Social Science Short Question and answers
Subject – Geography Class – VII
Chapter – 1 Environment
Question1. What is environment?
Answer: Everything that we see in our surroundings forms environment. It is our basic life support system. It provides us air, water, food and land—the basic needs of our life.
Question2. Why is our environment changing?
Answer: Our environment is changing because our needs are increasing day by day. To fulfill these needs we often don’t think about the environment and start modifying it.
Question3. What are the basic components of natural environment?
Answer: The basic components of natural environment are—land, water, air, plants and animals.
Question4. What does lithosphere provide us?
Answer: Lithosphere provide us forests, grasslands for grazing land for agriculture and human settlements. It is a rich source of minerals.
Question5. Name different types of water bodies.
Answer: Rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, etc.
Question6. How is atmosphere important for us?
Answer: Atmosphere protects us from the harmful rays and scorching heat of the sun.
Question7. What do you see in the deserts? Name some animals.
Answer: We see camels, snakes, lizards and insects.
Question8. What is barter system?
Answer: Barter system is a method of trade in which goods are exchanged without the use of money.
Question9. Distinguish between biotic and abiotic environment with examples.
Answer: The world of living organisms is known as biotic environment. Example: plants and animals.
The world of non-living element is known as abiotic environment. Example: land.
Question10. How is environment important for us?
Answer: It is important for us because it is the provider of air, water, food and land— the basic necessities of life.
Chapter – 2 Inside Our Earth
Q1. What is called the uppermost layer of the earth? [Imp.]
Answer: It is called the crust.
Q2. What is the special feature of this layer? {Imp.]
Answer. It is the thinnest of all the layers
Q3. Name the main mineral constituent of the continental mass.
Answer: Silica and alumina
Q4. Name the constituents of the oceanic crust. [V. Imp.]
Answer: Silica and magnesium.
Q5. What is the radius of the core?
Answer: The radius of the core is about 3500 km.
Q6. What are the main constituents of the core?
Answer: The main constituents of the core are nickel and iron. It is usually known as nife.
Q7. What is the earth’s crust made of? [V.Imp.]
Answer: It is made up of different types of rocks.
Q8. What are called igneous rocks?
Answer: When the molten magma cools, it becomes solid. Rocks formed in this way are called igneous rocks.
Q9. What are fossils?
Answer: The remains of the dead plant and animals trapped in the layers of rocks are called fossils.
Q10. What happens when igneous and sedimentary rocks go under great heat and pressure?
Answer: They change into metamorphic rocks.
Chapter – 3 Our Changing Earth
Q1. What do you know about the lithospheric plates?
Answer: The earth’s crust consists of several large and some small, rigid, irregularly— shaped plates, Le., slabs which canny continents and the ocean floor.
Q2. How do the lithospheric plates move?
Answer: They move around very slowly, just a few millimeters each year.
Q3. What is a volcano?
Answer: A volcano is a vent or opening in the earth’s crust through which molten material erupts suddenly.
Q4. Define focus’ and ‘epicenter’.
Answer: The place in the crust where the movement starts is called the ‘focus’. The place on the surface above the focus is called the ‘epicenter’.
Q5. Name the three types of earthquake waves.
Answer:
P waves or longitudinal waves
S waves or transverse waves
L wave or surface waves.
Q6. What is a seismograph?
Answer: A seismograph is a machine which measures an earthquake.
Q7. Name the scale on which the magnitude of the earthquake is measured.
Answer: Richter scale.
Q8. Which earthquake is classified as a major earthquake?
Answer: An earthquake of 7.0 magnitudes is classified as a major earthquake.
Q9. Where is Victoria Falls located?
Answer: Victoria Falls is located on the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa.
Q10. What is a delta?
Answer: The collection of sediments from all the mouths forms a delta. It is triangular shaped landmass.
Q11. Name some coastal landforms.
Answer: Sea caves, sea arches, stacks and sea cliff.
Chapter – 4 Air
Q1. How does carbon dioxide create green house effect?
Answer: Carbon dioxide creates greenhouse effect by trappeing the heat radiated from the earth.
Q2. What is the significance of greenhouse gas?
Answer: Without the greenhouse gas the earth would have been too cold to line in.
Q3. What happens when air is heated?
Answer: When air is heated, it expands, becomes lighter and goes up.
Q4. What is the nature of cold air?
Ans. It has tendency to go down.
Q5. Why do green plants use carbon dioxide?
Answer: Green plants use carbon dioxide to make their food and release oxygen.
Q6. What is an important feature of Stratosphere?
