Review of the Physical Geography of Africa

1. Read each question and its choices and decide which is the correct answer Review of the Physical Geography of Africa

2. Which best describes the Sahara region? • Hot, dry desert • Rolling grassland • Tropical rainforest • Scattered grassland and scrub brush

3. What is a nomad? • Plantation owners who live along the coast • Industrial workers who live in African cities • One who wanders from place to place to find food and water • Thos who live and farm in villages on the edge of the desert

4. What were two of the most important trade goods carried across the Sahara Desert by camel caravan? • Gold and salt • Iron and silver • Gold and silver • Spices and wood

5. What has been the most reliable way to get across the Sahara over the centuries? • Camel • Horse • Railroad • Wagon

6. What is the name for a desert area that gets some rainfall or where there is a spring? • Nomad • Oasis • Savanna • Tuarag

7. Which phrase best describes the Sahel? • Rolling grasslands and low hills • An area that borders the desert • A desert made up of high sand dunes • Cleared land that was once rainforest

8. Why is farming so difficult in the African Sahel? • No rain falls in the Sahel at all • Thick grass makes farming difficult • Rainfall can vary widely from year to year • Farm animals in the Sahel eat up all the crops

9. What is the most common way people make a living in the Sahel? • Logging • Fishing and shipbuilding • Caravan trade in gold and salt • Herding and subsistence farming

10. Which is a consequence of cutting down trees for fuel in the Sahel? • Civil war • Desertification • Overpopulation • Wealthy loggers

11. How large is the region known as the African Sahel? • The Sahel is found along the Mediterranean Coast • The Sahel makes up the southern half of the country • The Sahel is found just along the west coast of the continent • The region extends from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean just south of the Sahara Desert

12. Which phrase best describes the savanna? • A semi-arid region just south of the Sahara Desert • An area of harsh desert in the north of the continent • Grasslands making up half of the African continent • An area of fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast

13. Which is found on the African savanna? • A heavy jungle canopy • A wide variety of animals • Dry areas with just occasional oasis • Lots of commercial logging businesses

14. Which is the greatest danger for the African savanna today? • Seasonal fires • Logging industries • The annual drought • Activities of people

15. What are some African countries trying to do to protect the savanna? • Setting up land aside as national parks • Setting up zoos for the animals that are threatened • Stopping all commercial logging in central Africa • Refusing to let people move into the savanna area

16. Which phrase BEST describes the rainforest? • Hot and dry desert • Semi-arid farmland • Rolling grassy plains • Humid and warm with thick vegetation

17. How does the African rainforest rank in the world in terms of size? • The largest in the world • The second largest in the world • One of the smallest in the world • Large but not in comparison with most others in the world

18. In what part of Africa is the largest rainforest found? • The Nile River basin • The Niger River basin • The Congo River basin • The Mediterranean coast

19. Beginning in the 1800s, what did European nations do that affected the African rainforest? • Cleared large areas of land for great plantations • Passed laws protecting the rainforests from development • Moved Europeans who had no homes to land in the rainforests • Helped African nomads relocate from the desert to farms in the rainforest

20. What is the definition of deforestation? • Eliminating a species of animal • Creating nature preserves to protect forests • Cutting down and clearing trees from the area • Forcing people to move from cities into traditional forest villages