Deck 22: Population, Urbanization, and Environment

Question 1

Through most of human history, families had many children because:

A) children were a source of needed labor.
B) birth control was not reliable.
C) high death rates meant that many children did not reach adulthood.
D) All of the above are correct.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Demography is defined as the study of:

A) democratic political systems.
B) human population.
C) changes in human culture.
D) the natural environment.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following concepts refers to the maximum possible childbearing for women?

A) the crude birth rate
B) fertility
C) fecundity
D) the refined birth rate

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Among which of the following categories of the U.S. population is fertility especially low?

A) Hispanics
B) Amish people
C) Asian Americans
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 5

In terms of migration within the United States, the region of the country most often left behind is:

A) the heartland or Great Plains, from North Dakota down to Texas.
B) the South.
C) the West Coast, from Washington down to California.
D) the Southeast.

Question 6

Assume a country has a population of 400 million people and in a given year has 4 million births. What is this country's current crude birth rate?

A) .1
B) 1
C) 10
D) 4 million

Question 7

Which of the following concepts refers to the number of live births in a given year for every thousand people in a population?

A) fertility
B) refined birth rate
C) crude birth rate
D) fecundity

Question 8

Fertility refers to:

A) life expectancy for a nation's population.
B) norms that encourages people to have children.
C) the maximum number of children a woman can have.
D) the incidence of childbearing in a nation's population.

Question 9

Why are sex ratios usually below 100?

A) Because many societies abort male fetuses.
B) Because more women than men are born.
C) Because women typically outlive men.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 10

If you were studying countries with very low infant mortality, in which of the following global regions would you be most likely to look?

A) Latin America
B) Africa
C) Europe
D) Asia

Question 11

If you were to examine an age-sex pyramid for a low-income nation, you would expect to see which of the following patterns?

A) a wide base, indicating a high birth rate
B) a square shape, indicating a low birth rate
C) a bulge in the middle, indicating a "baby boom"
D) None of the above is correct.

Question 12

The United States is a high-income country therefore, its population growth is likely to result from which of the following?

A) both immigration and natural increase
B) natural increase only
C) immigration only
D) emigration only

Question 13

The demographic measure called the "sex ratio" refers to:

A) how easily couples conceive children.
B) the number of males for every 100 females in the population.
C) the number of females for every 100 males in the population.
D) the ratio of children to adults in a population.

Question 14

In 2007, the world is home to about how many people?

A) 6.7 billion
B) 3.6 billion
C) 1.6 billion
D) 160 million

Question 15

In global perspective, the crude birth rate of high income nations such as the United States is:

A) much higher than average.
B) slightly higher than average.
C) about equal to the average.
D) below average.

Question 16

Which of the following four statements about migration is NOT True?

A) Migration can be voluntary or involuntary.
B) Movement into a territory is called immigration.
C) Movement out of a territory is called emigration.
D) Migration has little or no effect on population size.

Question 17

One region of the world has both the highest birth rate and the highest infant mortality rate. Which is it?

A) Latin America
B) Africa
C) Europe
D) Asia

Question 18

Looking at countries around the world, what is the relationship between average income level and rate of population increase?

A) The lower the average income, the greater the population increase.
B) All nations are increasing at about the same rate.
C) The higher the average income, the greater the population increase.
D) Poor nations are holding steady, rich nations are decreasing.

Question 19

Currently, about how many people are added to the world's population each year?

A) 800,000
B) 8 million
C) 80 million
D) 800 million

Question 20

If a nation has a sex ratio of 106, as India does, it is very likely that parents there:

A) value sons more than daughters.
B) value daughters more than sons.
C) value children of both sexes equally.
D) place little value on children.

Question 21

Most historians agree that the first city was:

A) Ur.
B) Uruk.
C) Jericho.
D) London.

Question 22

Currently, about how much of the global population increase is taking place in low-income nations?

A) 33 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 75 percent
D) 96 percent

Question 23

In low-income countries, increasing opportunities available to women is likely to:

A) stimulate the economy, raising economic output.
B) lower the birth rate.
C) result in more schooling for women.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 24

The basic idea behind demographic transition theory is:

A) population patterns reflect a society's level of technological development.
B) population increase will outstrip the planet's ability to support us.
C) population increase is now mostly in high-income nations.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 25

About how long ago in history did the first cities emerge?

