Question

Statement I: When a Li atom reacts and becomes an ion, the Li atom can be considered to be a reducing agent.
Statement II: The Li atom loses an electron and is oxidized.
A.True, true, correct explanation
B.True, true, not correct explanation
C.True, false
D.False, true

Answer 1

Hint: Lithium has only one electron in its outermost orbit, therefore it can readily give one electron to stabilise itself with only one orbit remaining. Any element which reduces other elements or molecules loses an electron and gets oxidized.

Complete answer:
Any element which on reaction becomes an ion to become more stable and gives another electron seeking element its own electron in a redox reaction, then it is called a reducing agent.
Thus, if lithium loses an electron in a reaction and becomes a lithium ion, then it can be considered as a reducing agent. Therefore, the first statement is proved to be true.
To become a reducing agent, the agent has to lose electron/s and get oxidized, this happens to lithium in the reaction as it loses one electron from its outermost orbit and gets oxidized. Therefore, the second statement is also proved to be true.
Now, as lithium lost an electron and got oxidized, it reduced the other element into another compound by giving them its own electron. Therefore the second statement is the correct explanation of the first statement.
And hence option A is the correct answer.

Note:
Reduction in earlier times used to refer to the removal of oxygen from a compound, but now it is generalised to loss of electrons. The compound or element which receives the lost electron is called an oxidizer. As reducing agents have extra electron/s, oxidizers lack electrons and thus easily receive electrons from reducing agents and get reduced.