An artery is a vessel that

a. carries highly oxygenated blood.

b. is constricted by skeletal muscle contractions.

c. transports blood away from the heart.

d. transports blood toward the heart.

e. contains internal valves.

Answer: a. carries highly oxygenated blood, c. transports blood away from the heart, e. contains internal valves.

Explanation:

An artery is each of the vessels that carry blood with oxygen from the heart to the capillaries of the body. They arise from a ventricle and their walls are very strong and elastic to resist the pressure that the blood exerts when it is pumped out of the heart. When the heart contracts, the blood rushes out and collects in the artery, which swells. The walls of the artery put pressure on the blood, which cannot flow back to the heart because valves, called sigmoid valves, prevent it from doing so. If it weren't for that pressure, the blood wouldn't circulate.

The arteries, as they move away from the heart, branch out into thinner ones so that when they reach the organs they are already capillary. These join together to form thicker and thicker vessels, the veins, which return the blood to the heart. So an artery is each of the vessels that carry blood with oxygen from the heart to the capillaries of the body.