A) 10,000 years ago
B) 4,000 years ago
C) 2,000 years ago
D) 1,000 years ago

Question 26

In what year was half the U.S. population living in urban places for the first time?

A) 1880
B) 1920
C) 1960
D) 1985

Question 27

Malthus argued that:

A) population would increase in geometric progression.
B) food and other resources would increase in arithmetic progression.
C) people would reproduce to a point beyond what the planet could support.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 28

In poor nations of the world today, what is the average number of children born to a woman?

A) ten
B) eight
C) six
D) three

Question 29

The Industrial Revolution had what effect on U.S. cities?

A) Buildings became much taller.
B) Cities became much larger and had many more people.
C) Cities stood at the center of an expanding urban region.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 30

Which of the following statements correctly describes societies at the postindustrial level of economic development?

A) Birth rates are low.
B) Death rates are low.
C) Both A and B are True.
D) None of the above is correct.

Question 31

In medieval cities of Europe, what was found at the city's center?

A) a central business district
B) the ghetto
C) government buildings
D) the cathedral

Question 32

In the preindustrial stage of economic development, population:

A) increases very slowly, with a high birth rate offset by a high death rate.
B) increases rapidly due mostly to natural increase.
C) increases rapidly due entirely to immigration.
D) decreases very rapidly.

Question 33

The concept "zero population growth" refers to the level of reproduction that:

A) produces a perfect age-sex pyramid.
B) keeps the sex ratio steady at 100.
C) maintains population at a steady state.
D) will take the population steadily downward to zero.

Question 34

When did the world's population reach 1 billion?

A) 1600
B) 1700
C) 1800
D) 1900

Question 35

Which of the following nations would you expect to be most concerned about declining population?

A) a landlocked country such as Chad
B) a large country such as Brazil
C) a high-income country such as Japan
D) a low-income country such as Bangladesh

Question 36

When in history did global population begin to spike upward?

A) 1500
B) 1750
C) 1900
D) 1975

Question 37

In the United States, the birth rate is currently:

A) at the replacement level.
B) below the replacement level.
C) slightly above the replacement level.
D) well above the replacement level.

Question 38

With the Industrial Revolution, how did the physical design of cities change?

A) Cities took on a new focus on business.
B) Winding streets gave way to broad and straight boulevards.
C) Urban populations became much larger.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 39

Thomas Robert Malthus claimed that:

A) the world could sustain an ever-larger population.
B) population increase would eventually bring chaos to the world.
C) industrialization would reduce the birth rate.
D) population decrease threatened the world in the future.

Question 40

How much did the world's population increase during the twentieth century?

A) Not at all-it stayed about the same.
B) It doubled.
C) It tripled.
D) It quadrupled.

Question 41

Which of the following accounts for most water use in the world today?

A) industry
B) agriculture
C) households
D) water parks, golf courses, and other recreational settings

Question 42

The environmental racism thesis falls within which theoretical approach?

A) the structural-functional approach
B) the sociobiology approach
C) the symbolic-interaction approach
D) the social-conflict approach

Question 43

Which of the following concepts refers to the study of the interaction of living organisms and the natural environment?

A) sociobiology
B) ecology
C) demography
D) urban studies

Question 44

The concept "megalopolis" refers to which of the following?

A) a vast urban region containing many cities and suburbs
B) the largest city in any country
C) a dense, central city
D) the "rural rebound"

Question 45

According to Emile Durkheim, while traditional, rural societies are held together by _____, modern urban societies are held together by _____.

A) likeness difference
B) difference likeness
C) money morals
D) choice conformity

Question 46

Which of the following concepts was used by Ferdinand Tönnies to refer to a type of social organization in which people come together only on the basis of individual self-interest?

A) Gemeinschaft
B) Gesellschaft
C) mechanical solidarity
D) organic solidarity

Question 47

The concept "environmental deficit" refers to:

A) long-term harm to the environment caused by a short-sighted focus on material affluence.
B) the fact that too few people are engaged in the study of the natural environment.
C) the fact that natural scientists ignore the social dimensions of environmental problems.
D) efforts to protect the environment to benefit future generations.

Question 48

Which of the following concepts refers to the optimistic approach to environmental issues that claims science can promote progress and solve environmental problems?