Answer: Stratosphere contains a layer of ozone gas.
Q7. How is ozone important for us? [Imp.]
Answer: It protects us from the harmful effect of the sunrays.
Q8. What is temperature?
Answer: The degree of hotness and coldness of the air is known as temperature.
Q9. What is insolation?
Answer: Insolation is the incoming solar energy intercepted by the earth.
Q10. Why is there no air pressure on the moon?
Answer: There is no air on the moon and therefore no air pressure.
Chapter – 5 Water
Q1. What is terrarium?
Ans. It is an artificial enclosure for keeping small house plants. .
Q2. Which type of water do the ocean bodies and the seas contain?
Ans. They contain salty water.
Q3. What do you mean by salinity?
Ans. Salinity is the amount of salt in grams present in 1000 grams of water.
Q4. What is the average salinity of the oceans?
Ans. The average salinity of the oceans is 35 parts per thousand.
Q5. What is the salinity of Dead sea?
Ans. The salinity of Dead sea is 45 parts per thousand.
Q.6. Why do swimmers float in Dead Sea?
Ans. Swimmers float in Dead sea because the increased salt content makes it dense.
Q7. What is the significance of World Water Day?
Ans. On the occasion of World Water Day (22nd March) the need to conserve water is reinforced in different ways.
Q8. What is Tsunami? [V. Imp.]
Ans. Tsunami is a Japanese word that means ‘Harbour Waves’ as the harbours get destroyed whenever there is Tsunami.
Q9. What happens during high tide?
Ans. During high tide waves rise high and water covers much of the shore.
Q10. What happens during low tide?
Ans. During low tide water falls to its lowest level and recedes from the shore.
Subject – History Class – VII
Chapter – 1 Tracing Changes through A Thousand Years
Q1. Who was al-Idrisi?
Answer: al-Idrisi was an Arab cartographer.
Q2. Who is a ‘cartographer’?
Answer: Cartographer is one who draws a map.
Q3. What difference do you notice in the map drawn by al-Idrisi?
Answer: In the map drawn by al-Idrisi we find a completely different view. Here south India is shown at the present north India and Sri Lanka is the island at the top
Q4. Who used the term Hindustan for the first time and when?
Answer: Minhaj-i Siraj used the term ‘Hindustan’ for the first time in the thirteenth century.
Q5. What sources do the historians use for the study of a particular period of history?
Ans. The historians use the sources like coins, inscriptions, architectures and textual records for the study of specific period.
Q6. What do you mean by archives?
Answer: Archives were the places where manuscripts were collected.
Q7. Who were scribes?
Answer: Scribes were those professionals who used to copy down the manuscripts.
Q8. How did the scribes copy down the manuscripts?
Answer: Scribes copied down the manuscripts by hands.
Q9. What changes took place during 700 and 1750?
Answer: Many technologies like Persian wheel in irrigation, the spinning wheel in weaving, and firearms in combat made their appearance. Some new foods and beverages like potatoes, corn, chilies, tea and coffee also arrived in the subcontinent.
Q10. What factors contributed to the variety of developments?
Answer: The new technologies and innovations came to the subcontinent with the people who came from other areas and settled here.
Chapter – 2 New Kings and Kingdoms
Q1. Who was Dantidurga?
Answer: Dantidurga was a Rashtrakuta chief who turned to be a kshatriya after performing a ritual known as hiranya-garbha.
Q2. What was called ‘rent’?
Answer: Resources obtained from the producers were called ‘rent’.
Q3. Who paid revenue?
Answer: The traders paid revenue
Q4. What were ‘prashastis’?
Answer: Prashastis were the details depicting the rule and personality of the rulers
Q5. Who were the writers of Prashastis?
Answer: The learned brahmanas were the writers of the Prashastis.
Q6. Who was Kalhana?
Answer: Kalhana was a great Sanskrit poet from Kashmir.
Q7. What was ‘tripartite struggle’?
Answer: The tripartite sruggle was a long drawn conflict among the rulers of Gurjara- Pratihara, Rashtrakuta and Pala dynasties for control over Kanauj.
Q8. Who wrote Kitab al-Hind?
Answer: A great Arab poet al-Baruni wrote Kitab al-Hind
Q9. Who was Prithviraja in ?
Answer: Prithviraja III was afamous Chauhan ruler of Delhi and surrounding regions during 1168-1192.
Q10. Who destroyed the temple of Somnath?
Answer: Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, a ruler of Afghanistan, destroyed the temple of Somnath.
Chapter – 3 The Delhi Sultans
Q1. Who defeated the Tomara Rajputs and when?
