I'm going to have to disagree with your explanation here. The answer isn't chloroplasts, yes, but not because you can't see the organelles (you actually will be able to see chloroplasts depending on the microscope you use). It's because chloroplasts are not present in all plant cells. For example, the cells on a plant's leaf have chloroplasts since they have access to the sun. But take the plant's roots into consideration - these root cells are still plant cells, but they don't have chloroplasts because that would be useless (they are under the ground and have no access to light energy). So, the reason why chloroplasts cannot be a distinguishing feature to tell between animal and plant cells is actually that not all plant cells have chloroplasts in the first place. However, all plant cells have cell walls, so this is the correct answer. In questions like these, choose the most correct alternative - although chloroplasts aren't exactly a 'wrong' answer, it's not the best answer in this case.
Hi, whys,
I definitely agree with your explanation! I was actually going to write a similar answer to yours but you beat me to it. But to add on to your point, I saw the option of "chloroplasts" more as a tangent rather than a tangible answer. For example, in any assessor's mind, the first characteristic that they know students would assume to be in a plant cell is the chloroplast as many students do in fact associate plant cells with chloroplasts because of its function to photosynthesise, which is pretty much the main characteristic of a plant.
However, I would just like to make it clear to any and every Biology student that assessors consistently try to throw "curveballs" at students or make students go on a bit of a tangent with information that is either a) irrelevant to the concept/question itself or what students commonly associate concepts of Biology with. The "chloroplast" question is a great example of this, so please be cautious of this by reading the question carefully and thinking in-depth about the options before making a final decision. Use the process of elimination to "knock out" the ridiculous or irrelevant answers and then, when you have your final two options, think about each concept carefully and ask yourself:
does it make sense?
I would also recommend that when in exam situations, any and every Biology student should extend themselves by connecting the questions with the information that they have learnt and retained from their studies. For example, if you had this type of question in the exam, ask yourself: "Yes, chloroplasts are usually present in plant cells, would they be present in
all plant cells?" and "if so, why or why not?" as well as "what other features usually distinguish one type of cell from another?" and "does this make sense?" in terms of the context given.
Hopefully, this helps
Have a great week and good luck with your assessment!
Kind regards,
Darcy Dillon.