Economic Activities and Regional Development Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The most important objective of regional planning is cultivating habitability and community building. Regional planning tries to improve the living environment and the quality of life of the people of a region, by creating a livable setting and a sense of community.

Conservation of forests, rationalisation of population distribution and a perfect mobility system are each useful aims, but they are means within the wider aim of making the region a good place to live. The other objectives therefore rank below habitability and community.

Answer: D

Regionalism is the expression of local individuality, local loyalties and cultural traits. It is the awareness of belonging to a region with its own identity, language and traditions, and it can be a healthy attachment.

Ignorance of other regions, parochialism and sectionalism are distorted or extreme forms of that attitude and not what regionalism expresses. That is why the correct statement is the one speaking of local individuality and cultural traits.

Answer: C

The matching is a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i. The theory of spatial integration is that of John Friedmann. The theory of innovation diffusion is that of Torsten Hagerstrand. The dependency theory is associated with A.G. Frank. The theory of circular and cumulative causation is that of Gunnar Myrdal. That order, iii, iv, ii, i, is option C. The other options pair at least two theories with the wrong authors.

Answer: A

Both the statements are true, and the reason is the correct explanation, in the key. In the neoclassical view of a competitive free market, regional disparities tend to narrow over time, since capital and labour move from one region to another in search of the highest returns, and this movement evens out wages and profits. The reason gives that mechanism, so option A is the answer. Myrdal argued the opposite, for cumulative divergence, but the assertion here rests on the free-market theory.

Answer: C

Nomadism is the response of man to limited resources spread over a large area. When food, water or pasture is scarce at any one place, people have to move from place to place over a wide area to find enough. Where resources are large and spread widely, or are large and concentrated, people can settle, and limited resources in a small area do not support a mobile life across wide distances. Option C is correct.

Answer: B

The best place for a big iron and steel plant on the map is the site marked d. It lies on the navigable river and on the railway, right at the coking coal, which is the bulkiest and costliest raw material to move, and it is near enough to the limestone and, along the river, to the iron ore and the sea port. Site c is at the iron ore but away from the coking coal, site b is at the soft coal, which is not suited to steel making, and site a is at the sea port, far from the coal. Option B is correct.

Answer: A

The ships on the North Atlantic sea route are forced south of the true great circle route by fog, where the cold Labrador current meets the warm Gulf Stream, and by icebergs brought south by the Labrador current at certain seasons, so (1) and (2) are correct. The strong polar winds and the landmass of north-eastern North America are not the reasons given for the detour. Option A is correct, and the options that add (3) or (4) are wrong.

Answer: C

Industries that manufacture individual components for the final assembly of a product are known as ancillary industries. A large factory, such as a car plant, buys parts from smaller firms which are set up for the purpose, and these are its ancillaries. Subsidiary industries is a loose term for smaller firms attached to a main unit, small scale and cottage industries are classes by size and by the way production is organised, not by the role of supplying parts. Option C is correct.

Answer: A

Location a has the maximum accessibility in the network shown. It lies at the junction of several routes, so more links reach it directly and it has the shortest paths to other places in the network. Locations b, c and d are at the ends of single routes, so they are connected by fewer links and are reached only by going through other nodes. Option A is correct.

Answer: D

All four statements are correct. International aid does help poor countries through transfers of resources from rich countries, but it divides the world into donor and recipient countries and makes donors more powerful in trade and power relations. It may force recipients to carry out economic reforms that leave the people worse off, and it often compels them to buy the goods of the donor nation, in tied aid. So option D, all are correct, is the answer, and the options that list only some of the statements leave out part of the criticism.