Answer: The Chauhans of Ajmer defeated the Tomara Rajputs in the middle of the 12th century.
Q2. When did the Delhi Sultanate lag its foundation?
Answer: The Delhi Sultanate laid its foundation in the beginning of the thirteenth century.
Q3. Name the five dynasties that together made the Delhi Sultanate.
Answer:
Early Turkish rulers (1206—1290)
Khalji dynasty (1290—1320)
Tughluq dynasty (1320—1414)
Sayyid dynasty (1414—1451)
Lodi dynasty (1451—1526).
Q4. Mention the sources that provide a lot of information about the Delhi Sultans.
Answer: Inscriptions, coins, architecture and history written in Persian by learned authors are some of the most important sources that provide a lot of information about the Delhi Sultans.
Q5. Why did the authors of tawarikh write their histories for Sultans?
Answer: They did so in the hope of rich rewards.
Q6. Why was Raziyya removed from the throne? [V. Imp.]
Answer: Being a woman ruler she was not favoured by anyone. She ruled just for four years and was finally dethroned in 1240.
Q7. What is a mosque called in Arabic?
Answer: It is called a masjid.
Q8. What is the literal meaning of mosque?
Answer: It refers to a place where a Muslim prostrates in reverence to Allah.
Q9. What is called the qibla?
Answer: The direction towards which Muslims turn while offering prayer or namaz.
Q10. Why did the early Delhi Sultans favor their slaves?
Answer: The slaves were totally dependent on their master. Therefore the Sultan could trust and rely upon them.
Chapter – 4 The Mughal Empire
Q1. Why was it a difficult task for rulers of the Middle Ages to rule the Indian subcontinent?
Answer: It was because people of diverse backgrounds and cultures lived here.
Q2. Who was Genghis Khan?
Answer: He was the ruler of the Mongol tribes, China and Central Asia.
Q3. Who was Babur?
Answer: He was the first Mughal emperor and reigned from 1526 to 1530
Q4. Name the battlefield where Ibrahim Lodi was defeated by Babur?
Answer: Panipat.
Q5. To whom did Babur defeat at Chanderi?[V- Imp.]
Answer: Babur defeated the Rajputs at Chanderi
Q6. What forced Hwnayun to flee to Iran?
Answer: After being defeated by Sher Khan at Chausa in 1539 and Kanauj in 1540 Humayun fled to Iran.
Q7. At what age did Akbar become the emperor of the Mughal Empire?
Answer: Akbar became the emperor of the Mughal Empire at the age of 13.
Q8. Who was the regent of Akbar?
Answer: Bairam Khan.
Q9. How is Prince Khurram better known as in the Indian History?
Answer: Price Khurram is better known as Emperor Shah Jahan in the Indian History.
Q10. Who was victorious in the conflict over succession amongst Shah Jahan’s sons?
Answer: Aurangzeb was victorious.
Chapter – 5 Rulers And Builders
Q1. Why was limestone cement used in construction of large structures?
Answer: Limestone cement was very high-quality cement, which, when mixed with stone chips hardened into concrete. This made construction of large structures easier and faster.
Q2. How did the Persian court chronicles describe the Sultan?
Answer: Persian court chronicles described the Sultan as the ‘Shadow of God’.
Q3. Name the ruler who won universal respect for constructing a large reservoir just – outside Delhi-i kuhna?
Answer: Sultan Iltutmish.
Q4. What are the special features of Humagun’s tomb?
Answer: (a) It has a central towering dome.
(b)It has a tall gateway (pishtaq).
Q5. What was mahamandapa?
Answer: It was the main hall in the temple where dances were performed.
Q6. Name the temple built by king Rajarajadeva.
Answer: Rajarajeshvara temple.
Q7. When was the tomb of Hanumaun built?
Answer: It was built between 1562 and 1571.
Q8. Who constructed the Kandariya Mahadeva temple?
Answer: King Dhangadeva of the Chandela dynasty constructed the Kandariya Mahadeva temple.
Q9. Where was Shah Jahan’s capital in the early years of his reign?
Answer: It was at Agra
Q10. What is the special feature of Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar’s capital?
Answer:Many of the buildings show the influence of the architectural styles of Gujarat and Malwa.
Chapter – 6 Towns, Traders and Craftspersons
1. What do temple towns represent?
Answer: Temple towns represent a very important pattern of urbanisation.
2. Why did the rulers endow temples with grants of land and money?
Answer: They did so in order to carry out elaborate rituals, feed pilgrims and priests and celebrate festivals.
3. How did pilgrims contribute to the temples?