A) the sustainability thesis
B) the Malthusian thesis
C) the limits to growth
D) the logic of growth

Question 49

Urban decentralization has led to:

A) an expansion of suburbs.
B) the development of vast urban regions.
C) the growth of edge cities.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 50

Mounting evidence suggests that the average temperature of the planet is:

A) now steady.
B) rising.
C) falling.
D) lower than it has ever been.

Question 51

Which of the following is evidence of the shortage of fresh water now found around the world?

A) China's supply of ground water is declining rapidly.
B) Water supply in the Middle East is at a critical level.
C) Mexico City has pumped so much water from the ground that the city continues to sink about two inches per year.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 52

As a rich nation that values consumption and convenience, the U.S. can be described as:

A) a "Malthusian society."
B) a "recycling society."
C) a "disposable society."
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 53

About when did urban centralization reach its peak in the United States?

A) 1900
B) 1925
C) 1950
D) 1975

Question 54

A third urban revolution is now taking place in:

A) the United States.
B) high-income nations.
C) middle-income nations.
D) low-income nations.

Question 55

Which of the following concepts, used by Emile Durkheim, means about the same thing as Tönnies's concept, Gesellschaft?

A) mechanical solidarity
B) organic solidarity
C) Gemeinschaft
D) the blasé urbanite

Question 56

Why is the gradual loss of the world's rain forests an important environmental concern?

A) Rainforests are vital to maintaining the planet's biodiversity and climate.
B) Rainforests are necessary grazing lands.
C) Rainforests are a vital source of hardwoods and other raw materials.
D) Rainforests are a source of air pollution.

Question 57

Which of the following statements expresses the "logic of growth"?

A) Material affluence is dangerous to humanity.
B) Technology and human ingenuity will continue to improve our lives.
C) Quality of life on the Earth is declining.
D) Growth makes no sense because we cannot sustain it indefinitely.

Question 58

If you were to compare Sunbelt cities, such as Houston, to Snowbelt cities, such as Chicago, what differences would you find?

A) Sunbelt cities are typically smaller in physical size.
B) Sunbelt cities have smaller populations.
C) Sunbelt cities have larger populations and are larger in physical size.
D) Sunbelt cities lack the sprawl typical of Snowbelt cities.

Question 59

Which of the following statements expresses the "limits to growth" thesis?

A) We are rapidly consuming the Earth's finite resources.
B) Whatever problems technology creates, technology can solve.
C) Quality of life on the Earth is now improving.
D) Growth makes sense because it raises living standards.

Question 60

The Industrial Revolution influenced urbanization in many ways, including where cities were sited. If you were to look back in history, you would find that almost every U.S. city was founded:

A) in the West.
B) on an island.
C) on a waterway.
D) in a valley.

Question 61

An age-sex pyramid is useful, in part, because it helps predict the demographic future of a society.

Question 62

In general, low-income countries grow as much from immigration as from natural increase.

Question 63

The crude death rate for the United States is very high by world standards.

Question 64

The infant mortality rate for African Americans is more than twice as high as it is for white people.

Question 65

The planet's population first reached 1 billion about the year 1500.

Question 66

Most people migrate due to a combination of "push" and "pull" factors.

Question 67

Demography is the study of the size and composition of a society's population.

Question 68

The average life expectancy for U.S. children born today is about sixty years.

Question 69

To calculate a crude birth rate, divide the number of live births in a year into the total population and multiply the result by 1,000.

Question 70

Demographic transition theory states that humanity must act now to reduce fertility if we are to save the planet.

Question 71

An annual growth rate of about 2 percent will cause a society's population to double in about thirty-five years.

Question 72

People's movement out of a territory is called immigration.

Question 73

The crude death rate is a good measure of a society's population decline.

Question 74

The crude birth rate in North America is lower than that for Asia.

Question 75

Fecundity is a simple and useful way to measure population increase.

Question 76

It would be fair to say that Malthus was a pessimist about the future of the world.

Question 77

In many low-income nations, parents value sons more than daughters, which explains why the age-sex ratio in these nations may be higher than 100.

Question 78

Sex ratios are usually greater than 100 because men typically outlive women.

Question 79

Thomas Robert Malthus expected population to increase according to an arithmetic progression.

Question 80

The forced transport of 10 million slaves from Africa to the Americas is an example of involuntary migration.