductive health and contraception
• India launched its family planning programme in 1952 — the first country to do so at the national level.
• It was widened into the Reproductive and Child Health Care (RCH) programme in 1997.
• Barrier methods — condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps; they also protect against STDs.
• Hormonal methods — oral pills and injections that stop ovulation.
• IUDs — Copper-T placed in the uterus prevents implantation.
• Surgical methods — vasectomy (males, vas deferens cut) and tubectomy (females, fallopian tubes cut); they give no protection against STDs.
Do not mix these up
• Pulse Polio vs Indradhanush — both are immunisation drives (polio; many vaccine-preventable diseases), not family planning.
Also asked from this topic: the year India launched its national family planning programme (1952); a limitation of surgical sterilisation (no protection against STDs); help for blocked oviducts (IVF).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q158. Which of the following is NOT a method of pollination?

  1. (a) Asexual pollination
  2. (b) Self-pollination
  3. (c) Wind pollination
  4. (d) Water pollination
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Asexual pollination

Answer: Option 1 — Asexual pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma — a step of sexual reproduction.
So there is no such thing as "asexual pollination".
Revision note — Pollination
• Self-pollination — pollen reaches the stigma of the same flower or another flower of the same plant.
• Cross-pollination — pollen reaches the stigma of a flower on a different plant of the same species; it creates variation.
• Agents of cross-pollination: wind (anemophily), water (hydrophily), insects (entomophily), birds (ornithophily), animals (zoophily).
• Wind-pollinated flowers make light, dry pollen in large amounts and have feathery stigmas (maize, grasses).
• Insect-pollinated flowers are large, brightly coloured, scented and have nectar and sticky pollen.
• After pollination, fertilisation — the fusion of male and female gametes — forms the zygote.
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination is transfer of pollen; fertilisation is fusion of gametes.
Also asked from this topic: Pollination : transfer of pollen :: Fertilisation : ? (fusion of gametes); a feature NOT found in insect-pollinated flowers (light, small pollen in very large numbers).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q159. What is the purpose of using devices like Copper-T in family planning?

  1. (a) To alter hormonal levels in women
  2. (b) To block sperm transfer in males
  3. (c) To prevent fertilised eggs from implanting in the uterus
  4. (d) To act as a physical barrier to sperm
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) To prevent fertilised eggs from implanting in the uterus

Answer: Option 3 — To prevent fertilised eggs from implanting in the uterus
A Copper-T is an intra-uterine device (IUD) placed inside the uterus.
It stops a fertilised egg from getting implanted in the uterine wall, so pregnancy does not begin.
Revision note — Methods of contraception
• Barrier methods — condom, diaphragm, cervical cap; stop sperm reaching the egg; condoms also protect against STDs.
• Hormonal (chemical) methods — oral pills change the hormonal balance so that eggs are not released.
• Intra-uterine devices — loop or Copper-T placed in the uterus; copper ions also make sperm less active.
• Surgical methods — vasectomy (the vas deferens is blocked in males), tubectomy (the fallopian tube is blocked in females).
• Surgery prevents pregnancy but gives no protection against sexually transmitted diseases.
• IUDs can cause side effects such as irritation of the uterus.
Do not mix these up
• Copper-T vs oral pill — the Copper-T works inside the uterus; the pill works by changing hormones.
Also asked from this topic: a limitation of vasectomy or tubectomy (it does not prevent sexually transmitted diseases); the technique used when a woman's oviducts are blocked (in vitro fertilisation).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q160. A tube like structure grows down from the pollen grain to the style and reaches the ovule. This pollen tube is responsible for:

  1. (a) carrying carbon dioxide to the female germ cell in the ovary
  2. (b) carrying oxygen to the female germ cell in the ovary
  3. (c) carrying nutrition to the female germ cell in the ovary
  4. (d) carrying the male germ cell to the female germ cell in the ovary
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) carrying the male germ cell to the female germ cell in the ovary

