CHAPTERS 6 -‐ 7
NORTH AFRICA AND SOUTHWEST ASIA SUB-‐SAHARAN AFRICA
1. Which statement best describes the governments in North Africa/Southwest Asia today?
a) They are democratic and representational.
b) At least half of their leaders are women.
c) They encourage complete freedom of the press.
d) They have parliaments and elections, but the parliaments have limited powers.
2. Which of the following groups considers itself Arab?
a) Iranians b) Turks c) Kurds d) Iraqis
3. What term does the U.S. Department of State use to describe Gaza and the West Bank?
a) Palestinian Territories b) Disputed Zone c) Occupied Zone d) Occupied Palestinian Territories
4. The nomadic people of the Arabian Peninsula are known as ______, while the nomadic people of North Africa are known as ______.
a) Kurds, Bedouin b) Bedouin, Berbers c) Berbers, Kurds d) Yemenis, Moroccans
5. The rift between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate is now filled by the:
a) Persian Gulf. b) Mediterranean Sea. c) Red Sea. d) Dead Sea.
6. The desert found on the Arabian Peninsula is the:
a) Maghreb. b) Rub’al Khali. c) Sahara. d) Kalahari.
7. In North Africa and Southwest Asia, which of the following effects is a direct result of the growth of industrial (modernized, mechanized) agriculture and manufacturing?
a) Higher rates of human fertility
b) Less dependence on domestic oil production
c) Greater consumption of water resources
d) Urban-‐to-‐rural migration
8. Which of the following describes the basic environmental impact of groundwater pumping, as practiced in North Africa and Southwest Asia and elsewhere in the world where demands for water are high?
a) Salinization b) Waterlogged soils c) Land subsidence d) Soil erosion
9. Most of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water is the result of: a) seawater desalination.
b) groundwater pumping.
c) a system of dams and dikes.
d) runoff from cooling systems.
10. Which of the following happens when nomadic people take up settled ranching? a) The social structure of the nomadic tribe falls apart
b) The settled society uses much more water than the nomadic society did
c) The animals raised become more sinewy due to lack of exercise
d) Women who ran the households in the nomadic society end up taking part in more animal husbandry and neglecting their families
11. Which of the following statements describes the relationship between agriculture and gender roles in ancient North Africa/Southwest Asia?
a) The development of agriculture may have led to markedly distinct roles for men and women.
b) The roles played by men and women in hunting/gathering societies remained intact as societies became more agricultural.
c) In pre-‐agricultural societies, men had more status than women.
d) Inheritance lines and lineage were more important in hunting/gathering societies than in settled agricultural societies.
12. The textbook raises the idea that as societies based on irrigated agriculture became more complex which of the following occurred?
a) Gender roles were institutionalized.
b) Nutrition quality of diets improved.
c) Urban populations declined.
d) Wars over water resources erupted.
13. Which of the following was true of the Ottoman Empire?
a) It discouraged architectural and building efforts.
b) It included modern-‐day Spain and Portugal.
c) It encouraged religious tolerance among conquered peoples.
d) Its capital was modern-‐day Ankara, Turkey.
14. How many times per day are Muslims called to prayer?
a) 3 b) 5 c) 8 d) 10
15. The term hajj represents which of the following?
a) Religious law of Islam
b) Collection of Muhammad’s writings
c) Pilgrimage to the city of Makkah (Mecca)
d) Holy war against non-‐Arabs
16. Islamic religious law is known as:
a) Sunni. b) Shi’a. c) shari’a. d) hajj.
17. Which of the following is NOT among the five pillars of Islamic practice?
a) Seclusion of women
b) Pilgrimage to the Islamic holy places
c) Obligatory almsgiving (2 to 3 percent of one’s income)
d) Daily prayer at one or more of five times during the day
18. The split in Islam between the Sunnis and Shi’ites was caused by:
a) competing claims to land.
b) disagreements over the interpretation of shari’a law.
c) disagreements over Muhammad’s successor.
d) conflicts over the burial place of Muhammad.
19. Which of the following is NOT true in traditional Islamic societies?
a) The head of the family is nearly always male.
b) Widowed or divorced women typically come under the tacit supervision of a man, perhaps a father or brother.
c) Men are the key decision makers.
d) Educated unmarried women tend to live in women’s residences that are closely supervised by Muslim matrons.
