WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY
MIDTERM 1 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Inclusive Development - ANSWER-The extent of equal economic and social
development opportunities for different population groups, especially minorities and
the poor.
Global Core - ANSWER-The constellation of countries with the most highly
developed and influential economies (anchored by the US , the 27 member countries
of the EU, East Asia's china and Japan; and Australia, New Zealand). Although the
global core is not a contiguous as a whole dominate international trade and
investment flows.
Global Periphery - ANSWER-All of the countries that lie outside the global core.
Economically, these countries are subordinate to those of the global core in terms of
development and international influence. Geographically, the global periphery is
constituted by the 8 realms that lie outside North America, Europe, East Asia, and
the Austral Realm.
The Relationship between Global Core and Global Periphery - ANSWER-The
contrasting spatial characteristics of and linkages between, the have (core) and have
not (periphery) components of a national regional or the global system.
Globalization - ANSWER-The gradual reduction of regional differences at the world
scale, resulting from increasing international cultural, economic, and political
interaction.
Migration - ANSWER-A change in residence intended to be permanent.
Borderland - ANSWER-General term for a linear zone that parallels a political
boundary. The most dynamic of these areas, such as those lining the US Mexico
border, are marked by significant cultural and economic interaction across the
boundary that separates them.
Transition Zone - ANSWER-An area of spatial change where the peripheries of two
adjacent realms or regions join; marked by a gradual shift (rather than a sharp break)
in the characteristics that distinguish these neighboring geographic entities from one
another.
Physiographic Region - ANSWER-A region within which there prevails substantial
natural landscape homogeneity, expressed by a certain degree of uniformity in
surface relief climate vegetation, and soils.
Contientinality - ANSWER-The variation of the continental effect on air temperatures
in the interior portions of the world's landmasses. The greater the distance from the
moderating influence of an ocean, the greater the extreme in summer and winter
, temperatures. Continental interiors also tend to be dry when the distance from
oceanic moisture sources becomes considerable.
Rain shadow Effect - ANSWER-The relative dryness in areas downwind of mountain
ranges resulting from orographic precipitation, wherein moist air masses are forced
to deposit most of their water content as they cross the highlands.
Federation - ANSWER-A country adhering to a political framework wherein a central
government represents the various subnational entities within a nation state where
they have common interests- defense, foreign affairs, and the like- yet allows these
various entities to retain their own identities and to have their own laws, policies and
customs in certain spheres.
Aquifer - ANSWER-An underground reservoir of water contained within a porous,
water bearing rock layer.
Residential Geography - ANSWER-The spatial distribution of a residential
population. The term is most often used by urban geographers to describe the
clustering of various social groups into the neighborhoods that form the residential
fabric of cities and suburbs.
Boreal Forest - ANSWER-The subarctic, most coniferous snowy forest that blankets
Canada south of the tundra that lines the Arctic shore; known as the taiga in Russia.
Continental Drift - ANSWER-The slow movement of continents controlled by the
processes associated with plate tectonics.
Tectonic Plate - ANSWER-The slabs of heavier rock on which the lighter rocks of the
continents rest. The plates are in motion, propelled by gigantic circulation cells in the
red hot, molten rock below. Most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are associated
with collisions of the mobile plates, as in the building of mountain chain.
Pacific Ring of Fire - ANSWER-Zone of crustal instability along tectonic plates
boundaries, marked by earthquakes and volcanic activity, that ring the Pacific Ocean
Basin.
Holocene - ANSWER-The current interglacial epoch (the warm period of glacial
contraction between the glacial expansions of an ice age) extended from 10,000
years ago to the present. Also known as the Recent Epoch
Global Climate Change - ANSWER-The shift in the characteristics and spatial
distribution of Earth's climates in response to a long term trend in atmospheric
warming.
Geospatial Data - ANSWER-Data pertaining to a particular location on or near the
Earth's surface.
