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CBSE · Class 12 · Social Science

Human Geography: Nature and Scope

Standard difficulty · 20 questions · 40 marks · Time: 38 minutes

Name: Date: Score: ____ / 40

Write full answers in Sections B and C. Answers are on the last page — try every question first!

Section A — Choose the correct answer8 × 1 = 8 marks
1.
Which geographer stressed synthesis, seeing human geography as the combined study of human societies and the earth’s surface?
  1. Griffith Taylor
  2. Mahbub-ul-Haq
  3. Ellen C. Semple
  4. Ratzel
2.
Which social science does historical geography connect with most closely?
  1. history
  2. resource economics
  3. sociology
  4. tourism and travel management
3.
Which approach marked human geography in the 1970s?
  1. regional analysis
  2. spatial organisation (the quantitative revolution)
  3. exploration and description
  4. the humanistic and behavioural schools
4.
What does “environmental determinism” mean?
  1. people with little technology adapt to what nature dictates
  2. a person who depends on, fears and reveres nature
  3. people use the opportunities nature offers to create possibilities
  4. the imprint of human activities on the land
5.
Geographers borrow words from the human body. Which word fills the blank in “the ___ of a storm”?
  1. elbow
  2. eye
  3. profile
  4. neck
6.
Which of these was created by human beings on the stage of the physical environment?
  1. wild animals
  2. orchards
  3. climate
  4. landforms
7.
Suppose it is −33 °C outside in a cold northern town, and an office is heated to 23 °C. By how many degrees is the office warmer?
  1. 66 °C
  2. 10 °C
  3. 56 °C
  4. 33 °C
8.
Which idea is linked with Vidal de la Blache?
  1. a new view of how the earth and its people are interrelated
  2. the human development index
  3. the demographic transition model
  4. human geography as a synthesis of societies and the earth’s surface
Section B — Short answer8 × 2 = 16 marks
9.
Define human geography in your own words.
10.
Name the social science each sub-field connects with: (a) geography of social well-being (b) settlement geography
11.
Explain each idea: (a) naturalised human (b) humanised nature
12.
Which approach marked each period? (a) the late 1950s to the late 1960s (b) the 1990s
13.
Which body word do geographers use for each? (a) the soil (b) a glacier
14.
Suppose a letter once took 8 days to arrive and a message now takes 15 minutes by internet. How many minutes are 8 days, and how many times faster is the message?
15.
What did geographers do in each approach: (a) spatial organisation (b) the humanistic school
16.
A town’s winter air is −20 °C and its offices are kept at 23 °C. By how many degrees does heating raise the air, and which idea (determinism, possibilism or neo-determinism) does this show?
Section C — Longer answers4 × 4 = 16 marks
17.
Explain the naturalisation of humans and the humanisation of nature.
18.
Match each with its meaning: (a) environmental determinism (b) naturalised human (c) possibilism. Choose from: people with little technology adapt to what nature dictates; a person who depends on, fears and reveres nature; people use the opportunities nature offers to create possibilities.
19.
In a far-northern town the winter air is −20 °C, offices under glass domes are kept at 23 °C, and fruit is flown in from warm lands. (a) By how many degrees are the offices warmer? (b) Which idea does this show? (c) Name two problems caused when development ignores nature’s limits.
20.
Explain what geographers did under each approach, and say which came first: (a) regional analysis (b) spatial organisation
AmbifulWorksheets
Practice that never repeats
CBSE · Class 12 · Social Science

Answer key

Human Geography: Nature and Scope · AW-12SS-GHN-2026-V1 · For parents — fold back or tear off before handing the sheet to your child.

QAnswerWorking
1(d) Ratzel—
2(a) history—
3(d) the humanistic and behavioural schools—
4(a) people with little technology adapt to what nature dictates—
5(b) eye—
6(b) orchards—
7(c) 56 °C23 − (−33) = 56
8(a) a new view of how the earth and its people are interrelated—
9The study of the relationship between people and their physical environment, and of how human activities are spread over the earth’s surface.—
10(a) welfare economics (b) urban and rural planning—
11(a) a person who depends on, fears and reveres nature (b) nature that bears the marks of human effort—
12(a) spatial organisation (the quantitative revolution) (b) post-modernism—
13(a) profile (b) snout—
1411,520 minutes; 768 times faster8 × 24 × 60 = 11,520; ÷ 15
15(a) used computers and statistics to find mappable patterns (b) studied social well-being: housing, health and education—
1643 °C; possibilism (technology lets people overcome nature)23 − (−20)
17With little technology, people depend on and fear nature (naturalised humans). As technology grows they modify nature, leaving imprints such as farms, cities, ports and roads (humanised nature).—
18(a) people with little technology adapt to what nature dictates (b) a person who depends on, fears and reveres nature (c) people use the opportunities nature offers to create possibilities—
19(a) 43 °C (b) possibilism (c) any two: the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, global warming, retreating glaciers, degraded land23 − (−20)
20(a) Described every aspect of regions as parts of the whole earth (b) Used computers and statistics to find mappable patterns. Regional analysis came first.—