Answer: Option 4 — carrying the male germ cell to the female germ cell in the ovary
After pollination a pollen tube grows out of the pollen grain, down through the style, to the ovule.
It carries the male germ cell to the female germ cell (egg) so that fertilisation can take place.
Revision note — Pollination and fertilisation in plants
• Pollination — transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma; self-pollination (same flower) or cross-pollination (another flower).
• Agents of cross-pollination: wind, water, insects, birds.
• Fertilisation — fusion of the male and female germ cells inside the ovule to form a zygote.
• After fertilisation: zygote → embryo, ovule → seed, ovary → fruit.
• Petals, sepals and stamens usually wither and fall off after fertilisation.
• The pollen tube grows towards the ovule in response to chemicals — an example of chemotropism.
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination transfers pollen; fertilisation is the fusion of gametes.
Also asked from this topic: growth of the pollen tube towards the ovule is an example of (chemotropism); fertilisation means (fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q161. Rose flower pollen has reached Sunflower stigma through pollination. The pollen will be rejected by the stigma because:

  1. (a) pollen has nothing to do with stigma
  2. (b) pollen was of rose flower
  3. (c) stigma has nothing to do with pollen
  4. (d) pollen was not of sunflower
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) pollen was not of sunflower

Answer: Option 4 — pollen was not of sunflower
The stigma recognises and accepts only compatible pollen of its own species.
Rose pollen is of a different species, so the sunflower stigma rejects it and no pollen tube grows to the ovule.
Revision note — Flower and pollination
• Stamen (male) = anther + filament; the anther makes pollen grains.
• Pistil / carpel (female) = stigma + style + ovary; the ovary holds ovules.
• The stigma is sticky — it catches pollen and checks whether it is compatible.
• Only right-species pollen germinates on the stigma and grows a pollen tube.
• Unisexual flowers (papaya, watermelon) have only stamens or only pistil; bisexual flowers (hibiscus, mustard) have both.
Also asked from this topic: the female reproductive part made of stigma, style and ovary (gynoecium / pistil); pollination means (transfer of pollen from anther to stigma).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q162. Leishmania reproduces by:

  1. (a) binary fission in only vertical planes
  2. (b) binary fission in any plane
  3. (c) binary fission in two equal halves
  4. (d) binary fission in a definite plane
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) binary fission in a definite plane

Answer: Option 4 — binary fission in a definite plane
Leishmania has a whip-like structure (flagellum) at one end of the cell.
So its binary fission takes place in a definite orientation relative to this structure.
Revision note — Fission in unicellular organisms
• Binary fission — one cell divides into two daughter cells, e.g. Amoeba, Paramecium, Leishmania.
• Amoeba can split in any plane; Leishmania splits in a definite plane.
• Multiple fission — one cell divides into many daughter cells at once, e.g. Plasmodium.
• Leishmania causes kala-azar, spread by the sand fly; Plasmodium causes malaria, spread by the female Anopheles mosquito.
• Fission, budding, fragmentation and spore formation are asexual — a single parent, no gametes.
Do not mix these up
• Amoeba vs Leishmania — Amoeba: fission in any plane; Leishmania: fission in a definite plane.
Also asked from this topic: the feature common to binary fission in Amoeba and budding in yeast (no fusion of gametes); the kind of organism that causes malaria (protozoan, Plasmodium).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q163. Yeast reproduces through which asexual mode of reproduction?

