Final answer:
Living organisms share characteristics such as order, response to stimuli, reproduction, adaptation, growth and development, regulation/homeostasis, energy processing, and evolution. Homeostasis is the maintenance of internal stability, and a cell is the basic unit of any living organism. Characteristics like growth or movement can help determine if an object is a living being.
Step-by-step explanation:
The basic characteristics of life include several key functions that are found across all living organisms. These characteristics are used to determine whether something is alive and include: order, which refers to the organized structure of living cells; sensitivity or response to stimuli, meaning how organisms respond to their environment; reproduction, the process of creating new organisms; adaptation, which is how organisms evolve traits to survive in their environments; growth and development, which involves changes and maturity over an organism's life cycle; regulation and homeostasis, the maintenance of internal stability; energy processing, such as metabolism; and evolution, the process by which populations of organisms change over time.
To review, the six characteristics of life commonly listed are: order, sensitivity or response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, energy processing, and regulation or homeostasis. Homeostasis is the ability of an organism to maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in external conditions. A cell is the basic unit of structure and function in living organisms. Reproduction that leads to the next generation is often referred to as propagation or procreation. To determine if an object like a dead twig might be a living stick insect, one would look for signs of these characteristics, such as movement or growth.