Resources, agriculture and industries
Class 8 Social Science · Geography · 30 questions with answers
Class 8 Geography looks like a list of crops and minerals and is not. Almost every question asks why something is where it is - why rice grows in the east, why steel plants sit near coalfields, why a resource is called renewable. Answers that name without explaining lose exactly half, every time.
- Classifies a resource as renewable or non-renewable and says why
- States the conditions a crop needs and links them to where it grows
- Explains why an industry is located where it is
- Distinguishes agro-based from mineral-based industries
Exercise 1 of 3 · 12 questions
Renewable or non-renewable? Give the reason.
Write the answer · Warm-up
Here’s one done for you
Forests are the interesting one, and the answer deserves the qualification. Trees regrow, so a forest is renewable - but only if it is cut no faster than it regenerates. Cleared faster than that and it behaves exactly like a non-renewable resource. A child who writes 'renewable' and stops has the label; a child who adds the condition has the idea the chapter is actually about.
- 1)Solar energy
- 2)Coal
- 3)Forests
- 4)Petroleum
- 5)Wind
- 6)Iron ore
- 7)Natural gas
- 8)Tidal energy
- 9)Groundwater
- 10)Copper ore
- 11)Biomass
- 12)Uranium
Answers
- 1) Renewable - it is replenished continuously and cannot be exhausted by use.
- 2) Non-renewable - it took millions of years to form, so it cannot be replaced within any useful human timescale.
- 3) Renewable, but conditionally - trees regrow, though only if felling is slower than replanting. Cleared faster than that, a forest behaves like a non-renewable resource.
- 4) Non-renewable - a fossil fuel formed over millions of years, and its stock is finite.
- 5) Renewable - it is generated continuously by the heating of the atmosphere and does not run down with use.
- 6) Non-renewable - a mineral deposit that took geological time to form and is not replaced once extracted.
- 7) Non-renewable - it formed over millions of years and cannot be replaced once used.
- 8) Renewable - the tides are caused by the moon and will keep occurring.
- 9) Renewable in principle, since rain refills it, but only if it is taken out no faster than it is replaced.
- 10) Non-renewable - the ore in the ground is a fixed quantity.
- 11) Renewable - crops, wood and dung are produced continuously.
- 12) Non-renewable - it is mined from the earth and cannot be made again.
Exercise 2 of 3 · 10 questions
Name the conditions the crop needs, and one region where it is grown.
Write the answer · Guided
Here’s one done for you
Tea needs a warm, moist climate and well-drained sloping land - and the second half is the part that explains the map. Tea is grown on hill slopes because standing water rots the roots, which is why Assam and Darjeeling rather than the flat plains. Conditions and location belong in the same answer; either one alone is half of it.
- 1)Rice
- 2)Wheat
- 3)Tea
- 4)Jute
- 5)Cotton
- 6)Sugarcane
- 7)Coffee
- 8)Maize
- 9)Millets (bajra and jowar)
- 10)Rubber
Answers
- 1) High temperature above about 25°C, high humidity and heavy rainfall over 100 cm. A kharif crop, grown in West Bengal, the eastern plains and the coastal regions.
- 2) Moderate temperature and rainfall while growing, with bright sunshine at harvest. A rabi crop, grown in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
- 3) Warm, moist climate with well-drained sloping land, since standing water damages the roots. Grown in Assam and around Darjeeling.
- 4) High temperature, heavy rainfall and alluvial soil. Grown mainly in West Bengal, and called the golden fibre.
- 5) High temperature, light rainfall, bright sunshine and a long frost-free period, with black soil suiting it well. Grown in Maharashtra, Gujarat and parts of the Deccan.
- 6) Hot, humid climate with 75-150 cm of rainfall and deep, rich soil. Grown widely in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
- 7) Warm, humid climate with well-drained slopes and shade. Grown mainly in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- 8) Moderate rainfall and warm weather with well-drained alluvial soil. Grown in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
- 9) Low rainfall and high temperature, on sandy or shallow soil where other cereals fail. Grown in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
- 10) Hot, wet climate with over 200 cm of rainfall and high humidity. Grown mainly in Kerala and parts of the north-east.
Exercise 3 of 3 · 8 questions
Answer in two or three sentences.
Write the answer · Practice
Here’s one done for you
Steel plants sit near coalfields because coal and iron ore are heavy and bulky, and transporting them costs far more than transporting the finished steel. Notice that the answer gives the reason before the examples. A list of four steel towns is worth very little on its own; the reason explains all four and would explain a fifth the child had never heard of.
- 1)Why are iron and steel plants usually located near coalfields and iron ore deposits?
- 2)What is the difference between an agro-based and a mineral-based industry? Give one example of each.
- 3)Why has the information technology industry grown in cities like Bengaluru rather than near any raw material?
- 4)Name three factors that decide where a factory is set up.
- 5)Why do sugar mills locate close to sugarcane fields?
- 6)Why do industries cluster together in one area?
- 7)What is a public sector industry, and why does a country need one?
- 8)Why can an industry be a source of pollution as well as of jobs?
Answers
- 1) Because both coal and iron ore are heavy, bulky raw materials and moving them is expensive. Locating the plant near them cuts transport costs sharply, which is why Jamshedpur, Bhilai, Rourkela and Bokaro sit where they do.
- 2) An agro-based industry uses products of agriculture as its raw material - cotton textiles or sugar, for example. A mineral-based industry uses minerals, such as iron and steel or cement.
- 3) Because its raw material is knowledge rather than a mineral. What it needs is a large supply of trained people, good communications and a favourable climate for investment, and Bengaluru offered all three.
- 4) Availability of raw material, labour and capital, along with power, transport and a market. Most industrial locations are a compromise between several of these rather than a result of one.
- 5) Because sugarcane loses its sugar content quickly once it is cut. The crop has to be crushed within a day or two, so the mill must be near the fields.
- 6) Because they share the same infrastructure - power, transport, banks, skilled workers and suppliers. Being close together lowers costs for all of them.
- 7) One owned and run by the government rather than by private owners. It matters because some industries are essential but not very profitable, and because a country may not want defence or basic steel left entirely to private hands.
- 8) Because the same plant that employs thousands also produces waste - smoke, effluent, noise. The jobs go to some people and the pollution often falls on others living nearby, which is why regulation matters.
While your child works
- Ask 'why there?' after every crop and every industry. Location questions are what this book is actually about.
- For resources, the interesting answers have conditions attached - forests are renewable only if replanting keeps pace with felling.
- Map work carries reliable marks and is lost to carelessness. Label every mark and use the key.