Population Distribution - ANSWER-The way people have arranged themselves in
geographic space. One of human geography's most essential expressions because it
MIDTERM 1 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Inclusive Development - ANSWER-The extent of equal economic and social
development opportunities for different population groups, especially minorities and
the poor.
Global Core - ANSWER-The constellation of countries with the most highly
developed and influential economies (anchored by the US , the 27 member countries
of the EU, East Asia's china and Japan; and Australia, New Zealand). Although the
global core is not a contiguous as a whole dominate international trade and
investment flows.
Global Periphery - ANSWER-All of the countries that lie outside the global core.
Economically, these countries are subordinate to those of the global core in terms of
development and international influence. Geographically, the global periphery is
constituted by the 8 realms that lie outside North America, Europe, East Asia, and
the Austral Realm.
The Relationship between Global Core and Global Periphery - ANSWER-The
contrasting spatial characteristics of and linkages between, the have (core) and have
not (periphery) components of a national regional or the global system.
Globalization - ANSWER-The gradual reduction of regional differences at the world
scale, resulting from increasing international cultural, economic, and political
interaction.
Migration - ANSWER-A change in residence intended to be permanent.
Borderland - ANSWER-General term for a linear zone that parallels a political
boundary. The most dynamic of these areas, such as those lining the US Mexico
border, are marked by significant cultural and economic interaction across the
boundary that separates them.
Transition Zone - ANSWER-An area of spatial change where the peripheries of two
adjacent realms or regions join; marked by a gradual shift (rather than a sharp break)
in the characteristics that distinguish these neighboring geographic entities from one
another.
Physiographic Region - ANSWER-A region within which there prevails substantial
natural landscape homogeneity, expressed by a certain degree of uniformity in
surface relief climate vegetation, and soils.
Contientinality - ANSWER-The variation of the continental effect on air temperatures
in the interior portions of the world's landmasses. The greater the distance from the
moderating influence of an ocean, the greater the extreme in summer and winter
, temperatures. Continental interiors also tend to be dry when the distance from
oceanic moisture sources becomes considerable.
Rain shadow Effect - ANSWER-The relative dryness in areas downwind of mountain
ranges resulting from orographic precipitation, wherein moist air masses are forced
to deposit most of their water content as they cross the highlands.
Federation - ANSWER-A country adhering to a political framework wherein a central
government represents the various subnational entities within a nation state where
they have common interests- defense, foreign affairs, and the like- yet allows these
various entities to retain their own identities and to have their own laws, policies and
customs in certain spheres.
Aquifer - ANSWER-An underground reservoir of water contained within a porous,
water bearing rock layer.
Residential Geography - ANSWER-The spatial distribution of a residential
population. The term is most often used by urban geographers to describe the
clustering of various social groups into the neighborhoods that form the residential
fabric of cities and suburbs.
Boreal Forest - ANSWER-The subarctic, most coniferous snowy forest that blankets
Canada south of the tundra that lines the Arctic shore; known as the taiga in Russia.
Continental Drift - ANSWER-The slow movement of continents controlled by the
processes associated with plate tectonics.
Tectonic Plate - ANSWER-The slabs of heavier rock on which the lighter rocks of the
continents rest. The plates are in motion, propelled by gigantic circulation cells in the
red hot, molten rock below. Most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are associated
with collisions of the mobile plates, as in the building of mountain chain.
Pacific Ring of Fire - ANSWER-Zone of crustal instability along tectonic plates
boundaries, marked by earthquakes and volcanic activity, that ring the Pacific Ocean
Basin.
Holocene - ANSWER-The current interglacial epoch (the warm period of glacial
contraction between the glacial expansions of an ice age) extended from 10,000
years ago to the present. Also known as the Recent Epoch
Global Climate Change - ANSWER-The shift in the characteristics and spatial
distribution of Earth's climates in response to a long term trend in atmospheric
warming.
Geospatial Data - ANSWER-Data pertaining to a particular location on or near the
Earth's surface.
Population Distribution - ANSWER-The way people have arranged themselves in
geographic space. One of human geography's most essential expressions because it
