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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What other university departments does de Blij feel should be resurrected, along with geography departments?
(a) Departments of regional studies.
(b) Interdisciplinary studies departments.
(c) Sociology departments.
(d) History departments.

2. What do geographers mean when they use the abbreviation "B.P."?
(a) Before the Postglacial Optimum.
(b) Before the Pleistocene.
(c) Before the Present.
(d) Before the Past Era.

3. What human event coincided with the end of the Little Ice Age?
(a) The Industrial Revolution.
(b) The French Revolution.
(c) The rise of the Han Dynasty.
(d) The fall of the Roman Empire.

4. Which of the following empires thrived during the Medieval Optimum?
(a) The Empire of Alexander the Great.
(b) The Roman and Han Empires.
(c) The Aztec and Mayan Empires.
(d) The Russian and French Empires.

5. What kind of location must be given in degrees, minutes, and seconds of longitude and latitude?
(a) Absolute location.
(b) Prime meridian location.
(c) USGS location.
(d) Relative location.

6. Who formulated a grid that is still used to make map projections of the world?
(a) Captain Cook.
(b) Gerardus Mercator.
(c) Ferdinand Magellan.
(d) Battista Agnese.

7. Why does de Blij feel that Americans should care about worldwide population growth?
(a) It will cause Americans to have to provide more foreign aid.
(b) It will cause people in other countries to resent the United States.
(c) It will cause higher pollution levels that will affect the entire globe.
(d) It will cause other countries to use more of Earth's resources.

8. How did Earth's Moon form?
(a) An asteroid orbiting the Sun came too close to Earth.
(b) A passing comet began orbiting Earth.
(c) A planet-sized object collided with the newly formed Earth.
(d) A large section of Earth split off to become the Moon.

9. How is topography shown in United States Geological Survey maps?
(a) With a compass rose.
(b) With contour lines.
(c) With longitude and latitude lines.
(d) With a series of concentric circles.

10. At what point do scientists predict that Earth's population will level off and stop increasing?
(a) When it reaches 100 billion.
(b) When it reaches eight billion.
(c) When it reaches ten billion.
(d) When it reaches one billion.

11. What do geographers analyze using the gravity model?
(a) The history of Earth.
(b) Current events.
(c) Interaction between cities.
(d) Plate tectonics.

12. When does de Blij say that geography began to decline in the United States?
(a) When Americans became less willing to travel after 9/11.
(b) When political boundaries began to change so fast that it was hard to keep maps up-to-date.
(c) When professional educators decided to combine history, government, and geography into social studies.
(d) When people began to watch television instead of reading books for entertainment.

13. What is the biggest problem facing relief agencies trying to provide food for famine victims?
(a) Continuing drought.
(b) Lack of money to pay for food.
(c) Lack of fertilizer and insecticide for crops.
(d) Problems with food distribution.

14. What caused the Younger Dryas?
(a) A volcanic eruption.
(b) Ice sheets sliding into the oceans.
(c) The Little Ice Age.
(d) The Mongol invasions.

15. What other world does geography traditionally deal with, in addition to the human world?
(a) The natural world.
(b) The cultural world.
(c) The philosophical world.
(d) The astronomical world.

Short Answer Questions

1. As the world's population increases, where does de Blij say the increase in population will go to live?

2. What did European countries fail to consider when they colonized Africa?

3. What reason did Iraq give for invading Kuwait just before the first Gulf War?

4. What causes the drift of Earth's continents?

5. What were climatic conditions like during the Postglacial Optimum?

(see the answer keys)

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