CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS & A LEVEL BIOLOGY: COURSEBOOK

Sample answers have been written by the authors.

Coursebook answers
Chapter 8
Self-assessment questions
1 a The fish has a single circulatory system, b As thoracic volume increases, pressure
whereas the mammal has a double inside the thorax decreases. This decreases
circulatory system. the pressure in the blood vessels in the
thorax. The effect is very small in the
In the fish, blood leaves the heart and arteries, but more significant in the veins.
travels to the gills, where it picks up The relatively low pressure of the blood in
oxygen, before continuing around the the veins in the thorax, compared with the
body. In the mammal, the blood returns pressure in veins elsewhere in the body,
to the heart after picking up oxygen at produces a pressure difference causing
the lungs and is then pumped around the blood movement towards the thorax.
body.
4 Answers should include reference to:
b Oxygenated blood can be pumped
around the body at a higher pressure, • the fluctuating pressure in arteries
and therefore faster, in a mammal than • why the fluctuations become gradually
in a fish, because pressure is lost in the smaller as the blood passes through the
capillaries in the gills. This can provide arterial system
a more efficient oxygen supply to
mammalian cells than to fish cells. • the rapid drop in pressure as the blood
flows along the arterioles and capillaries,
c Mammals regulate their body and reasons for this
temperature. This involves using
• the rise of pressure as blood enters the
respiration in cells to generate heat, and
pulmonary circulation via the right-hand
this uses a lot of oxygen. Fish do not
side of the heart, and the even higher rise
regulate their temperature. Mammals
in pressure in the aorta, and reasons
therefore need to be able to deliver oxygen
for this.
to cells more quickly than fish do.
5 There are many ways in which learners might
2 Blood cells, and haemoglobin in red blood
design this table, and there is no one ‘correct’
cells, would cause scattering and absorption
answer. The table summarises some of the
of light before it reached the retina. The
ideas that they might include. Answers to b
aqueous humour supplies the cornea with its
will depend on the comparisons that learners
requirements.
make between each other’s tables. Learners
3 a Gravity pulls blood downwards. should be encouraged to make changes to
Normally, contraction and relaxation of their tables, after making these comparisons,
leg muscles squeezes in on leg veins; valves if they wish.
in them ensure blood moves upwards
and not downwards. When standing to
attention, these muscles are still, so blood
accumulates in the feet.

