AQA GCSE Synergy Paper 2: Life and environmental sciences Foundation November 2020 question paper 8465/2F

This question is about gases in the atmosphere.

Table 1 shows the percentage of gases in Earth’s early atmosphere and in Earth’s atmosphere today.

Which gas has the largest percentage in Earth’s atmosphere today?

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What is value X in Table 1 ?

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Describe three differences between Earth’s early atmosphere and Earth’s atmosphere today.

Use Table 1.

What released the gases into Earth’s early atmosphere?

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One of the other gases in Earth’s atmosphere today is water vapour.

Water can exist in three different states of matter.

Figure 1 shows the different states of water.

Name processes A and B.

Water vapour precipitates as rain.

Name one other form of precipitation of water from the atmosphere.

Do not refer to rain in your answer.

Figure 2 shows the rainfall from March to September in the UK.

What was the rainfall in the month of April?

Describe the pattern in rainfall between March and September.

Include data from Figure 2 in your answer.

Figure 3 shows a food chain.

Draw one line from each description to the organism in the food chain.

Which word describes the total number of crabs in this habitat?

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Explain what will happen to the number of loggerhead turtles if there are fewer crabs.

Use information from Figure 3.

What type of factor is a new predator?

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Female loggerhead turtles lay their eggs on sandy beaches.

Scientists recorded data about turtles on one beach.

Figure 4 shows:

• the number of eggs each turtle laid

• the length of the turtle that laid the eggs.

Describe the trend in the data on Figure 4.

Female loggerhead turtles return to the same beach each year to lay their eggs.

Global warming is causing the sea level to rise.

Explain the effect that sea levels rising might have on the number of loggerhead turtles.

Greenhouse gases are one cause of global warming.

Methane is a greenhouse gas.

The concentration of methane in the atmosphere was:

• 720 arbitrary units in 1840

• 1872 arbitrary units in 2018.

How many times greater was the concentration of methane in the atmosphere in 2018 than in 1840?

Which two human activities cause an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?

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Diabetes is a condition where the concentration of sugar in the blood can become too high.

Which chemical decreases the concentration of sugar in the blood?

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Which organ monitors and controls the concentration of sugar in the blood?

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A company produces two breakfast cereals.

In a 30 g serving:

cereal A contains 11 g of sugar

cereal B contains 25% less sugar than cereal A.

Calculate 25% of 11 g

Calculate the mass of sugar in a 30 g serving of cereal B.

Use your answer from Question 03.3.

Decreasing sugar in the diet can help prevent Type 2 diabetes.

Give one other health benefit of eating less sugar.

Taking regular exercise can improve health.

Table 2 shows how walking quickly or running may reduce the risk of developing different medical conditions.

The greater the percentage reduction in risk, the less chance there is of developing the medical condition.

Compare the effects of walking quickly with the effects of running on the medical conditions given in Table 2.

This question is about breathing and respiration.

What is the equation for aerobic respiration?

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Figure 5 shows part of the human breathing system.

Name X and Y shown in Figure 5.

Choose answers from the box.

Structure X has adaptations for efficient gas exchange.

Give one adaptation of structure X.

Figure 6 shows a person using a peak flow meter.

Peak flow is how quickly air can be breathed out of the lungs.

Table 3 shows the peak flow of four students.

Asthma is a condition that causes the muscles in the walls of the airways to contract.

What effect will the contracting muscles have on the size of the airways?

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Which student in Table 3 is most likely to have asthma?

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Table 3 shows that each student has a different peak flow.

Suggest two factors that may affect peak flow.

Do not refer to asthma in your answer.

A student measured her breathing rate before exercise and after exercise.

Table 4 shows the results.

Explain the effect of exercise on breathing rate.

This question is about contraception.

Draw one line from each method of contraception to how the method works.

Which method of contraception can protect against sexually transmitted diseases?

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The oral contraceptive pill has to be taken every day to be effective.

Suggest one reason why a woman taking the oral contraceptive pill may become pregnant.

Surgical sterilisation is another method of contraception.

