Map Reading and Interpretation Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: likely reasons for the pattern of land use

Interpretation is inference from combined evidence: steep north-facing slopes under woodland, flat valley floors under cultivation, settlements at springs and crossings. What the map supports is a reasoned explanation, not a measurement - populations, survey dates and subsurface geology are not on the sheet.

Answer: D

The first two describe sound practice. The third ignores selection and generalisation, which mean a sheet shows what its specification called for and omits a great deal that was undoubtedly present on the ground when the surveyor passed.

Answer: A

Correct answer: lettering supporting the geometric evidence

Place names carry historical information that the symbols do not. A name ending in ford beside a river crossing confirms what the geometry already suggests, and elements such as bridge, mouth, hill and market do the same - which is why names are read as evidence rather than skipped over as labels.

Answer: B

Selection removes whatever the specification did not call for, and generalisation merges or drops what will not fit at the scale. Absence on the sheet is therefore weak evidence about the ground and no evidence at all at small scales.

Answer: C

Six centimetres at 25,000 times is 1.5 kilometres, and at 4 kilometres an hour that takes 0.375 of an hour, or about 22 minutes. Converting the map measurement to ground distance before applying the speed is the necessary order.

Answer: D

Height, an artificial enclosing bank and a commanding outlook together point to defence. Each piece of evidence taken alone would be weak, which is why interpretation rests on the combination of several independent clues pointing the same way.

Answer: A

Correct answer: meridians converge while grid lines stay parallel

A grid is a square net laid on the projection, so its lines run parallel; meridians converge towards the pole. The angle between them - the grid convergence - is zero on the central meridian and grows towards the edges of the sheet, which is why it is stated in the marginal information.

Answer: B

Grid north lies 1 degree east of true north and magnetic north 3 degrees west of it, so the two are separated by 4 degrees in all. Because the two deviations fall on opposite sides of true north they add together rather than cancelling one another out.

Answer: C

The compass reads from magnetic north while the sheet is drawn on grid north, so the declination and convergence must be applied. Omitting the correction puts the plotted line several degrees out, which matters over any distance.

Answer: D

Small irregular fields suggest piecemeal clearance over centuries, while large rectangular ones suggest a planned enclosure carried out at one time. Ownership, cropping and value are not recorded by a topographic sheet.