When we try to define ‘living’, we conventionally look for distinctivecharacteristics exhibited by living organisms. Growth, reproduction, abilityto sense environment and mount a suitable response come to our mindimmediately as unique features of living organisms. One can add a fewmore features like metabolism, ability to self-replicate, self-organise,interact and emergence to this list. Let us try to understand each of these

The text you provided seems to be an introduction to the characteristics of living organisms. Here's a brief explanation of each:

1. Growth: This is a fundamental characteristic of all living organisms. It involves an increase in mass and size of a body. This is achieved through the process of cell division and cell enlargement.

2. Reproduction: This is the process by which living organisms produce new individuals of the same species. It can be of two types - sexual and asexual.

3. Ability to sense environment and mount a suitable response: Living organisms have the ability to sense changes in their environment and respond to them. This is crucial for their survival.

4. Metabolism: This refers to the chemical reactions that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life. These reactions are divided into two types: catabolism (breakdown of molecules to obtain energy) and anabolism (synthesis of all compounds needed by the cells).

5. Ability to self-replicate: This refers to the ability of living organisms to make copies of themselves. This is a key characteristic of life.

6. Self-organise: Living organisms have the ability to organize simple substances into complex ones. They can organize themselves both structurally and functionally.

7. Interact: Living organisms interact with other organisms and the environment around them. This interaction can be for food, shelter, mating, etc.

8. Emergence: This refers to the process where new properties or behaviors emerge at higher levels of complexity. For example, the behavior of a flock of birds is an emergent property that cannot be predicted from the properties of the individual birds.