IMO Practice Test — Living Creatures: Exploring Their Characteristics
6 Questions • 15 min • Olympiad level
15:00
Question 1 of 6
A seed lies still and does not move, yet it is living because it can:
Grow into a new plant
Make sounds
Fly
Glow at night
Explanation: A seed holds life and can grow into a new plant, a key sign of being living.
Question 2 of 6
A river flows and a flame flickers, but both are non-living because they cannot:
Move
Grow, feed and reproduce
Be seen
Be warm
Explanation: Movement alone is not life; non-living things cannot grow, feed or reproduce.
Question 3 of 6
A spider, a snail and a jellyfish are placed in the SAME group because they all:
Have a backbone
Lack a backbone
Live in water
Have feathers
Explanation: All three are invertebrates — they have no backbone.
Question 4 of 6
Pulling your hand away quickly from a hot pan shows the life process of:
Response to a stimulus
Reproduction
Excretion
Nutrition
Explanation: Reacting to the heat (a stimulus) is response to stimuli.
Question 5 of 6
Which feature is shared by a sparrow and a bat (both can fly), placing the bat among mammals not birds?
The bat feeds its young on milk and has hair, not feathers
The bat has feathers
The bat lays eggs in water
The bat has gills
Explanation: A bat is a mammal because it has hair and feeds its young milk, even though it flies.
Question 6 of 6
Why is grouping animals by the backbone helpful to scientists?
It cleanly splits all animals into two big groups for study
It changes the animals
It feeds the animals
It has no use
Explanation: Every animal either has a backbone or not, so this gives two clear groups that make study easier.