which of the following statements about living things is correct?

Analyze the question: We need to find the one statement about living things (characteristics of life) that is correct. Let's test each option.

Concept: Living things show the characteristics of life: nutrition, respiration, excretion, growth, irritability (response to stimuli), movement, and reproduction.

Checking each option:

• A. Animals respire using carbon(IV) oxide as a raw material. Incorrect. Respiration uses oxygen and glucose as raw materials and produces CO₂ and water. CO₂ is a product in animals, while plants use it as a raw material in photosynthesis.

• B. Growth in plants is limited after some time. Incorrect as a general statement. Many plants, especially perennials like trees, grow throughout their lives because of meristems (apical and lateral) that keep dividing. Growth is not strictly limited. Animals are the ones that typically stop growing at maturity.

• C. Most plants respond to stimulus slowly. Correct. Plants respond through growth movements (tropisms) such as phototropism and geotropism, which take hours or days. Only a few plants, like Mimosa pudica (the sensitive plant), respond quickly. So most plants respond slowly.

• D. Higher animals can reproduce asexually. Incorrect. Higher animals (mammals, birds, etc.) reproduce sexually. Asexual reproduction is typical of lower organisms like bacteria, amoeba, and hydra.

Tip: Remember "plants are slow, animals are fast" for irritability. Also remember that CO₂ is a product of respiration but a raw material of photosynthesis. WASSCE often tests this swap. For option B, watch out for words like "limited": plants have indefinite growth through meristems.