OCR GCSE Biology A (Gateway) Paper 2 Foundation June 2024 question paper J247/02

Which process in the water cycle involves water moving from clouds to the ground?

A Evaporation

B Precipitation

C Run off

D Transpiration

Your answer

Which of these is a communicable disease?

A Cirrhosis of the liver

B Coronary heart disease

C Diabetes

D Tuberculosis

Your answer

The diagram shows a food chain.

How much energy is lost between the producer and primary consumer?

A 400 kJ

B 4400 kJ

C 4500 kJ

D 4900 kJ

Your answer

Many plants can reproduce either asexually or sexually.

What is a feature of sexual reproduction?

A All the offspring are better adapted to the environment.

B More offspring are produced.

C Reproduction is faster.

D The offspring show variation.

Your answer

What is the definition of a population ?

A All the communities that live in a habitat.

B All the different species living in a habitat.

C All the members of one species that live in a habitat.

D All the organisms that live in a habitat.

Your answer

Cystic fibrosis is caused by a recessive allele (f).

The diagram shows a genetic cross.

Which percentage of the offspring have cystic fibrosis?

A 25%

B 50%

C 75%

D 100%

Your answer

Scientists use molecular phylogenetics to classify a newly discovered animal.

What features do the scientists use in their classification?

A The number of bones in the limbs

B The sequence of the DNA

C The type of circulatory system

D Where in the cell respiration occurs

Your answer

Using stem cells to treat disease is a new technique in medicine.

What is an ethical issue with this process?

A Embryos may be destroyed in the process.

B It is very expensive.

C It needs highly trained doctors.

D Some patients may need repeat treatments.

Your answer

Modern dairy cows are produced by selective breeding.

This involves only some of the female cows breeding with male bulls.

What decides which cows breed during selective breeding?

A The bull chooses which cow to mate with.

B The cows best suited to the environment will breed.

C The farmers choose which cows breed.

D Which cows breed is a random process.

Your answer

Which sex chromosomes are found in human egg cells?

A All egg cells have one X chromosome.

B All egg cells have one Y chromosome.

C All egg cells have two X chromosomes.

D Egg cells have either an X chromosome or a Y chromosome.

Your answer

What is the link between HIV and tuberculosis?

A Both HIV and tuberculosis increase the risk of cervical cancer.

B HIV infection increases the risk of getting tuberculosis.

C HIV is the virus that causes tuberculosis.

D Patients with tuberculosis are more likely to be infected with HIV.

Your answer

Mendel discovered some of the principles of genetics.

He crossed tall pea plants with short pea plants.

All the offspring were tall.

How did Mendel explain this result?

A Offspring are always taller than the parent plant.

B Several genes control the height of the pea plants.

C The height of the pea plants is a mixture of tall and short.

D The instructions for short pea plants are recessive so do not show.

Your answer

Which row shows correct abiotic and biotic factors?

Your answer

Which process can make new alleles?

A Evolution

B Mutation

C Selective breeding

D Specialisation

Your answer

Different cells in the human body are important in defence against disease.

Draw lines to join each type of cell to its correct function.

Type of cell
Function

Vaccinations are used to protect us from diseases.

Complete this sentence about vaccinations.

Vaccinations help the body protect itself because they contain........

or........ forms of a pathogen.

Complete the table using the information in the diagram.

Explain why the results of this investigation are important for farmers.

Diseases in plants are caused by different types of pathogens.

Which type of pathogen causes each of these diseases?

Use words from the list.

Bacteria Fungi Protists Virus

Tobacco mosaic disease:........

Crown gall disease:........

Rainy weather in the spring causes more barley plants to be infected with powdery mildew.

Suggest two reasons why. Use the diagram.

The fungus reproduces using spores.

Which type of reproduction uses meiosis to make spores?

Farmers make sure that they clear all the dead barley plants from their fields in the autumn.

Explain why.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic disease.

700 000 babies are born each year in the UK.

35 of these babies are born with SMA.

Calculate the percentage of babies that have SMA.

The diagram shows a family tree which contains some people with SMA.

SMA is caused by a recessive allele.

Use the key to give the phenotype of person A.

People that have SMA cannot produce a protein that is needed for their motor neurones to function.

Explain why person C has difficulty moving their legs.

