Basic unit of life.

Basic unit of life.

• A. Bacteria
• B. Alloy
• C. Herbivore
• D. Cell

Answer: (D)

Living things are built from cells. The basic unit of life is the cell because it can carry out the essential life processes—taking in nutrients, using energy, growing, and responding to the environment. In multicellular organisms, many cells work together and specialize, but life still starts at the cellular level, and even single-celled organisms are complete living units. An alloy isn’t alive, so it can’t be a unit of life. A herbivore is a type of organism, not the basic unit that performs life processes. Bacteria are single-celled organisms, but the universal unit that carries out life across all organisms is the cell.

Living things are built from cells. The basic unit of life is the cell because it can carry out the essential life processes—taking in nutrients, using energy, growing, and responding to the environment. In multicellular organisms, many cells work together and specialize, but life still starts at the cellular level, and even single-celled organisms are complete living units. An alloy isn’t alive, so it can’t be a unit of life. A herbivore is a type of organism, not the basic unit that performs life processes. Bacteria are single-celled organisms, but the universal unit that carries out life across all organisms is the cell.