How map work is tested
You get an outline map of the world. Mark each feature with a small symbol and write its name neatly. Map work carries about 5 marks.
- Areas (farming): shade them.
- Cities (ports, airports, terminals): a dot and a name.
- Waterways: a thick line with its two ends named.
Use the equator and the tropics as guide lines.
Areas of gathering, herding, livestock, grain and mixed farming
Gathering
Gathering means taking food straight from nature: hunting, fishing, collecting fruit and roots. It survives where farming is hard: the Amazon basin, the Congo basin, northern Canada and the islands of South-East Asia.
Nomadic herding
Nomads are people who keep moving. They move with camels, goats, sheep, yaks or reindeer to find grass and water. Areas: Sahara and Arabia, Central Asia, the tundra of the far north, and south-west Africa.
Commercial livestock rearing (ranching)
Large fenced farms called ranches keep cattle and sheep for sale. Areas: western USA, Pampas and Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand.
Extensive commercial grain farming
Wheat on huge farms using machines. It grows on temperate grasslands: Prairies (North America), Steppes (Eurasia), Pampas (Argentina), Downs (Australia) and Canterbury plains (New Zealand).
Mixed farming
Crops and animals on the same farm. Areas: north-west Europe, eastern USA, parts of Eurasia.
Transcontinental railway terminals
A transcontinental railway crosses a whole continent. A terminal is the end station.
| Railway | Terminals |
|---|---|
| Trans-Siberian (longest double-track line) | St Petersburg – Vladivostok |
| Trans-Canadian | Halifax – Vancouver |
| Union and Pacific (USA) | New York – San Francisco |
| Australian transcontinental | Sydney – Perth |
Major sea ports and airports
Sea ports
- Europe: London, Hamburg, North Cape
- North America: Vancouver, San Francisco, New Orleans
- Africa: Suez, Durban, Cape Town
- Asia: Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Aden, Karachi, Kolkata
- Australia: Perth, Sydney, Melbourne
Airports
- Asia: Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai, Jeddah, Aden
- Africa: Johannesburg, Nairobi
- Europe: Moscow, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome
- North America: Chicago, New Orleans, Mexico City
- South America: Buenos Aires, Santiago
- Oceania: Darwin, Wellington
Tip: a port is always on a coast. An airport like Nairobi or Moscow can be far inland.
Suez, Panama, Rhine, St Lawrence waterways
- Suez Canal (1869, about 193 km): joins the Mediterranean Sea (Port Said) and the Red Sea (Suez). No locks, because both seas are at almost the same level. It is the short cut between Europe and Asia.
- Panama Canal (1914, about 82 km): joins the Atlantic (Colon) and the Pacific (Panama City). It has locks: water steps that lift ships over the land.
- Rhine waterway: from Rotterdam to Basel. It passes the Ruhr industrial region. It is the busiest inland waterway in the world.
- St Lawrence Seaway: links the Great Lakes (Duluth) with the Atlantic through the St Lawrence river (Montreal). It freezes for about four months in winter.
Try it
Print or draw a blank world outline. In 10 minutes, mark the eight railway terminals and the four waterways from memory. Then open step 3 and step 6 of the 3D map and check. Count your correct marks out of 12.
Key formulas and definitions
- Gathering: thick forests and cold lands (Amazon, Congo, N Canada, SE Asia)
- Herding: dry and very cold lands (Sahara–Arabia, Central Asia, tundra)
- Grain: Prairies, Steppes, Pampas, Downs
- Suez 1869 (no locks) · Panama 1914 (locks)
Worked examples
1. Why is extensive grain farming found on the Prairies and Steppes and not in the Amazon?
Prairies and Steppes are flat temperate grasslands with few people, so machines can work huge fields of wheat. The Amazon is hot, wet and covered in thick forest, so large machine farming is very hard.
2. A ship goes from Mumbai to London. Which waterway saves time and how?
The Suez Canal. The ship crosses the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, the canal and the Mediterranean. Without it, it must sail around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, thousands of km longer.
3. You must mark the terminals of the Trans-Canadian railway. Where do you put the dots?
One dot at Halifax on the Atlantic coast in the east and one at Vancouver on the Pacific coast in the west. Draw the line across southern Canada, close to the lakes.
4. Why does the Panama Canal need locks but the Suez Canal does not?
Panama crosses hilly land and a lake that is higher than the sea, so ships must be lifted and lowered step by step. Suez cuts through flat desert and both seas are at nearly the same level.
Common mistakes
- Putting nomadic herding in the Amazon. Herding is in dry grasslands and deserts; the Amazon is a gathering area.
- Mixing up the terminals: Vladivostok is on the Trans-Siberian, Vancouver on the Trans-Canadian.
- Drawing the Suez Canal between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. It joins the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
- Marking an inland city like Nairobi as a sea port. Nairobi is an airport; ports must be on a coast.