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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) History departments.
(b) Sociology departments.
(c) Departments of regional studies.
(d) Interdisciplinary studies departments.

2. What did scientists think was happening to the climate in the 1950s, when de Blij was in graduate school?
(a) Global cooling.
(b) Global upheaval.
(c) Global warming.
(d) No change in climate.

3. What technological development revolutionized cartography?
(a) The invention of the airplane.
(b) The invention of the compass.
(c) The invention of the printing press.
(d) The invention of the ruler.

4. How did Dr. John Snow use maps to save lives in London during the 19th century?
(a) He used them to decide where to put streetlights.
(b) He used them to teach firefighters to find their way around London.
(c) He used them to plot the locations of attacks during a crime wave.
(d) He used them to plot new cases of cholera.

5. What causes the drift of Earth's continents?
(a) Plate tectonics.
(b) Ice Ages.
(c) Ocean currents and tides.
(d) The Moon's gravity.

6. What were climatic conditions like during the Postglacial Optimum?
(a) An Ice Age was going on at the time.
(b) Much colder than they are today.
(c) Similar to today.
(d) Much warmer than they are today.

7. 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.

8. What two inventions have done the most to increase life expectancy?
(a) The electrocardiogram and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.
(b) Electricity and electric lights.
(c) The stethoscope and the hypodermic needle.
(d) Effective soap and the flushing toilet.

9. What caused the second Agricultural Revolution?
(a) The influx of technology brought back by merchants from China.
(b) The need to find ways to produce more crops to feed starving people.
(c) The warm weather that was perfect for farming.
(d) The cultural exchange brought about by colonialism.

10. How do scientists measure the movement of North America each year?
(a) In miles.
(b) In feet.
(c) In yards.
(d) In inches.

11. Why has the United States been so slow to convert maps to the metric system?
(a) Geographers prefer not to use the metric system in maps until it is used for other things too.
(b) The metric system is not as efficient for mapmaking as the English system of measurement.
(c) U.S. geographers are not accustomed to the metric system and prefer not to use it.
(d) The Ordinance of 1785 required land to be laid out in township squares measured in feet.

12. If Earth's population keeps growing at the present rate, how high will it be by the year 2035?
(a) Eight billion.
(b) One million.
(c) Twenty billion.
(d) One billion.

13. What problem resulted from the drawing of political boundaries in Africa by European powers?
(a) Food distribution problems.
(b) Cultural and ethnic clashes.
(c) Droughts and epidemics.
(d) The rise of dictatorships.

14. What tool does de Blij say that no household should ever be without?
(a) A globe.
(b) A computer.
(c) A ruler.
(d) An atlas.

15. What phase of Earth's geologic history are we in today?
(a) The Eocene.
(b) The Hadean.
(c) The Archean.
(d) The Pleistocene.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the interglacial that we are currently in?

2. What cultural group eventually introduced the bubonic plague to Europe?

3. Why does de Blij feel that Americans should care about worldwide population growth?

4. Which of the following countries was never colonized by Europe?

5. What does de Blij mean when he refers to a mental map?

(see the answer keys)

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