Which of the following statement(s) concerning natural regions of the world is/are correct ? 1. Equatorial climatic regions have less urbanization 2. Mediterranean climatic regions have high level of urbanization 3. Equatorial climatic regions have high concentration of human population 4. Mediterranean climatic regions practice plantation farming Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1, 2 and 3
- (c)2 and 4
- (d)1 only
Correct — A, statements 1 and 2 only. Equatorial regions — the Amazon and Congo basins, the islands of Southeast Asia — carry dense evergreen rainforest, constantly high heat and humidity, heavily leached soils and a difficult disease environment, so they remain among the least urbanised and least populated parts of the world; statement 1 stands. Mediterranean regions are the opposite case, and have been for three thousand years: mild wet winters, dry sunny summers, a coastline that made trade easy, and an urban tradition running from the classical Greek and Roman cities to Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Los Angeles, Santiago, Cape Town and Perth today. Statement 2 stands too. Statements 3 and 4 are both false, and each is the direct opposite of a well-established fact.
- (b)1, 2 and 3 — Adds statement 3, which contradicts statement 1 in the very same list. If equatorial regions are lightly urbanised they cannot simultaneously be a zone of high population concentration — and in fact they are among the world's most sparsely peopled belts, however luxuriant the vegetation looks.
- (c)2 and 4 — Keeps the correct Mediterranean urbanisation claim but attaches plantation farming to it. Plantations — rubber, oil palm, coffee, cocoa, tea, sugarcane, banana — belong to the hot wet tropics. Mediterranean farming is orchard and vineyard farming: olives, grapes, citrus, figs and winter wheat.
- (d)1 only — Correctly rejects statements 3 and 4 but also drops statement 2, which is right. The Mediterranean basin and the other Mediterranean-climate lands are among the most heavily urbanised regions on Earth.
A natural region is a belt defined by a distinctive combination of climate, natural vegetation, soil and the human way of life it supports. The equatorial or hot wet type lies roughly within ten degrees of the equator, with temperatures near 27 degrees Celsius all year and heavy convectional rain every afternoon. The Mediterranean or warm temperate western-margin type lies between about thirty and forty-five degrees on the western sides of continents, with rain concentrated in winter and a hot, dry, cloudless summer — the reversal of the usual pattern, because the belt sits under westerlies in winter and under subtropical high pressure in summer.
The item is built out of two paired contrasts, and once you see the pairing the code falls out. Statements 1 and 3 are about the same region and say opposite things, so at most one can be true. Statements 2 and 4 are about the other region, and the second of them borrows a farming system from the wrong climatic belt. The reason equatorial regions stay thinly settled despite their fertility of appearance is that the nutrients are locked in the vegetation rather than the soil, so cleared land loses fertility quickly; the reason Mediterranean regions are so urban is that their summer drought pushed agriculture towards tree and vine crops and their harbours pushed the economy towards trade and towns very early.
- Equatorial regions have uniformly high temperature, heavy convectional rainfall, dense evergreen rainforest, leached soils and sparse population.
- Mediterranean regions have dry hot summers and mild wet winters, and are among the most urbanised parts of the world.
- Mediterranean agriculture is orchard and vineyard farming — olives, grapes, citrus, figs — together with winter wheat, not plantation cropping.
- Plantation agriculture is a tropical system growing a single cash crop such as rubber, oil palm, coffee, cocoa, tea or sugarcane.
- Under Koppen's scheme the equatorial type is Af and the Mediterranean type is Cs, where the small s marks the dry summer.
Statements 1 and 3 contradict each other, and statement 4 imports a tropical farming system into a temperate belt.
- Assuming dense vegetation implies dense population; the equatorial belt is luxuriant and thinly peopled at the same time.
- Attaching plantation farming to any warm region — it is specifically a hot wet tropical system.
- Missing that two statements in the same list contradict each other, which is often the fastest route into these items.
Natural-region items in NDA are usually statement sets pairing a climate type with its vegetation, farming or settlement pattern, and the error is nearly always a system borrowed from the neighbouring belt.
Consider the following statements: 1. In equatorial regions, the year is divided into four main seasons 2. In Mediterranean region, summer receives more rain 3. In China type climate, rainfall occurs throughout the year 4. Tropical highlands exhibit vertical zonation of different climates Which of these statements are correct?
- (a) 1, 2, 3 and 4
- (b) 1, 2 and 3
- (c) 1, 2 and 4
- (d) 3 and 4
Answer(d) 3 and 4
The same two regions in the same statement format, tested on climate rather than on settlement. It also fixes the Mediterranean rainfall regime — winter rain, dry summer — which is what rules out plantation farming there.
Which one of the following climatic regions of the world have a typical characteristic of seasonal reversal of wind ?
- (a) British type Climate
- (b) Mediterranean Climate
- (c) China type Climate
- (d) Monsoon Climate
Answer(d) Monsoon Climate
Uses the same list of world climatic types and rewards the same habit — knowing the one defining feature of each belt rather than a general impression of it.
Which of the following pairs of crop and product is/are correctly matched? 1. Food crop : Ragi 2. Cash crop : Jute 3. Plantation crop : Coconut Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1, 2 and 3
- (d) 3 only
Answer(c) 1, 2 and 3
Pins down what actually counts as a plantation crop — coconut, and by extension rubber, tea and coffee — which is precisely the category statement 4 of this item misplaces into the Mediterranean belt.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Olives, grapes and citrus fruits are the characteristic crops of which natural region?
- (a)Equatorial
- (b)Mediterranean
- (c)Savanna
- (d)Taiga
Answer(b) Mediterranean — the hot dry summer favours deep-rooted tree and vine crops rather than field crops or plantations.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following best explains why equatorial rainforest regions remain sparsely populated?
- (a)The regions receive very little rainfall
- (b)Temperatures fall below freezing for much of the year
- (c)Soils are heavily leached and lose fertility quickly once cleared
- (d)The regions lie above 3,000 metres in altitude
Answer(c) Soils are heavily leached and lose fertility quickly once cleared — the nutrients are held in the vegetation, not in the soil.