Unit 6: Epithelial Cells - Practice Quiz

1 Which type of tissue is observed in a human cheek cell preparation?

2 Which instrument is commonly used to collect cells from the inside of the cheek?

3 Where are cheek epithelial cells collected from?

4 Why is a stain used when observing cheek cells?

5 Which stain is commonly used to observe the nucleus in cheek cells?

6 Which structure usually appears darker after staining cheek cells?

7 Which microscope part is used to support the glass slide?

8 What is placed over the cheek-cell sample before viewing?

9 What is the main purpose of a cover slip?

10 Which structure controls many activities of a cheek cell?

11 Which structure surrounds the cytoplasm of a cheek cell?

12 Which structure fills much of the inside of a cheek cell around the nucleus?

13 Human cheek epithelial cells are classified as which kind of cells?

14 Which structure is absent from normal human cheek cells?

15 Which objective should usually be used first when focusing a cheek-cell slide?

16 What should be done before placing a cheek-cell slide on the microscope stage?

17 What is the usual shape of a cheek epithelial cell when viewed under a microscope?

18 Which feature distinguishes cheek cells from typical plant cells?

19 Why should a cheek-cell sample be handled with a clean tool?

20 Which microscope control is used to make small focusing adjustments?

21 Why is a clean toothpick or sterile swab used to collect cheek cells?

22 What is the main purpose of placing a drop of methylene blue on a cheek-cell preparation?

23 A student sees many irregular, flat, transparent structures after preparing a cheek-cell slide. Which observation best supports that these are cheek epithelial cells?

24 Why should a coverslip be lowered at an angle onto the cheek-cell sample?

25 A student begins viewing a cheek-cell slide with the objective. What is the most appropriate correction?

26 If the eyepiece is and the objective is , what is the total magnification?

27 A cheek cell appears larger when the objective is changed from to . What happens to the field of view?

28 Which structure forms the flexible outer boundary of a human cheek epithelial cell?

29 Why are cheek epithelial cells suitable for a basic microscope investigation?

30 A student observes dark blue spots inside several cheek cells. These spots most likely represent the:

31 What is the most likely result if a cheek-cell smear is too thick?

32 Which technique would most likely produce a clearer cheek-cell image?

33 Why should a student avoid pressing hard while scraping the inside of the cheek?

34 A student cannot find the cheek cells after switching to high power. What should the student do first?

35 Which feature would distinguish a cheek epithelial cell from a typical onion epidermal cell?

36 Why might unstained cheek cells be difficult to observe with a light microscope?

37 A student records that the cheek cells are thin and irregularly shaped. What conclusion is most appropriate?

38 If the microscope image moves left when the slide is moved right, what does this demonstrate?

39 Which observation would provide the strongest evidence that a dark spot is a nucleus rather than debris?

40 Why should the microscope slide be labeled before preparing the cheek-cell sample?

41 A student observes cheek cells with a compound microscope. The cells appear nearly transparent, and increasing the lamp intensity makes the entire field brighter but does not improve the visibility of the nuclei. Which adjustment would most directly improve nuclear contrast?

42 A cheek-cell smear contains several overlapping cells, making it difficult to determine individual cell boundaries. Which preparation change would best reduce this problem while preserving the cells for observation?

43 When switching from a objective to a objective, a student loses the image because the specimen moves out of focus. Which interpretation is most accurate?

44 A student records a cheek cell as measuring 58 ocular divisions with a objective. Calibration shows that one ocular division at this objective equals . What is the estimated cell length?

45 A student calculates cheek-cell size using a calibration factor obtained with the objective but applies it to measurements made with the objective. What is the primary consequence?

46 A cheek-cell preparation shows dark blue granules scattered throughout the cytoplasm, but the nucleus remains poorly defined. Which explanation is most consistent with this observation?

47 A student sees a round, sharply defined structure in every field, including areas without cells. The structure remains stationary when the slide is moved. What is the most likely identification?

48 A stained cheek cell appears shrunken with a dense, contracted cytoplasmic region separated from the surrounding boundary. Which preparation condition most likely caused this appearance?

49 Why is methylene blue particularly useful when observing unstained human cheek epithelial cells?

50 A student focuses on a visible dust particle on the coverslip and then moves the slide. The particle does not move with the cells. Which method would best verify that it is not part of the specimen?

51 A student reports that cheek epithelial cells possess a cell wall because each cell has a visible outer boundary. Which correction is scientifically appropriate?

52 A student observes many flat, irregularly shaped cells with a single prominent nucleus and no chloroplasts. Which conclusion is best supported by these observations?

53 Two students prepare cheek-cell slides from the same donor. Student A sees distinct nuclei, whereas Student B sees mostly dark debris. Which variable is the most direct candidate for explaining the difference?

54 A cell is visible at the edge of the field under a objective. The student wants to center it before switching to a objective. Which action is most appropriate?

55 A student's field becomes darker after switching to a higher-power objective, even though the lamp setting is unchanged. Which explanation is most likely?

56 A cheek-cell image contains a dark crescent along one side of nearly every cell. The crescent changes position when the coverslip is gently shifted. What is the best interpretation?

57 A student wants to compare the average size of cheek cells from two slides. Which procedure would produce the most defensible comparison?

58 A cheek-cell smear has numerous dark particles concentrated near the point where the sample was initially placed. Which procedural error most likely produced this pattern?

59 A student identifies a faint circular region inside a stained cheek cell as the nucleolus. Which additional observation would provide the strongest support for that identification?

60 A student observes that the apparent thickness of a cheek cell changes dramatically as the fine-focus knob is adjusted. What does this most strongly indicate?