20. Why are women in rural Islamic society less likely to be strictly secluded from public spaces?
a) People living in rural places tend not to strictly subscribe to Islam and its restrictions on women’s activities.
b) Families in rural society are matriarchal, giving women the power to interpret Islamic strictures less rigidly.
c) The tasks that women are obligated to carry out must be performed outside the home.
d) As reflected in the large size of traditional rural families, taboos on female sexuality are less strict in rural places.
21. The unusually large number of males in Qatar over the age of 15 is the result of:
a) the abortions of female fetuses.
b) the chromosomal imbalances of the country’s women.
c) the large number of male guest workers.
d) a very low birth rate in that country.
22. Which of the following is a critique of global culture held by many Muslims?
a) It leads to the erosion of traditional values.
b) It involves technology that is outlawed by traditional Islam.
c) It promotes the community interest over that of the individual.
d) It promotes Christianity over all other religions.
23. All secular countries exhibit which of the following characteristics?
a) Their leaders are monarchs who inherited the position.
b) Their populations are ethnically homogeneous.
c) Their leaders are popularly elected.
d) The state is theoretically neutral in matters of religion.
24. Which of the following describes the aim of the Zionist movement?
a) Elimination of non-‐Muslim people from Jerusalem
b) Independence for Britain’s Southwest Asian colonies
c) Creation of a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland
d) The removal of all Jewish people from Palestine
25. Which of the following statements describes the pattern of human settlement and economic activity in the Maghreb?
a) Dispersed among small, well-‐watered points connected like beads on a string by ephemeral trails through the desert
b) Concentrated along the narrow zone between the Atlantic Ocean/Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains
c) Nearly all located south of the Atlas Mountains around the perimeter of large inland lakes
d) Concentrated on the western coast of the Mediterranean Sea and in the Nile Delta region
26. Which of the following describes the pattern of settlement in Sudan?
a) Most people are concentrated in the Red Sea coastal zone.
b) Most people live along the Nile River and its major tributaries.
c) Nearly all people live in two huge cities in the southern region.
d) Virtually all people live within the Nile Delta region.
27. Which of the following is true of Saudi Arabia?
a) Its wealth is based on trade in craft goods with other parts of Asia.
b) The country’s few opportunities for young people and lack of forums for public discussion may be two causes of Islamist sentiment in the country.
c) The Saud family is in perpetual conflict with the Wahabi clerics.
d) The nation remains undeveloped with no cities, despite oil wealth.
28. What do the countries of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq have in common?
a) Significant populations of Kurds
b) Primary language spoken
c) Economic orientation to Europe
d) Theocratic government
29. Which is NOT true of the physical geography of the African continent?
a) Its coastline is home to many natural harbors.
b) Its physical geography has long hindered transport.
c) The continent’s surface is basically a plateau bordered by narrow coastal lowlands.
d) It was most likely the center of Pangaea.
30. In Africa, tropical wet climates transition into seasonally wet/dry tropical woodlands, followed by another transition into:
a) savanna. b) tundra. c) taiga. d) wetlands.
31. Which of the following is a criticism sometimes made of agroforestry?
a) It requires more intensive use of resources than traditional methods.
b) It is not consistent with the goals of the Green Belt Movement.
c) It sometimes brings invasive species onto the African continent.
d) It simply switches agriculture from one crop to another.
32. Which is not one of the four (4) Pillars of a State talked about in class relating to Political Geography?
a) type of governmentb) defined territory and boundaries
c) population characteristicsd) organization and infrastructure
33. Most African famines have been caused by:
a) drought. b) volcanic eruptions. c) political instability. d) global warming.
34. Which of the following events involving Europe and Africa occurred during in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century?
a) Europeans began selling Africans as slaves in the Americas.
b) Europe established formal colonies in Africa.
c) The Portuguese became the first Europeans to reach West Africa.
d) Europeans brought high-‐yield agriculture to Africa.
35. The only two African nations never colonized by Europe are:
a) Egypt and Libya. b) Chad and Sudan. c) Liberia and Ethiopia. d) Togo and Benin.
36. Which of the following statements describes the people known as the Boers?
a) African Bantu peoples who willingly adopted European practices and values
b) British merchants who established early trade between Europe and Africa
c) Dutch immigrant farmers who were among the first Europeans to settle in Africa
d) African colonial subjects of Germany who resisted external political control
37. The first African state to achieve independence from Europe was:
a) Ghana. b) Egypt. c) South Africa. d) Botswana.
38. Which of the following does NOT reflect the lasting influence of the colonial period on African societies?
a) Many independent African governments are undemocratic.
b) Europeanized elites usually dominate government and the economy.
c) African economies depend on the export of raw materials.
d) African governments effectively redistribute wealth to an impoverished majority.
