Resource 2: True/false exercise on cells
Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils
Plant and animal cells: true–false exercise
The following statements are about cells.
Read each statement and then in your group decide, for each statement, whether it is true (T) or false (F). If you are not sure put ‘?’.
Write the letter or symbol to show your decision in the middle column. Use the last column to explain your reasons.
| Statement | True, false or unsure | Comment – reasons for your choice | |
| 1 | All cells have a nucleus. | ||
| 2 | There is a cell membrane around all cells. | ||
| 3 | All cells have a cell wall. | ||
| 4 | Chromosomes are found in the cytoplasm. | ||
| 5 | The cell membrane controls what the cell will look like and how it behaves. | ||
| 6 | The nucleus controls what passes into and out of a cell. | ||
| 7 | A nucleus is smaller than a chloroplast. | ||
| 8 | A chloroplast is larger than a mitochondrion. | ||
| 9 | All cells have a central cell vacuole filled with fluid. | ||
| 10 | The cell membrane is made of cellulose. | ||
| 11 | The nucleus is always found in the middle of a cell. | ||
| 12 | A nucleus is smaller than a molecule. | ||
| 13 | Some cells in your body are one metre long. | ||
| 14 | If you looked through a magnifying glass at a red blood cell, it would look like the dot at the end of this sentence. | ||
| 15 | A fully grown human is made of about one hundred million, million cells. | ||
| 16 | Fifty typical cells lying side by side would measure about 1 mm. | ||
| 17 | Cells are black and white. There is no colour in a cell. | ||
| 18 | If you could shrink and stand in a cell, everything would be silent and still. |
| Statement | True, false or unsure | Notes for teachers |
| All cells have a nucleus. | True, with some qualifications. See notes. | All plant and animal cells have a nucleus. In some cells, the nucleus may have disintegrated by the time the cell reaches maturity. Red blood cells have a nucleus when they are developing. However, when they are mature and doing their job of carrying oxygen round the body, the nucleus has broken down. The whole cell is full of the oxygen-carrying pigment called haemoglobin. Bacterial cells are usually described as having a nuclear area, rather than a true nucleus, because there is not a nuclear membrane round the nuclear area. |
| There is a cell membrane around all cells. | True | |
| All cells have a cell wall. | False | Plant cells are surrounded by a cell membrane and outside this is a fairly rigid cell wall. The cell wall gives the plant cell a more definite shape than an animal cell. Animal cells do not have a cell wall. They are surrounded by a cell membrane only. A cell membrane is much more flexible that a cell wall. |
| Chromosomes are found in the cytoplasm. | False | Chromosomes are found in the nucleus. |
| The cell membrane controls what the cell will look like and how it behaves. | False | The nucleus controls what the cell looks like and how it behaves. |
| The nucleus controls what passes into and out of a cell. | False | The cell membrane controls what passes into and out of a cell. |
| A nucleus is smaller than a chloroplast. | False | A nucleus is about three times as big as a chloroplast. |
| A chloroplast is larger than a mitochondrion. | True | A chloroplast is three or four times larger than a mitochondrion. |
| All cells have a central cell vacuole filled with fluid. | False | Plant cells have a central cell vacuole filled with fluid, called cell sap. Animal cells do not. Animal cells may contain one or several small vacuoles. |
| 10 | The cell membrane is made of cellulose. | False | Plant cell walls are made of cellulose. Cell membranes of both plant and animal cells are made of protein and lipid. |
| 11 | The nucleus is always found in the middle of a cell. | False | The nucleus may be found in the middle or around the edge of a cell. |
| 12 | A nucleus is smaller than a molecule. | False | A nucleus is much larger than a molecule. The nucleus contains chromosomes – 46 in human cells. Each chromosome is made of a DNA molecule. |
| 13 | Some cells in your body are as long as metre. | True | Nerve cells are made up of a compact cell body with long thread like fibres extending out from the cell body. Some of these fibres, called axons, may be up to one metre long. Nerve messages are carried along these fibres. |
| 14 | If you looked through a magnifying glass at a red blood cell, it would look like the dot at the end of this sentence. | True | |
| 15 | A fully grown human is made of about one hundred million million cells. | True | |
| 16 | Fifty typical cells lying side by side would measure about 1 mm. | True | |
| 17 | Cells are black and white. There is no colour in a cell. | False | Chloroplasts are found in most plant cells. Chloroplasts contain the green pigment chlorophyll. Cells in flower petals will contain coloured pigments either in special structures like chloroplasts in the cytoplasm or dissolved in the cell sap. Animal cells, e.g. in the skin and eye of human will also contain coloured pigments. |
| 18 | If you could shrink and stand in a cell, everything would be silent and still. | False | Everything would certainly not be still. Cytoplasm is continually moving around. Molecules would be moving in and out of cells. In a muscle cell you might find yourself squeezed and released from time to time. The swishing of the streaming cytoplasm is likely to set up vibrations. Sound is vibration. If you could manage to shrink to fit in a cell your ears could probably manage to detect these vibrations as sounds! |
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Resource 1: Background information on cells
