Final answer:
The surroundings are the region outside the system. In the context of thermodynamics and chemistry, the system refers to the particular part of the universe under study, whereas the surroundings include everything else in the universe that is not part of the system.
Step-by-step explanation:
The answer to the student's question is A) Outside the system. In thermodynamics and chemistry, the system is that part of the universe that is under study, such as a chemical reaction taking place in a flask. The surroundings are everything in the universe that is not part of the system. The surroundings can include the container in which the reaction occurs and everything beyond it. Together, the system and its surroundings constitute the entire universe.
A simple example to illustrate this concept would be the burning gasoline in the cylinder of a car engine. Here, the thermodynamic system would be the gasoline-air mixture undergoing combustion, while the surroundings would encompass the piston, exhaust system, radiator, air outside the engine, and so forth. These surroundings essentially interact with the system through a boundary which, while sometimes physical, is often conceptual, delineating what we are focusing on from everything else.