Suggest one disadvantage of surgical sterilisation compared with taking the oral contraceptive pill.

Suggest two reasons why a man and a woman in a sexual relationship might choose not to use contraception.

Do not refer to surgical sterilisation in your answer.

Four students investigated their reaction times.

Figure 7 shows the equipment the students used.

This is the method used.

1. Place one foot on the pedal.

2. When the light turns on, press the pedal as quickly as possible.

3. Record the time shown on the datalogger.

4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 another three times.

5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 with each student.

Figure 8 shows information about the coordination of the action in this investigation.

What is stimulus A in Figure 8 ?

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What is coordinator B in Figure 8 ?

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What is the response C in Figure 8 ?

Table 5 shows the results for each student.

Draw a ring around the anomalous result for student D in Table 5.

What should the students do with the anomalous result?

Suggest what might cause an anomalous result in this reaction time investigation.

Give two conclusions about reaction time from the results in Table 5.

Suggest two ways the investigation could be improved to produce valid results.

A plant shoot is made of several tissues.

What is a tissue?

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What is the name of the tissue at the growing tip of a plant shoot?

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Plant cells divide by mitosis so that the plant can grow.

Give one other reason plant cells divide by mitosis.

Do not refer to growth in your answer.

Figure 9 shows a cell cycle.

Which two processes happen during cell growth in the cell cycle?

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In mitosis and meiosis cells divide to produce new cells.

Cell division by meiosis produces gametes.

Figure 10 shows a cell dividing by mitosis and a different cell dividing by meiosis.

Describe how the cells produced by mitosis are different from the cells produced by meiosis.

Use information from Figure 10.

A scientist investigated cell division in the growing tip of a plant shoot.

The scientist recorded data at different distances from the tip of the shoot.

Table 6 shows the results.

Give two conclusions from the data in Table 6.

Figure 11 shows a transverse wave.

Which arrow shows the amplitude of the wave?

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Which arrow shows the wavelength of the wave?

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A teacher demonstrated waves on a string.

Figure 12 shows the apparatus used.

This is the method used.

1. Switch on the signal generator and vibration generator so the string vibrates up and down.

2. Move the wooden bridge until a clear wave pattern is formed between the wooden bridge and the vibration generator.

3. Use a metre rule to measure the length of the string between the wooden bridge and the vibration generator.

4. Record the frequency of the wave from the signal generator.

5. Record the number of loops in the wave pattern. The wave pattern shown in Figure 12 has one loop.

6. Change the frequency on the signal generator until a new wave pattern is formed.

7. Repeat steps 4 to 6.

Give one control variable in this demonstration.

The length of the string between the vibration generator and the wooden bridge was about 1.5 m

The teacher used a metre rule to measure the length of the string.

Suggest two reasons why making an accurate measurement was difficult.

Table 7 shows the results.

Give one conclusion about frequency and wavelength from the data in Table 7.

Each loop of the wave pattern is the length of half a wavelength.

Determine wavelength X in Table 7.

Calculate the period of the wave when the frequency was 30 Hz

Give your answer to 2 significant figures.

Use the Physics Equations Sheet.

Plants absorb light to photosynthesise.

Complete the word equation for photosynthesis.

Light intensity affects the rate of photosynthesis.

Figure 13 shows some of the equipment used to measure the rate of photosynthesis.

Describe a method to investigate the effect of light intensity on the rate of photosynthesis.

Use the equipment in Figure 13 and other laboratory equipment.

Algal cells photosynthesise.

Scientists investigated the effect of light intensity on algal cells.

The algal cells were placed in different light intensities.

Table 8 shows the number of extra algal cells after two days.

The initial number of algal cells was 200 000

Calculate the total number of algal cells after two days when the light intensity was 500 lux

Plot the data from Table 8 on Figure 14.

The first two points have been plotted.

Draw a line of best fit.

Give two conclusions from the results.

Use information from Table 8.

Explain how an increase in temperature from 20 °C to 25 °C would affect the number of algal cells.