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7th Grade Semester Final Study Guide
Reading and Comprehension questions-Do Not rush through reading these. All of the
answers to the questions are there in the paragraph.
Chapter 6
List different altitude zones in Mexico
Tierra Fria (cold land) 6,500 (2,000 m)
Tierra Templada (moderate or temperate land) 2,500 feet (760m)
Tierra caliente (hot land) 0 feet (sea level)
Different types of government
Communism-Citizens share ownership of all businesses and resources.
Oligarchy- What is an example of an oligarchy? Monarchy
Know
Central America
South America
*Capital of Brazil is Brasilia
*Brazil’s escarpment drops into the Atlantic Ocean
*The Panama River is the geographic feature separates the two regions of Paraguay
*Peru is the South American country that has the largest Native American population?
Pay attention to the maps provided on the test! This is one example below.
[What is the purpose of the Niger River regarding the rise of empires near or in the
Sahara?
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*Know geography of Caribbean Islands—Rugged mountains, highlands, and plains
drained by huge river systems
Pay attention to all maps provided on the test!!
*A Region is an area that has at least one characteristic in common
*FREE TRADE ZONE is a place where people can buy goods from other countries
without paying taxes.
*Know what countries are located in Central America
 Belize,
 Costa Rica,
 El Salvador,
 Guatemala,
 Honduras,
 Nicaragua,
 Panama
*Know what countries are located in South America
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Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
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Know your geographic terms
*Absolute location--Degrees North; Degrees East; Degrees South; Degrees West
* A road map is an example of a Special purpose map?
Types of economy
*Traditional economy—generation to generation
*Market economy—the government does not control vital resources, valuable goods or
any other major segment of the economy. In this way, organizations run by the people
determine how the economy runs, how supply is generated, what demands are
necessary, etc.
*Command economy—a large part of the economic system is controlled by a
centralized power; often, a federal government. This kind of economy tends to develop
when a country finds itself in possession of a very large amount of valuable resource(s).
The government then steps in and controls the resource(s). Often the government will
own everything involved in the industrial process, from the equipment to the facilities.
*Mixed economy--A mixed economic system is just like it sounds (a combination of
economic systems), but it primarily refers to a mixture of a market and command
economy.
*The Great Lakes were formed by glaciers
*The Andes Ranges are the source of the Amazon River
Read all of this and know this!
Caribbean Island: The Caribbean climate is tropical, moderated to a certain extent
by the prevailing northeast trade winds. Individual climatic conditions are strongly
dependent on elevation. At sea level there is little variation in temperature, regardless of
the time of the day or the season of the year. Temperatures range between 24°C and
32°C. In Kingston, Jamaica, the mean temperature is 26°C, whereas Mandeville, at a
little over 600 meters high in the Carpenters Mountains of Manchester Parish, has
recorded temperatures as low as 10°C. Daylight hours tend to be shorter during
summer and slightly longer during winter than in the higher latitudes. The conventional
division, rather than the four seasons, is between the long rainy season from May
through October and the dry season, corresponding to winter in the northern
hemisphere.
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Even during the rainy period, however, the precipitation range fluctuates greatly.
Windward sides of islands with mountains receive much rain, whereas leeward sides
can have very dry conditions. Flat islands receive slightly less rainfall, but its pattern is
more consistent. For example, the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica record around
558 centimeters of rainfall per year, whereas Kingston, on the southeastern coast,
receives only 399 centimeters. Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, has an average
annual rainfall of 127 centimeters, while Bathsheba on the central east coast receives
254 centimeters--despite the fact that Bathsheba is only about 27 kilometers away by
road. Recording stations in the Northern Range in Trinidad measure some 302
centimeters of rainfall per year, while at Piarco Airport on the Caroni Plains the
measurement is only 140 centimeters. Most of the rainfall occurs during short heavy
outbursts during daylight hours. In Jamaica, about 80 percent of the rainfall occurs
during the day. The period of heaviest rainfall usually occurs after the sun has passed
directly overhead, which in the Caribbean islands would be sometime around the middle
of May and again in early August. The rainy season also coincides with the disastrous
summer hurricane season, although Barbados, too Far East, and Trinidad and Tobago,
too far south, seldom experience hurricanes.
