Question

For a sun-worshipping South Indian like myself, two weeks in a place where 90 per cent of the Earth's total ice volumes are stored is a chilling prospect (not just for circulatory and metabolic functions, but also for the imagination). It's like walking into a giant ping-pong ball devoid of any human markers — no trees, billboards, buildings. You lose all earthly sense of perspective and time here. The visual scale ranges from the microscopic to the mighty: midges and mites to blue whales and icebergs as big as countries (the largest recorded was the size of Belgium). Days go on and on and on in surreal 24-houraustral summer light, and a ubiquitous silence, interrupted only by the occasional avalanche or calving ice sheet, consecrates the place. It's an immersion that will force you to place yourself in the context of the earth's geological history. And for humans, the prognosis isn't good.

In the line: '... not just for circulatory and metabolic functions, but also for the imagination ...' what does 'metabolic functions' mean?

Options

• Processes required for the maintenance of a living organism.

• Chemical reactions introduced for cells and organisms.

• Chemical process necessary for maintaining the living state.

• All chemical reactions caused by cells and organisms.

Answer 1

Processes required for the maintenance of a living organism.

Explanation:

Metabolism is a phrase used to describe the chemical events that are involved in keeping cells and organisms alive. In the context of the passage, "metabolic functions" refer to the processes essential for the survival of a living body.