Researchers have developed a treatment for SMA.

This involves using a virus to insert a replacement gene into the nucleus of motor neurone cells.

Why is the gene inserted into the nucleus of the motor neurone?

Researchers tested this treatment on animals first.

Suggest one reason why they did this.

Mistletoe is a green plant that can often be seen growing high in a tree in winter.

Mistletoe can make its own food but very slowly.

Therefore, it needs to take some food from the tree that it grows on. The tree does not benefit.

Which term describes the mistletoe’s relationship with the tree?

mutualistic partner parasite predator prey

Complete these sentences about how the mistletoe feeds.

Use words from the list.

chlorophyll leaf phloem photosynthesis

respiration starch sunlight xylem

Mistletoe can make some food by........

This is because it contains the green chemical........ which traps energy

from........

The energy is used by the mistletoe to make sugars.

The mistletoe also gets some sugars from the........ tissue of the tree.

The number of elephants living in Africa is decreasing. They are often killed by hunters.

The table shows estimates for the number of elephants in Africa.

Calculate how many times more elephants there were in 1979 compared to in 2015.

Suggest two reasons why it is difficult for scientists to give an accurate estimate for the number of elephants living in Africa.

Elephants are very important for ecotourism in southern Africa.

Explain how ecotourism benefits the elephants and the local people.

Elephants benefit from ecotourism because........

Local people benefit from ecotourism because........

Microorganisms are found in milk.

These microorganisms make enzymes that can cause milk to decompose.

State the name of one type of microorganism that can cause milk to decompose.

Some students design an investigation to see how fast a sample of milk decomposes.

This is the method the students use:

• Pour 20 cm³ of milk into a beaker.

• Keep the beaker at 25 °C.

• Measure the pH of the milk at different times over 72 hours.

Suggest one piece of apparatus the students could use to keep the beaker of milk at a constant temperature.

The students repeated the experiment at two other temperatures.

The table shows the results.

The graph shows the pattern of the students’ results for 15 °C and 35 °C.

Draw a line on the graph to show the pattern at 25 °C.

Complete the sentences to explain the difference between the students’ results at 15 °C and 35 °C.

Milk decomposes........ at 35 °C.

Increasing the temperature increases the........ of the molecules.

This causes more frequent........ between enzymes and the

........ molecules.

In some countries people do not have food security.

This means they do not have enough food to eat.

The table shows the percentage of people that do not get enough food in four different countries.

Draw a bar chart to show the percentage of people that do not get enough food in each of the countries in the table.

* The table shows some information about food security in Haiti and USA.

Write about food security.

In your answer:

• explain biological reasons for why people may be short of food,

• compare the information in the table about food security in Haiti and USA.

How many secondary consumers are in this food web?

Mongooses are described as both predators and competitors of St Lucia racers.

Explain why.

Biomass is lost as it passes through this food web.

egestion growth photosynthesis respiration

Mongooses were introduced into St Lucia by farmers to control pests in their fields.

The mongooses soon spread throughout St Lucia.

• Female mongooses can breed 3 times each year and produce 3 babies each time.

• The St Lucia racer lays about 5 eggs each year.

Explain why the mongooses almost made the snake extinct.

By 1973 the St Lucia racers were thought to be extinct but a small number were found on a small island off the coast of St Lucia.

There was a plan to build a bridge to allow tourists to visit the island.

Suggest why these snakes have survived on the island.

Suggest why scientists are against the plan to build the bridge.

Antibiotics and antiseptics are both used to kill bacteria.

Disinfectants also kill bacteria.

Some students do an experiment to see how well four different disinfectants (A, B, C and D) kill bacteria.

This is the method they use:

• Mix 2 cm³ of each disinfectant solution with liquid nutrient agar.

• Pour each of the mixtures into separate Petri dishes and allow to set.

• Spread bacteria on the surface of the agar.

• Put each Petri dish in an incubator.

Describe how the students should spread bacteria on the surface of the agar.

The students’ teacher told them not to seal the lid on the Petri dishes all the way round with tape.

Explain why.

The diagrams show the Petri dishes after 3 days.

Explain two conclusions the students can make about disinfectants B, C and D from these results.

One of the students said that disinfectant A is equally effective at killing bacteria as disinfectant B.

Explain how the students could improve their experiment to test if that is true.