  1. (a) Fusion
  2. (b) Budding
  3. (c) Fission
  4. (d) Vegetative propagation
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Budding

Answer: Option 2 — Budding
In yeast, a small bud grows out of the parent cell as an outgrowth.
The bud grows, detaches and becomes a new yeast cell.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Budding — a bud develops at one spot and separates; yeast and Hydra.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Paramecium; multiple fission — Plasmodium.
• Fragmentation — the body breaks into pieces, each grows into a new organism; Spirogyra.
• Spore formation — spores in sporangia; Rhizopus (bread mould).
• Vegetative propagation — new plants from root, stem or leaf; Bryophyllum, potato, rose.
• Yeast is a unicellular fungus; it respires anaerobically to give ethanol and carbon dioxide (fermentation).
Do not mix these up
• Budding in Hydra vs yeast — Hydra is multicellular (bud from regenerative cells); yeast is unicellular.
Also asked from this topic: what binary fission in Amoeba and budding in yeast and Hydra have in common (no fusion of gametes); the products of anaerobic respiration in yeast (ethanol and carbon dioxide).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 17 December 2024 Shift 3 · Vegetative propagation

Q164. Which part of the Bryophyllum plant develops new plants via vegetative propagation?

  1. (a) Leaves
  2. (b) Roots
  3. (c) Flowers
  4. (d) Stems
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Leaves

Answer: Option 1 — Leaves
Bryophyllum (patharchatta) has buds in the notches along the margin of its leaves.
When a leaf falls on moist soil, these buds grow into new plants — vegetative propagation by leaf.
Revision note — Vegetative propagation
• Vegetative propagation = new plants from roots, stems or leaves, without seeds; the offspring are genetically identical to the parent.
• Leaf: Bryophyllum (buds on leaf margin).
• Stem: potato (tuber, the eyes are buds), ginger and turmeric (rhizome), onion (bulb), sugarcane, rose (cuttings), grass (runner).
• Root: sweet potato, dahlia, guava.
• Artificial methods: cutting, layering, grafting (mango, citrus) and tissue culture (orchids, ornamental plants).
• Useful for plants that have lost the capacity to produce seeds — banana, orange, rose, jasmine.
Do not mix these up
• Bryophyllum vs potato — Bryophyllum reproduces from leaves; potato from a stem (tuber), not a root.
Also asked from this topic: the incorrect statement about vegetative propagation (new plants arise from seeds); why farmers use cutting and grafting (genetically identical plants).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 1 · Pollination and fertilisation in plants

Q165. Self pollination is possible only in:

  1. (a) bisexual flowers with both stamens and pistil maturing at the different time
  2. (b) unisexual flowers with pistil maturing first
  3. (c) bisexual flowers with both stamens and pistil maturing at the same time
  4. (d) unisexual flowers with stamen maturing first
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) bisexual flowers with both stamens and pistil maturing at the same time

Answer: Option 3 — bisexual flowers with both stamens and pistil maturing at the same time
Self-pollination means pollen reaches the stigma of the same flower.
So the flower must carry both stamens and pistil (bisexual), and both must be ripe at the same time (homogamy).
Revision note — Pollination
• Pollination — transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma.
• Self-pollination — within the same flower or another flower of the same plant; e.g. pea, wheat, rice.
• Cross-pollination — pollen reaches a flower on a different plant of the same species; agents: wind, water, insects, birds.
• Bisexual flowers have both stamens and pistil (hibiscus, mustard); unisexual flowers have only one (papaya, watermelon).
• Unisexual flowers can never self-pollinate within the flower — they need cross-pollination.
• Dichogamy (stamens and pistil maturing at different times) prevents self-pollination and favours cross-pollination.
• After pollination, fertilisation — fusion of male and female gametes — forms the zygote.
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination is transfer of pollen; fertilisation is fusion of gametes.
Also asked from this topic: the difference between pollination and fertilisation (fertilisation is the fusion of gametes); a feature of wind-pollinated flowers (light, small pollen produced in very large numbers).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 1 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q166. Which of the following is NOT an agent of dispersal of seeds?

