Which vessels carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to the body?

• A. Veins
• B. Arteries
• C. Capillaries
• D. Lymphatics

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how blood vessels move oxygen-rich blood to the body. Arteries do that: they carry blood away from the heart, and in the systemic circulation the blood is loaded with oxygen after leaving the left ventricle and traveling through the aorta and its branches to tissues throughout the body. After delivering oxygen, the blood returns to the heart through the veins.

Capillaries are the tiny exchange sites between arteries and veins where oxygen is handed off to tissues and carbon dioxide is collected. Lymphatics belong to a separate drainage system for interstitial fluid and immune components, not the blood’s main transport pathways.

A helpful nuance: in the lungs, the arteries carry blood away from the heart to the lungs but this blood is deoxygenated, and the pulmonary veins return oxygenated blood to the heart. So for oxygen-rich blood moving away from the heart to the body, the vessels responsible are the arteries.