Hurricanes are a constant feature of most of the Caribbean, with a "season" of their own
lasting from June to November. Hurricanes develop over the ocean (usually in the
eastern Caribbean) during the summer months when the sea surface temperature is
high (over 27°C) and the air pressure falls below 950 millibars. These conditions create
an "eye" about 20 kilometers wide, around which a steep pressure gradient forms that
generates wind speeds of 110 to 280 kilometers per hour. The diameter of hurricanes
can extend as far as 500 to 800 kilometers and produce extremely heavy rainfalls as
well as considerable destruction of property.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
Overall the Caribbean is comprised of more than 7,000 islands. That number
includes islets (very small rocky islands); cay's (small, low islands composed largely of
coral or sand) and a few inhabited reefs: See Belize.
The largest islands in the Caribbean are Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (divided into
the two separate political units of Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto
Rico.
THE ANTILLES: The majority of the Caribbean islands (called the West Indies) form a
large arc extending eastward from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and south from the
Florida peninsula in the United States, ending off the northeastern coastline of South
America.
The Lesser Antilles, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the
Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos and Greater Antilles all form the West Indies.
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The Lesser Antilles begin to the east of Puerto Rico. This long chain of smaller islands,
bordered in the east by the Atlantic Ocean, curve southward, terminating in Trinidad just
off the northern coast of Venezuela.
Those Lesser Antilles are subdivided into the Leeward Islands group in the north and
the Windward Islands group in the south. Also included in the Antilles are the Leeward
Antilles consisting of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and a small group of Venezuelan islands.
VOLCANOES: Most of the Caribbean is volcanic in origin, and many of the smaller (as
well as larger) islands have a central volcanic peak or a mountainous interior.
Visual evidence of that ancient volcanic activity can be seen on the black (volcanic)
sand beaches of some of the islands like Dominica and Puerto Rico.
There is ongoing seismic activity in the Caribbean, as a number of volcanoes are
considered active; they include Mt. Soufriere on St. Lucia, as well as those in Dominica,
Grenada and St. Vincent.
MOUNTAINS: A number of significant mountain ranges stretch across the Caribbean,
specifically in Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The highest point
in the Caribbean is Pico Duarte at 3098 m (10,164 ft), located on the island of
Hispaniola, in the Dominican Republic.
RAINFORESTS: Rainforests are found across the Caribbean, with those on Dominica
and Jamaica, the most prominent. Most islands have several (small) waterfalls, normally
located in the higher elevations.
CORAL REEFS: The Caribbean is home to about 9% of the world's coral reefs,
covering about 52,000 sq. km (20,000 sq. miles). These reefs are important
geographical features and islands like Cozumel are world famous for same.
RIVERS AND LAKES: There are a scattering of small lakes and rivers across the
Caribbean, with the most significant ones on the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola and
Trinidad and Tobago.
The largest lake in the Caribbean is Lake Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic at 265
sq. km (102 sq. miles). Other lakes of note are located in Cuba; Laguna de Leche at
67.2 sq. km (25.9 sq. mi), and the man-made Zaza Reservoir, at 113.5 sq. km (43.8 sq.
mi).
As for rivers, there are over 400 relatively small ones in the Caribbean, as well as many
narrow streams that frequently run dry in summer. The longest river on a Caribbean
Island is in Cuba, where the Cauto flows for 230 mi (370 km) from its source in the
Sierra Maestra.
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BODIES OF WATER: The major bodies of water in the Caribbean include the Atlantic
Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and to a smaller extent, the Gulf of Mexico.
The Caribbean Sea itself is one of the largest salt water seas on the planet with an area
of about 2,754,000 sq. km (1,063,000 sq. miles). Its deepest point is the Cayman
Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m (25,220 ft.) below sea
level.