  1. (a) Sunlight
  2. (b) Water
  3. (c) Wind
  4. (d) Animal
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Sunlight

Answer: Option 1 — Sunlight
Seeds are carried away by wind, water and animals (and some by the bursting of fruits).
Sunlight is needed for the seedling to make food, but it cannot move a seed.
Revision note — Dispersal of seeds
• Why disperse: it avoids competition with the parent plant for sunlight, water and minerals and lets the plant reach new habitats.
• Wind: light or winged seeds — drumstick, maple; hairy seeds — madar (aak), sunflower, cotton.
• Water: seeds with spongy or fibrous coats that float — coconut, lotus.
• Animals: spiny or hooked seeds cling to fur — Xanthium, Urena; fleshy fruits are eaten and seeds passed out.
• Explosion: fruits burst open and throw seeds — castor, balsam.
• After fertilisation the ovary becomes the fruit and the ovules become the seeds.
Also asked from this topic: why angiosperms are more widespread than gymnosperms (fruits enclose and help disperse seeds).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 1 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q167. What are regenerative cells used by Hydra for?

  1. (a) Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction by budding.
  2. (b) Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction by spore formation.
  3. (c) Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction by fragmentation.
  4. (d) Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction by sexual reproduction.
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction by budding.

Answer: Option 1 — Hydra uses regenerative cells for reproduction by budding.
In Hydra, regenerative cells divide repeatedly at one spot to form an outgrowth — a bud.
The bud grows into a tiny Hydra and detaches from the parent when mature.
Revision note — Asexual reproduction in single-parent organisms
• Budding — Hydra, yeast; a bud forms on the parent and becomes a new individual.
• Regeneration — Hydra and Planaria can grow a whole body from a cut piece, using specialised cells.
• Binary fission — Amoeba, Paramecium; multiple fission — Plasmodium (malaria parasite).
• Fragmentation — Spirogyra; the filament breaks and each piece grows.
• Spore formation — Rhizopus (bread mould); spores sit in sporangia.
• All these give offspring genetically similar to the one parent.
Do not mix these up
• Budding vs regeneration — both occur in Hydra; budding is its normal mode of reproduction; regeneration is regrowth from a cut piece.
Also asked from this topic: what reproduction in Amoeba, yeast and Hydra with one parent shows (it occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 1 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q168. Which of the following is a method of reproduction in plants, where only a single parent is involved?

  1. (a) Sexual reproduction
  2. (b) Fertilisation
  3. (c) Pollination
  4. (d) Asexual reproduction
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Asexual reproduction

Answer: Option 4 — Asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction needs only one parent and no fusion of gametes, so the offspring are copies of the parent.
Sexual reproduction, pollination and fertilisation all involve two parents or gametes.
Revision note — Asexual reproduction in plants
• Vegetative propagation — new plants from root, stem or leaf: potato (tuber), ginger (rhizome), Bryophyllum (leaf buds), rose / sugarcane (stem cuttings).
• Artificial methods: cutting, layering, grafting, and tissue culture (micropropagation).
• Spore formation — Rhizopus (bread mould), ferns, mosses.
• Fragmentation — Spirogyra.
• Offspring are genetically identical (clones) — useful traits are kept; plants like banana, orange, rose, jasmine that lose seed-making power are grown this way.
• Drawback: no variation, so less ability to adapt.
Do not mix these up
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination is transfer of pollen to the stigma; fertilisation is fusion of male and female gametes — both are steps of sexual reproduction.
Also asked from this topic: why farmers use cutting, grafting and tissue culture (genetically identical plants); what one-parent reproduction in Amoeba, yeast and Hydra shows (it occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q169. Which of the following is true regarding the bud development process in Hydra?

