Climate, Landscapes and Life: The Tropics - Discovery Education

Name
CHECKING COMPREHENSION
Read the following sentences and circle the letters of the words that best fill each blank.
Distances north and south on the globe are measured in degrees 1 from 2 . The tropics lie between the 3 and 4 .
In the tropics, the sun 5 . Because of this, 6 . At sea level, temperatures 7 . The tropics can be divided into climatic regions
based on 8 . In the rainy tropics, the natural vegetation is dense rainforest, or 9 , where the forest floor has sparse vegetation
because 10 . The heavy rainfall feeds many large rivers. The Amazon 11 . Shifting cultivation, practiced in the rainy tropics, has
12 . Continents where there are large expanses of wet-dry and monsoon tropics include 13 . New Delhi, India, Bangkok, Thailand,
and Guangzhou, China are major cities in 14 . The world’s largest desert, 15 , stretches across 16 from 17 . Living
organisms in the desert survive through 18 . Perennial rivers that cross the deserts are called 19 . Because temperature
20 with elevation, the summits of high mountains, such as the Andes in the tropical highlands, are 21 . The montane temperate
zone of the tropical highlands supports 22 . The principal subsistence crop in the Americas is 23 which thrives in the tropical
highland. 24 , domesticated in the Andes, also grow well in the highlands. The world’s highest capital city, 25 , is found in the
highlands at an elevation of 12,000 feet.
1.
a) Celsius
b) Fahrenheit
c) of latitude
7.
a) rarely rise above 80˚ Fahrenheit
b) are usually above 115˚ Fahrenheit
c) never drop below freezing
2.
a) thermometer
b) equator
c) barometer
8.
a) the political regimes of countries located there
b) the seasonality and amount of precipitation they receive
c) their degrees of longitude
3.
a) arctic circle
b) antarctic circle
c) Tropic of Cancer
9.
a) selva
b) desert
c) savanna
4.
a) and the north pole
b) and the south pole
c) Tropic of Capricorn
10.
a) the region’s herbivores constantly devour the groundcover
b) little sunlight penetrates the tree canopy
c) no rainfall can penetrate the tree canopy
5.
11.
a) rises and sets at about the same time all year
a) is the longest river in the world
b) never dips below the horizon
b) frequently dries up in the summer heat
c) is farther from Earth than at latitudes closer to the poles
c) carries more water to the sea than the Earth’s next three largest
rivers combined
6.
a) there is at least a low level of daylight year ‘round
12.
b) there is little seasonal change in the length of days and nights a) damaged the environment of the rainy tropics by destroying large
c) there is a lower risk of sunburn in the tropics than elsewhere parts of the rainforest
b) increased the population’s agricultural output tenfold
c) had no impact on the local environment
10
© Copyright 2002 • AIMS Multimedia • Climate, Landscapes and Life: The Tropics • #2650