1) No, besides the specular highlights which is a reflection of the light source, it has nothing else to reflect, and it is 100% transparent, so you can't see the surface itself.
2) Once again, the surface is 100% transparent so you can't see the surface. If you deselect it, it will become completely invisible. If you want to see the object while rendering it transparently, you can choose shading > use default material, which will assign the lambert1 just for the viewport.