  1. (a) Cell divisions at one site
  2. (b) Splitting of nucleus
  3. (c) Splitting of cytoplasm
  4. (d) Formation of spore
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Cell divisions at one site

Answer: Option 1 — Cell divisions at one site
In Hydra, a bud grows as an outgrowth because of repeated cell division at one specific site; it matures into a tiny Hydra and detaches from the parent.
Revision note — Modes of asexual reproduction
• Budding: Hydra (regenerative cells) and yeast.
• Binary fission: Amoeba (any plane), Leishmania (a definite plane, due to its flagellum).
• Multiple fission: Plasmodium (malarial parasite) — many daughter cells at once.
• Fragmentation: Spirogyra — each fragment grows into a new filament.
• Regeneration: Planaria and Hydra — a cut piece rebuilds the whole body.
• Spore formation: Rhizopus (bread mould) — spores in sporangia.
• Asexual reproduction has one parent and no gametes, so offspring are near-copies of the parent.
Do not mix these up
• Budding vs regeneration in Hydra — budding is normal reproduction from one site; regeneration is rebuilding from a cut piece.
Also asked from this topic: what Amoeba, yeast and Hydra show about asexual reproduction (it occurs without fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Flower structure and sexual reproduction in plants

Q170. What is the role of the stigma in the process of fertilisation?

  1. (a) Developing into a seed
  2. (b) Producing pollen
  3. (c) Fusing with the egg cell
  4. (d) Serving as the site where pollen lands
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Serving as the site where pollen lands

Answer: Option 4 — Serving as the site where pollen lands
The stigma is the sticky tip of the carpel (pistil).
Pollen grains land and stick here; a pollen tube then grows down the style to the ovule in the ovary.
Revision note — Parts of a flower and fertilisation
• Stamen (male) = anther + filament; the anther makes pollen grains.
• Carpel / pistil (female) = stigma + style + ovary; the ovary holds ovules, each with an egg cell.
• Pollination — transfer of pollen from anther to stigma: self-pollination (same flower) or cross-pollination (another flower, by wind, water, insects).
• Fertilisation — the male germ cell fuses with the egg cell inside the ovule, forming the zygote.
• After fertilisation: ovule → seed, ovary → fruit, zygote → embryo; petals, sepals, stamens, style and stigma wither.
• Bisexual flowers have both stamens and carpels (hibiscus, mustard); unisexual flowers have one (papaya, watermelon).
Do not mix these up
• Stigma vs style — the stigma receives pollen; the style is the stalk the pollen tube grows through.
• Pollination vs fertilisation — pollination is the transfer of pollen; fertilisation is the fusion of gametes.
Also asked from this topic: the female reproductive part of a flower (gynoecium / pistil); what fertilisation is, as against pollination (fusion of gametes).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Fertilisation, embryo development and pregnancy

Q171. Which of the following helps a developing embryo to expel waste products in case of humans?

  1. (a) Placenta
  2. (b) Ovary
  3. (c) Cervix
  4. (d) Oviduct
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Placenta

Answer: Option 1 — Placenta
The placenta is a disc-shaped tissue embedded in the uterine wall that links the embryo to the mother.
Wastes made by the embryo pass through it into the mother's blood for removal.
Revision note — Placenta and development of the embryo
• Fertilisation takes place in the oviduct (fallopian tube); the zygote then implants in the uterus lining.
• The placenta has villi on the embryo's side, giving a large surface area for exchange.
• Mother → embryo: glucose, oxygen and other nutrients.
• Embryo → mother: carbon dioxide and other wastes.
• The embryo's blood and the mother's blood do not mix — exchange is across the placental tissue.
• The placenta also secretes hormones that maintain pregnancy.
• Development takes about 9 months (about 40 weeks); zygote → embryo → foetus.
Do not mix these up
• Placenta vs oviduct — the oviduct is where fertilisation happens; the placenta feeds the embryo and removes its wastes.
Also asked from this topic: the immunity a foetus gets from maternal antibodies through the placenta (passive natural immunity); the order of development (zygote → embryo → foetus).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Reproduction in animals

Q172. Which of the following is called a motile germ cell?

