Excretory System — Class 10 ICSE: 40 flashcards
All 40 flashcards from this kit, free and with no sign-up.
1. What is excretion?
Show the answer
The removal of harmful metabolic waste products from the body.
2. Name the five main types of excretory products in humans.
Show the answer
Respiratory waste (CO₂, water vapour), nitrogenous waste (urea), mineral salts, excess water, and bile pigments.
3. Which organs excrete carbon dioxide and water vapour?
Show the answer
The lungs.
4. Which organ produces bile pigments?
Show the answer
The liver, from the breakdown of haemoglobin.
5. What is deamination?
Show the answer
The removal of the amino group ($-NH_2$) from excess amino acids in the liver.
6. Where is urea formed?
Show the answer
In the liver, by deamination of excess amino acids.
7. Why is ammonia converted to urea?
Show the answer
Ammonia is highly toxic; urea is far less toxic and safe to transport in blood.
8. Name the four main organs of the human excretory system.
Show the answer
Two kidneys, two ureters, urinary bladder, and urethra.
9. What are the three regions of the kidney?
Show the answer
Cortex (outer), medulla (inner), and pelvis (central funnel).
10. What is the functional unit of the kidney?
Show the answer
The nephron — about a million per kidney.
11. Name the parts of a nephron.
Show the answer
Bowman's capsule, glomerulus, tubule, and collecting duct.
12. What are the three steps of urine formation?
Show the answer
Ultrafiltration, selective reabsorption, and tubular secretion.
13. Where does ultrafiltration occur?
Show the answer
In the glomerulus, under high pressure.
14. What is glomerular filtrate?
Show the answer
The liquid filtered into Bowman's capsule — water, glucose, salts, urea, and small molecules.
15. Why does healthy urine contain no glucose?
Show the answer
Glucose is completely reabsorbed in the tubule during selective reabsorption.
16. What controls water reabsorption in the collecting duct?
Show the answer
ADH (antidiuretic hormone).
17. What is osmoregulation?
Show the answer
The kidney's role in maintaining the body's water and salt balance.
18. How do ureters carry urine?
Show the answer
By peristalsis — rhythmic muscular contractions.
19. What is the function of the urinary bladder?
Show the answer
It stores urine until it is ready to be passed out.
20. What is the function of the urethra?
Show the answer
It carries urine from the bladder out of the body.
21. Name four kidney disorders in the ICSE syllabus.
Show the answer
Kidney stones, nephritis, uremia, and diabetes-related kidney damage.
22. What is uremia?
Show the answer
The accumulation of urea in the blood due to kidney failure.
23. On what principle does the artificial kidney work?
Show the answer
Dialysis — removal of urea by diffusion through a semi-permeable membrane.
24. What is special about the dialysing fluid?
Show the answer
It has the same glucose and salt concentration as blood but contains no urea.
25. Is dialysis a permanent cure?
Show the answer
No — it is a life-support treatment until a kidney transplant is possible.
26. Name three non-excretory functions of the kidney.
Show the answer
Regulating blood pH, maintaining blood pressure, and producing erythropoietin.
27. What does erythropoietin do?
Show the answer
It stimulates red blood cell formation.
28. Which vitamin does the kidney activate?
Show the answer
Vitamin D, important for calcium absorption.
29. What happens to urine when you drink very little water?
Show the answer
ADH rises, more water is reabsorbed, and a small amount of concentrated urine is produced.
30. What happens to urine when you drink a lot of water?
Show the answer
ADH drops, less water is reabsorbed, and a large amount of dilute urine is produced.
31. What is the difference between filtration and reabsorption?
Show the answer
Filtration removes all small molecules; reabsorption selectively returns useful ones like glucose and water.
32. Which organ excretes water, salts, and small amounts of urea through sweat?
Show the answer
The skin (sweat glands).
33. Which organ removes bile pigments via faeces?
Show the answer
The large intestine.
34. What is the afferent arteriole's role in ultrafiltration?
Show the answer
It brings blood to the glomerulus under high pressure.
35. Why is the urethra shorter in females?
Show the answer
This is why urinary infections are more common in women.
36. What is the composition of urine?
Show the answer
Water, urea, salts, and bile pigments.
37. What is nephritis?
Show the answer
Inflammation of the nephrons, often caused by infection.
38. What are kidney stones?
Show the answer
Crystallised mineral salts that block the ureter.
39. What is homeostasis?
Show the answer
Maintaining a stable internal environment, which the kidney helps achieve.
40. Why is kidney failure dangerous beyond urine loss?
Show the answer
It affects blood pH, blood pressure, RBC formation, and vitamin D activation.
Your notes can be a kit like these
Every kit here was made from real study material. Point Veda at a chapter, a PDF, a photo or a link and get notes, flashcards, practice MCQs, games and a scored test — free, in 42 languages.
- Chapter notes
- Flashcards
- Practice MCQs
- Scored tests
- Exam prep
Get Veda free See what students get
Free to start · No ads · Works in 42 languages