1 Cambridge International AS & A Level Biology © Cambridge University Press 2020

 CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS & A LEVEL BIOLOGY: COURSEBOOK
Feature Artery
elastic large amount, particularly in
tissue in elastic arteries
wall
This allows the wall to stretch
and recoil as high-pressure
blood pulses through.
smooth relatively large amount,
muscle in particularly in muscular arteries
wall
Contraction of this muscle
reduces the size of the lumen,
which can divert blood from
one area to another.
thickness relatively thick
of wall
Artery walls must be strong
enough to withstand the high
pressure of the blood flowing
inside them.
valves none present
diameter relatively small
of lumen
This ensures that large volumes
of blood, at high pressure,
move quickly from the heart to
the tissues.
6 The larger the relative molecular mass (RMM)
of a substance, the lower the permeability of
capillary walls to that substance. This is true
in all cases – there are no exceptions in this
table. For example, water has the smallest
RMM (18) and the largest permeability
(1.00), while the substance with the largest
RMM is albumin (69 000) and it has the
smallest permeability (0.000 01). However,
the relationship is not linear. For example, a
relatively small difference in RMM between
2 Cambridge International AS & A Level Biology © Cambridge University Press 2020
Vein Capillary
small amount none
Blood in veins is at low
pressure, as there is no
need for walls to be elastic.
small amount none
All blood in veins is
travelling back to the heart,
so there is no need to
divert it to different tissues.
relatively thin only one cell thick with
cells thin and flattened,
so the wall is a thin as
possible
The blood is at low This allows rapid
pressure, so there is no transfer of substances
need for a thick wall. by diffusion between
the blood and tissue
fluid.
present none
These prevent the low-
pressure blood from
flowing backwards.
relatively large tiny – many are only just
wide enough to allow a
red blood cell to pass
through
This reduces the resistance This brings the blood
to flow of the blood inside as close as possible to
them, which helps to keep cells in the surrounding
the low-pressure blood tissues, speeding
moving back towards the up the exchange of
heart. substances between
them.
haemoglobin and albumin results in a very
large difference in permeability.
7 Albumin in the blood plasma raises its solute
concentration (lowers its water potential),
thus helping to draw water back from the
tissue fluid into capillaries as it moves down
the water potential gradient. If albumin could
diffuse out of capillaries into tissue fluid, more
water would accumulate in the tissue fluid.
 CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS & A LEVEL BIOLOGY: COURSEBOOK
8 If plasma protein concentrations are low, then
the water potential of the blood will be higher
than normal. There will no longer be a steep
water potential gradient between the tissues
and blood, and so water will not be drawn
back into capillaries from tissue fluid. This will
result in a build-up of tissue fluid and swelling.
9 2.1 × 1011
10 a Protein synthesis – no. There is no DNA,
so no mRNA can be transcribed.
b Cell division – no. There are no
chromosomes, so mitosis cannot occur,
nor are there centrosomes for spindle
formation.
c Lipid synthesis – no. This occurs on the
smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and there
is none.
d Active transport – yes. This occurs across
the cell surface membrane, and can be
fuelled by ATP produced by anaerobic
respiration.
11 a 195 cm3
b 25 cm3
12 a i 96.5%
ii 1.25 cm3
b i 24.0%
ii 0.31 cm3
13 Points that could be made are given as bullet
points. You could award a mark for each point
made.
• The haemoglobin molecule is a protein
with quaternary structure.
• Hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds and van der
Waals forces hold the protein in its three-
dimensional shape.
• The primary structure of each
polypeptide chain determines how the
chain will fold / where the bonds will form
(thus determining its three-dimensional
shape).
• The haemoglobin molecule has R groups
with small charges on its outer surface
(hydrophilic R groups), which help to
make it soluble in water.
3 Cambridge International AS & A Level Biology © Cambridge University Press 2020
• This allows it to dissolve in the cytoplasm
of a red blood cell.
• Each haemoglobin molecule is made up
of four polypeptide chains, each with a
haem group at its centre.
• Each haem group can bind reversibly with
one oxygen molecule.
• When one oxygen molecule binds with
one of the haem groups, it slightly
changes the shape of the haemoglobin
molecule so that it becomes easier for
more oxygen molecules to bind with the
other haem groups.
14 a (The word ‘gradually’ is not correct.)
The partial pressure of oxygen is high in
the lungs and low in muscle and does not
change gradually as the blood flows from
the lungs to the muscle (because it is only
when it gets to the muscle that the blood
is in contact with anything that is using
oxygen).
b (Arteries do not pump blood.)
Elastic artery walls enable the artery
to expand and recoil as pulses of high-
pressure blood pass through. The recoil of
the artery wall does help to give the blood
a further ‘push’ in between these pulses,
but this is not ‘pumping’ and is due only
to elasticity, not to muscle contraction.
c (The student has confused a haemoglobin
molecule with a red blood cell.)
Each haemoglobin molecule can combine
with eight oxygen atoms. One red cell
contains well over 200 million
haemoglobin molecules.
d (Red blood cells do have a large surface
area, but oxygen does not attach to their
surface.)
The large surface area allows more oxygen
to diffuse in and out at any one time,
therefore increasing the rate at which the
cell can take up and release oxygen. Once
inside the cell, the oxygen does not attach
to its surface but to the haemoglobin
molecules within its cytoplasm.
 CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS & A LEVEL BIOLOGY: COURSEBOOK
15 For the first heart beat shown:
atrial systole: between 0 and 0.125 s
ventricular systole: between about 0.125 s
and 0.325 s
ventricular diastole: between about 0.325 s
and 0.625 s
16 The valves in the heart normally prevent
backflow from the ventricles to the atria, or
from the main arteries to the ventricles. If the
atrioventricular valves do not close correctly,
some blood will move back into the atria
rather than into the arteries as the ventricles
contract. Similarly, if the semilunar valves do
not close correctly, some blood will flow back
from the arteries into the ventricles as the
ventricles relax.
Both of these events will mean that less blood
is pushed out of the heart and around the
body, or to the lungs. This can have several
effects, but the main one is likely to be that
less oxygen is delivered to the tissues. The
person may feel tired, as there is less oxygen
available for respiration in the muscles. The
heart may beat more quickly or more strongly
as the body attempts to ‘make up for’ this lack,
which – over time – may increase the risk of
heart failure.
4 Cambridge International AS & A Level Biology © Cambridge University Press 2020
Reflection
Ideas that might be raised include:
• Similarities: in both flowering plants and
mammals, fluids move inside tubes that
distribute them around the body of the
organism.
• Differences:
−− Plants have two separate systems (xylem
and phloem) with different functions.
Learners could outline what these
functions are, and compare them with the
functions of mammalian blood.
−− The vessels in plants are made of rows of
single cells with rigid walls. In mammals,
they are much larger, and are made of
many cells that form their flexible walls.
Learners could give more detail about the
structures of the walls of xylem, phloem,
arteries, veins and capillaries.
−− Plants rely on passive processes
(transpiration) to provide the pressure
differences to move water and dissolved
ions through xylem, and active transport
to produce pressure differences that move
water and dissolved assimilates through
phloem. Mammals have a heart that
provides these pressure differences, using
muscle contraction. Learners could give
more detail about these processes.