  1. (a) Male gamete
  2. (b) Embryo
  3. (c) Zygote
  4. (d) Female gamete
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Male gamete

Answer: Option 1 — Male gamete
The male germ cell (sperm) is small and motile — it has a long tail to swim towards the egg.
The female germ cell (egg) is larger, stores food, and does not move.
Revision note — Germ cells (gametes)
• Gametes are reproductive cells formed by meiosis; each has half the chromosomes (in humans 23).
• Sperm are made in the testes; the egg (ovum) is made in the ovaries.
• Sperm have a head (nucleus), a middle piece (mitochondria for energy) and a tail for movement.
• Fusion of male and female gametes = fertilisation; the product is the zygote (46 chromosomes in humans).
• In humans fertilisation takes place in the oviduct (fallopian tube).
• In flowering plants the male germ cell is carried in the pollen grain and reaches the ovule through the pollen tube.
Do not mix these up
• Gamete vs zygote — the gamete is a single sex cell; the zygote is the fused cell formed after fertilisation. The embryo develops from the zygote.
Also asked from this topic: the name for reproductive cells such as sperm and eggs (gametes); fertilisation as against pollination (fusion of gametes); the organ that produces eggs (ovaries).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q173. After fertilisation, the zygote divides multiple times to form which structure within the ovule?

  1. (a) Seed
  2. (b) Embryo
  3. (c) Fruit
  4. (d) Style
Answer & solution

Answer: (b) Embryo

Answer: Option 2 — Embryo
The zygote divides many times by mitosis to form the embryo inside the ovule.
The ovule as a whole later becomes the seed; the embryo is the part inside it.
Revision note — Changes in a flower after fertilisation
• Zygote → embryo
• Ovule → seed (its coat hardens into the seed coat)
• Ovary → fruit; the ovary wall becomes the pericarp
• Petals, sepals, stamens, style and stigma usually wither and fall off.
• The seed holds the future plant (embryo); the embryo has a plumule (future shoot), a radicle (future root) and cotyledons (stored food).
• The seed grows into a new plant under suitable conditions — germination.
Do not mix these up
• Embryo vs seed — the embryo develops from the zygote; the seed develops from the ovule and contains the embryo.
Also asked from this topic: the order of development in human gestation (zygote → embryo → foetus); the process that forms the zygote (fusion of gametes, fertilisation).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q174. What is the thread-like structure in Rhizopus?

  1. (a) Blobs
  2. (b) Spores
  3. (c) Hyphae
  4. (d) Sporangia
Answer & solution

Answer: (c) Hyphae

Answer: Option 3 — Hyphae
The body of Rhizopus (bread mould) is made of fine thread-like filaments called hyphae.
The knob-like structures on the erect hyphae are sporangia, which hold the spores.
Revision note — Spore formation in Rhizopus
• Rhizopus is a fungus that grows on moist bread as a white-grey cotton-like mass.
• Hyphae — thread-like filaments; a mass of hyphae is a mycelium.
• Sporangia — round blobs at the tips of erect hyphae; each contains many spores.
• Spores have a thick protective wall; they survive until they reach a moist surface and then germinate.
• Spore formation is a type of asexual reproduction (single parent, no gametes).
• Other asexual methods: binary fission (Amoeba), budding (Hydra, yeast), fragmentation (Spirogyra), regeneration (Planaria).
Do not mix these up
• Hyphae vs sporangia — hyphae are the threads; sporangia are the spore cases at their tips.
Also asked from this topic: how bread moulds feed (digest food outside the body, then absorb it); best conditions for fungal growth (warm and moist).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Seed, fruit and germination

Q175. What is the final product of sexual reproduction in plants?

