[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2022: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 03 December 2021 – Geography

Solution: b)

The earth as a whole does not accumulate or loose heat. It maintains its temperature. This can happen only if the amount of heat received in the form of insolation equals the amount lost by the earth through terrestrial radiation. Consider that the insolation received at the top of the atmosphere is 100 per cent. While passing through the atmosphere some amount of energy is reflected, scattered and absorbed. Only the remaining part reaches the earth surface. Roughly 35 units are reflected back to space even before reaching the earth’s surface. Of these, 27 units are reflected back from the top of the clouds and 2 units from the snow and ice-covered areas of the earth. The reflected amount of radiation is called the albedo of the earth.

The remaining 65 units are absorbed, 14 units within the atmosphere and 51 units by the earth’s surface.

Solution: c)

Demographic transition theory can be used to describe and predict the future population of any area. The theory tells us that population of any region changes from high births and high deaths to low births and low deaths as society progresses from rural agrarian and illiterate to urban industrial and literate society. These changes occur in stages which are collectively known as the demographic cycle.

The first stage has high fertility and high mortality because people reproduce more to compensate for the deaths due to epidemics and variable food supply. The population growth is slow and most of the people are engaged in agriculture where large families are an asset. Life expectancy is low, people are mostly illiterate and have low levels of technology. Two hundred years ago all the countries of the world were in this stage. Fertility remains high in the beginning of second stage but it declines with time. This is accompanied by reduced mortality rate. Improvements in sanitation and health conditions lead to decline in mortality. Because of this gap the net addition to population is high.

In the last stage, both fertility and mortality decline considerably. The population is either stable or grows slowly.

Solution: d)

Basis of International Trade

(i) Difference in national resources: The world’s national resources are unevenly distributed because of differences in their physical make up i.e. geology, relief soil and climate.

(ii) Population factors: The size, distribution and diversity of people between countries affect the type and volume of goods traded.

(iii) Stage of economic development: At different stages of economic development of countries, the nature of items traded undergo changes.

(iv) Extent of foreign investment: Foreign investment can boost trade in developing countries which lack in capital required for the development of mining, oil drilling, heavy engineering, lumbering and plantation agriculture.

(v) Transport: In olden times, lack of adequate and efficient means of transport restricted trade to local areas. Only high value items, e.g. gems, silk and spices were traded over long distances. With expansions of rail, ocean and air transport, better means of refrigeration and preservation, trade has experienced spatial expansion.

Solution: b)

Solution: d)

The vegetation is usually cleared by fire, and the ashes add to the fertility of the soil. Shifting cultivation is thus, also called slash and burn agriculture. The cultivated patches are very small and cultivation is done with very primitive tools such as sticks and hoes. After sometime (3 to 5 years) the soil loses its fertility and the farmer shifts to another parts and clears other patch of the forest for cultivation. The farmer may return to the earlier patch after sometime. One of the major problems of shifting cultivation is that the cycle of jhum becomes less and less due to loss of fertility in different parcels.

It is prevalent in tropical region in different names, e.g. Jhuming in North eastern states of India, Milpa in central America and Mexico and Ladang in Indonesia and Malaysia.