39. Which of the following reflects a problem associated with the informal economy in sub-‐Saharan Africa?
a) Profits are unreliable.
b) It produces more tax revenue for the state.
c) Profits are stable and have led to increased living standards.
d) Incomes of those it employs are increasing.
40. Among the following, which is the most obvious European legacy at the root of many armed conflicts in sub-‐Saharan Africa?
a) National borders
b) Ethnic discrimination
c) Environmental destruction
d) Socialist values
41. Which of the following provides the most adequate description of the practice of genocide?
a) Intentional killing of newborn babies and, sometimes, older children
b) Illegitimate expulsion of immigrants by agents of a state government
c) Deliberate destruction of an ethnic, racial, or political group
d) Suppression of a group of people due to their skin color or ethnic background
42. Which of the following is NOT true of population patterns in sub-‐Saharan Africa?
a) Population densities are very high in some places and very low in others.
b) Rural areas are almost always under-populated.
c) Sub-‐Saharan populations are growing faster than in any other region on earth.
d) More people in sub-‐Saharan Africa are surviving to long enough to reproduce, which is leading to a drastic population increase.
43. Which of the following statements describes a typical squatter settlement in sub-‐Saharan Africa?
a) Communities dating from the colonial period where foreign administrators lived
b) Villages built on lands set aside for farmers displaced by corporate agriculture
c) Dense assemblages of shanties built by poor urban migrants in need of housing
d) Tent villages erected on lands appropriated by the state for export agriculture 5
44. The leading cause of death in sub-‐Saharan Africa is:
a) malaria. b) dengue. c) HIV-‐AIDS. d) narcolepsy.
45. Given the nature of gender roles in rural sub-‐Saharan Africa, which of the following situations is LEAST likely to occur?
a) A male will make long daily or weekly commutes for work.
b) A woman will prepare nearly all food for the household.
c) A woman will migrate looking for an urban job.
d) A man will have fewer domestic duties.
46. The cultural reason underlying female genital mutilation is most likely:
a) the desire to keep the birth rate low.
b) to ensure that women are virgins in marriage and have interest in sex only for procreation.
c) to ease women’s pain in childbirth.
d) to form a bond between mother and daughter.
47. In which African nations are animist beliefs practiced by a large majority of the population?
a) Nigeria and Chad b) Egypt and Algeria c) Togo and Benin d) Ethiopia and Somalia
48. The country sometimes called the “microcosm of Africa” because it is home to more than 250 different ethnic groups is:
a) Ghana. b) Congo. c) Cameroon. d) Burkina Faso.
49. The two West African countries that sponsored a child army in the 1980s and 1990s were:
a) Togo and Benin. b) Niger and Nigeria.
c) Burkina Faso and Guinea. d) Liberia and Sierra Leone.
50. What cacao-‐producing country was pushed into civil war in 2002 by regional inequality and instability in Liberia?
a) Sierra Leone b) Benin c) Togo d) Côte d’Ivoire
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ESSAYS QUESTIONS ON NEXT PAGE
ANSWER THREE (3) OF THE FOLLOWING ESSAYS (3-‐5 SENTENCES EACH)
-‐Explain what the ITCZ is and how it brings rain to different parts of Africa. How is the ITCZ related to the locations of deserts?
-‐Describe the ecosystem of the Sahel and explain why it is particularly fragile. What are some of the effects of desertification on the Sahel?
-‐Explain how Africa’s dependence on exporting commodities has prevented it from developing at the same rate as other regions.
-‐Explain the causes of the recent acts of piracy by Somalians.
-‐Discuss the reasons for building dams and their environmental effects.
-‐Explain the concept of virtual land and how countries are using it to improve food security.
-‐Describe the basic environmental principles inherent in the Islamic religion. What are three problems that show that Muslims, much like other people in the world, have not always adhered to these principles?
-‐Discuss the nature of gender roles in North Africa and Southwest Asia and how the obligations they assign and opportunities they either permit or circumscribe reflect a particular geography of gender in terms of the typical spaces that each gender occupies in everyday life.
-‐Discuss how such elements of material culture as architecture and clothing reflect traditional attitudes toward women in Islamic society.
-‐Discuss the conditions under which the region’s oil-‐producing countries finally reaped the financial benefits from their oil resources and how, despite acquiring enormous wealth, they remained dependent on the West (North America and Europe) several decades later.
-‐Discuss the major difference(s) between the people in the north and those in the south of Sudan and discuss the roots of the civil war between those two regions.