Question

Viruses are considered as living organisms because they perform

• A. Metabolism
• B. Respiration
• C. Replication
• D. Multiply outside the host cell

Hint:

Viruses are \[ \boxed{ \begin{aligned} \text{Outside host} &\rightarrow \text{Non-living} \text{Inside host} &\rightarrow \text{Living (replicate only)} \end{aligned} } \] They do not perform independent metabolism or respiration.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Recall the characteristics of viruses. Viruses are acellular particles that do not possess their own metabolic machinery. They cannot carry out respiration or independent metabolism.

Step 2: Identify the property associated with life. Inside a suitable host cell, viruses reproduce by making copies of themselves. Thus, \[ \boxed{ \text{Viruses perform replication inside living host cells.} } \] Therefore, \[ \boxed{\text{Replication}} \] is the correct answer. Hence, \[ \boxed{(C)} \] is the correct answer.