  1. (a) Flowers
  2. (b) Leaves
  3. (c) Fruits
  4. (d) Seeds
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) Seeds

Answer: Option 4 — Seeds
Sexual reproduction ends with the zygote, which grows into the embryo.
The embryo is packed inside the seed (from the ovule) — the seed is the new generation that grows into a plant.
Revision note — Changes after fertilisation in a flower
• Zygote → embryo; ovule → seed; ovary → fruit; ovary wall → pericarp.
• Sepals, petals, stamens, style and stigma usually wither and fall off.
• A seed has an embryo (plumule + radicle), cotyledons (stored food) and a protective seed coat.
• Plumule grows into the shoot; radicle grows into the root.
• Germination needs water, air (oxygen) and a suitable temperature — not light.
• The fruit protects the seeds and helps in their dispersal.
Do not mix these up
• Seed vs fruit — the seed carries the embryo (next generation); the fruit is only the ripened ovary that holds the seeds.
Also asked from this topic: the part of a plant primarily responsible for sexual reproduction in angiosperms (flower).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Reproductive health and contraception

Q176. Why might surgical family planning methods be risky if not done correctly?

  1. (a) They may cause hormonal side effects.
  2. (b) They might prevent ovulation.
  3. (c) They can increase fertility.
  4. (d) They can lead to infections or complications.
Answer & solution

Answer: (d) They can lead to infections or complications.

Answer: Option 4 — They can lead to infections or complications.
Surgical methods block the vas deferens or the fallopian tube by an operation.
NCERT notes they are safe in the long run but can cause infection and other problems if not done properly.
Revision note — Methods of contraception
• Barrier methods — condoms, diaphragm; they block sperm and also protect against STDs.
• Hormonal (chemical) methods — oral pills change the hormonal balance so that eggs are not released; may have side effects.
• Intrauterine devices — Copper-T or loop placed in the uterus; can cause side effects due to irritation of the uterus.
• Surgical methods — vasectomy (males: vas deferens blocked, sperm transfer stopped) and tubectomy (females: fallopian tube blocked, egg does not reach the uterus).
• Surgical methods are permanent in practice and give no protection against STDs.
• Birth control helps keep the population in check; female foeticide is prohibited and the sex-selective use of prenatal tests is banned by law.
Do not mix these up
• Pills vs surgery — hormonal side effects and stopping ovulation belong to oral pills; the risk with surgery is infection or complications from a badly done operation.
Also asked from this topic: a limitation of permanent surgical contraception (does not prevent infections).
RRB JE CBT-1 2024-25 – 16 December 2024 Shift 3 · Asexual reproduction (fission, budding, fragmentation, spores)

Q177. In plants, spore formation is a mode of reproduction that involves the production of spores. Which of the following statements about spore formation is true?

  1. (a) Spores are produced by non-flowering plants like ferns and mosses, and they grow into new plants.
  2. (b) Spores are a form of vegetative propagation in angiosperms only.
  3. (c) Spores are produced by flowers, and they grow into seeds.
  4. (d) Spores are formed through sexual reproduction in plants.
Answer & solution

Answer: (a) Spores are produced by non-flowering plants like ferns and mosses, and they grow into new plants.

Answer: Option 1 — Spores are produced by non-flowering plants like ferns and mosses, and they grow into new plants.
Spore formation is an asexual method.
Non-flowering plants such as ferns (pteridophytes) and mosses (bryophytes), and fungi, release spores that germinate directly into new individuals.
Revision note — Spore formation
• Spores are formed in sporangia — the knob-like structures on the hyphae of Rhizopus (bread mould).
• Each spore has a thick protective wall that lets it survive unfavourable conditions until it finds a moist surface.
• Spores are light and spread by air, so the organism reaches new places.
• Ferns carry spore sacs (sori) on the underside of their leaves; mosses bear spores in a capsule.
• Other asexual methods: fission (Amoeba, Leishmania, Plasmodium), budding (Hydra, yeast), fragmentation (Spirogyra), regeneration (Planaria).
• Flowering plants reproduce sexually through seeds; spores are not a form of vegetative propagation.
Do not mix these up
• Spore vs seed — a spore is a single cell formed asexually with no stored food or embryo; a seed has an embryo and stored food and comes from sexual reproduction.
Also asked from this topic: the plant group with vascular tissue but no seeds (Pteridophyta); what asexual reproduction in Amoeba, yeast and Hydra shows (it occurs without fusion of gametes).
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