Question Bank
Fresh questions, deliberately different from the textbook’s own exercises. Write your answers on paper first, then reveal each answer to check.
A · Fill in the blanks 10 marks
- A book or collection of maps is called an ______________.
- The three important components of a map are distance, ______________ and symbols.
- Maps that mainly show natural features such as mountains and rivers are called ______________ maps.
- The Earth is not a perfect sphere because it is slightly ______________ at the poles.
- The imaginary line halfway between the two poles is the ______________.
- Latitudes and longitudes are both expressed in ______________.
- The Prime Meridian passes through ______________, an area of London in England.
- The Earth turns ______________ degrees in one hour.
- Indian Standard Time is ______________ hours and ______________ minutes ahead of GMT.
- The ancient Indian prime meridian was called ______________ and passed through the city of Ujjayinī.
B · True or false 10 marks
- In a map you look at the surface as if you are viewing it from the side.
- If the scale of a map is 1 cm = 500 m, then 4 cm on the map represents 2,000 m on the ground.
- Northeast and southwest are examples of cardinal directions.
- The Survey of India has fixed a standard set of map symbols for maps of India.
- A globe represents the Earth’s geography better than a flat map does.
- All meridians of longitude are equal in length.
- Latitude increases from 0° at the poles to 90° at the Equator.
- 180°E and 180°W are two different meridians.
- Places to the east of a given meridian have a later local time than places to its west.
- The International Date Line runs in a perfectly straight line along 180° longitude.
C · Match the following 6 marks
| # | Column A | Column B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Equator | (a) | 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT |
| 2 | Prime Meridian | (b) | 11 time zones |
| 3 | IST | (c) | Latitude 0° |
| 4 | Russia | (d) | Where a river meets the sea |
| 5 | Estuary | (e) | Longitude 0° |
| 6 | Varāhamihira | (f) | Astronomer of Ujjayinī |
D · Short answers 5 × 2 = 10 marks
D1 What is the scale of a map, and why is it needed?
The scale of a map states how a distance on the map relates to the real distance on the ground — for example, 1 cm = 500 m. It is needed because a very large area has to be fitted onto a small sheet of paper, and without the scale we could not work out real distances from the map.
D2 Explain the orange-peel activity and what it teaches us about mapping the Earth.
Peel an orange so that you have just three or four large pieces of skin, then try to flatten them on a table. You cannot do it without tearing them at the edges. This shows that the curved surface of a sphere cannot be shown accurately on a flat sheet of paper — which is why a globe represents the Earth better than a flat map.
D3 State two differences between a parallel of latitude and a meridian of longitude.
Any two of:
- Parallels run east–west; meridians run north–south (pole to pole).
- Parallels are full circles; meridians are half-circles.
- Parallels are unequal in length (the Equator is longest, shrinking towards the poles); meridians are all equal.
- Latitude is measured from the Equator (0°–90°); longitude from the Prime Meridian (0°–180°).
D4 How does the Prime Meridian divide the Earth, and how does the Equator divide it?
The Prime Meridian divides the Earth into the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. The Equator divides it into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.
D5 Why do some large countries have more than one time zone? Give two examples.
Some countries stretch so far from east to west that a single standard time would leave the clock badly out of step with the Sun at one end. So they are divided into several zones. The USA has six time zones and Russia has 11 — crossing Russia from east to west means resetting your watch 10 times.
E · Long answers 2 × 5 = 10 marks
E1 Explain how the system of coordinates works, using the market and chessboard examples — then how the same idea locates a place on Earth.
The market
Imagine a big market with neat rows of identical shops. To help a friend find you, you say: “Meet me at 6 pm at the 7th shop in the 5th row from the entrance.” Two numbers — the row and the shop — fix the position exactly.
The chessboard
On a chessboard, letters a to h run along one side and numbers 1 to 8 along the other, so every square has a unique name. When White opens by pushing the queen’s pawn two squares forward, the move is recorded as d2 to d4 — again, a letter and a number together identify each square.
On the Earth
The same principle is used on maps and globes. Latitude gives the distance north or south of the Equator, and longitude gives the distance east or west of the Prime Meridian. Taken together these two values are the coordinates of a place, and they pin down any point on the Earth’s surface — for example, Delhi lies at about 29°N latitude and 77°E longitude. All the parallels and meridians together form a grid over the globe, which is what makes this precision possible.
E2 Describe the relationship between longitude and time.
Why 15° per hour
The Earth spins on its axis from west to east, completing one full turn every 24 hours. A full turn is 360°. Dividing 360° by 24 hours gives 15° per hour — so every 15° of longitude corresponds to exactly one hour of time.
How local time changes
Because the Earth turns eastward, places to the east meet the Sun earlier. So moving eastward from the Prime Meridian you add an hour for every 15°: if it is 12 noon at Greenwich, it is 1 pm at 15°E and 2 pm at 30°E. Moving westward you subtract: 11 am at 15°W, 10 am at 30°W. This is why measuring a place’s longitude also tells us the time there.
Why standard time is needed
If every meridian kept its own local time, a single country would be running on dozens of slightly different clocks — hopelessly inconvenient for railways, offices and daily life. So most countries adopt one standard time, based on a meridian passing through the country. India uses Indian Standard Time, which is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT. These standard times are grouped into time zones, which broadly follow the 15° bands but bend to follow international borders so that a country is not split across two times.
F · HOTS 2 × 3 = 6 marks
Higher-order thinking. Reason it out rather than recalling a fact.
F1 Two cities on the same meridian, one at 60°N and one at 20°N. A student says their local times must differ. Is the student right?
The student is wrong. Local time depends only on longitude, not on latitude. Since both cities lie on the same meridian, the Sun reaches its highest point over both at the same moment, so their local time is identical.
What would differ is their climate, and the length of their days and seasons. The city at 20°N is nearer the Equator, so its climate is hotter (closer to ‘torrid’), while the city at 60°N is much nearer the pole and has a colder, more ‘frigid’ climate.
F2 A traveller flies east from Tokyo, crosses the Date Line on a Friday, and says it is now Thursday. Her cousin says she is wrong. Who is right?
The traveller is correct. The rule for crossing the International Date Line is that travelling eastward you subtract a day. So crossing on a Friday going east makes it Thursday — she genuinely does go back a day, even though she has been flying forwards in time on her watch.
Had she flown in the opposite direction — westward across the Date Line — she would have had to add a day, so Thursday would have become Friday. This is why the +12 and −12 time zones meet at that line: they show the same clock time but are a full day apart on the calendar.
Marks summary
| Section | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| A · Fill in the blanks | 10 | 10 |
| B · True / False | 10 | 10 |
| C · Match the following | 6 | 6 |
| D · Short answer | 5 | 10 |
| E · Long answer | 2 | 10 |
| F · HOTS | 2 | 6 |
| Total | 35 | 52 |