Deck 11: The Great Plains

Question 1

Early settlers used the name the "Great American Desert" to refer to the Great Plains because of what characteristic of the region?

A)The low rainfall.
B)The lack of trees.
C)The miles and miles of sand and dunes.
D)The use of dromedaries for travel.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What law passed in 1862 encouraged settlement of the Great Plains by providing up to 160 acres of land to settlers who were able to make productive use of it?

A)The Dawes Act
B)The Homestead Act
C)The Morrill Act
D)The Donation Land Claim Act

Answer 2

B

Question 3

About how many bison were living on the Great Plains before Euro-Americans began hunting them?

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

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The Nebraska Sand Hills,the largest dune field in North America,was formed by what physical process?

A)Sheet erosion
B)Rill erosion
C)Aeolian processes
D)Glacial processes

Question 5

Is Kansas flatter than a pancake?

A)Yes
B)No
C)It is about the same flatness
D)No one has calculated the answer.

Question 6

Which part of the Great Plains was settled first,the Canadian portion or the U.S.portion?

A)The Canadian Great Plains
B)The U.S.Great Plains
C)They were both settled around the same time
D)Actually the pattern of settlement did not relate to the political boundaries

Question 7

Looking at the diagram (11.4),on average when are the temperatures in Lubbock and Bismarck most similar?

A)Winter
B)Spring
C)Summer
D)Fall

Question 8

If you were driving west along Interstate 70 from Topeka to Denver,for much of your trip the landscape around you would appear relatively flat,but overall you would be driving ________.

A)Downhill
B)Uphill
C)Uphill and then downhill
D)Actually you would remain level

Question 9

Which of the following best describes what an aquifer is?

A)An underground area of permeable rock or sediment that is filled with water.
B)An aboveground lake that is fed by underground streams.
C)An underground river that generally flows through cave networks.
D)An underground water source that is superheated by volcanic activity producing plumes of steam aboveground.

Question 10

Step topography and mesas are created by what physical process?

A)Aeolian processes
B)Rill erosion
C)Differential erosion
D)Glacial processes

Question 11

The discovery of what resource,in 1874,in the Black Hills of South Dakota caused the U.S.government to break their treaty with the Dakota Sioux?

A)Oil
B)Copper
C)Silver
D)Gold

Question 12

The largest dune field in North America is located in the Great Plains and is called what?

A)The Nebraska Sand Hills
B)The Clovis Dunes
C)The Ogallala Sand Hills
D)The South Dakota Dunes

Question 13

What event effectively ended Native American resistance to Euro-American settlement in the Great Plains?

A)The defeat of General Custer at Little Big Horn forced the US government to negotiate.
B)The US Homestead Act was passed to allow for settlement only on previously unclaimed lands.
C)The massacre of more than 200 Dakota men,women,and children near Wounded Knee
D)Prospectors in the area brought diseases that largely wiped out the Native American presence in the area.

Question 14

When warm air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cold,dry air from the artic in the Great Plains the result is what?

A)Thunderstorms and tornadoes
B)A lack of snowfall in winter
C)Chinook winds
D)El Niño

Question 15

Looking at the map (11.2),in what state or province are the northernmost dunes in the Great Plains located?

A)Saskatchewan
B)Alberta
C)Manitoba
D)Montana

Question 16

Looking at the diagram (11.4),about how many inches of precipitation does Bismarck,North Dakota get on average in May?

A)20 inches
B)2 inches
C)3 inches
D)30 inches

Question 17

Recent Latino and Asian immigrants have been attracted to the Great Plains because of jobs in what industry?

A)Agriculture
B)Mining
C)Meat packing
D)Automobile manufacturing

Question 18

Which of the following best describes the climate in the Great Plains?

A)Mild year round with dry summers and wet winters
B)Dry with extreme temperature differences between the seasons
C)Dry,frigid winters with periods of high rainfall in the summer.
D)Mild winters with dry,hot summers.

Question 19

Areas of shallow wetlands called prairie potholes were formed by what physical process?

A)Sheet erosion
B)Rill erosion
C)Aeolian processes
D)Glacial processes

Question 20

Chinook winds frequently bring warm temperatures to the Great Plains,even in the middle of winter.Why are these winds so warm?

A)Volcanic activity in the Rockies warms the air before it reaches the plains.
B)Air as it descends tends to expand causing a warming effect.
C)Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico meets the cold,dry air from the Arctic.
D)Increasing pressure warms the air as it descends down the slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

Question 21

If you were visiting Oklahoma City on a day in November and the temperature dropped rapidly over the course of the day from a high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit to a low of -17 degrees Fahrenheit,you could reasonably assume that the cause of this was ________.

Question 22

Most of the tourism and recreation sector in the Great Plains relies on visitors from where?

A)People from overseas
B)People from nearby regions
C)People from the the Great Plains
D)People from all over North America

Question 23

Geographers Frank and Deborah Popper have proposed that in the future,much of the Great Plains should be taken out of agricultural production and instead used for what?

A)A separate homeland for Native Americans
B)A huge grassland habitat for restored herds of buffalo
C)To open the area up for the mining of oil from deep shale reserves
D)For the development of wind farms

Question 24

Difficulty in recruiting and retaining physicians,priests and clergy,and small businesses are all related to what problem in the Great Plains?

A)The loss of population in small towns and rural areas.
B)The increase of people moving from cities to rural areas.
C)Restrictive immigration laws have reduced the immigration to these areas.
D)There is already a glut of these professions compared to the population in the Great Plains.

Question 25

The Hudson Bay Company ________ settlement in the Canadian Great Plains.

Question 26

What two 19th century technologies were key to encouraging settlement in the Great Plains?

A)Automobiles and the steel plow.
B)The railroad and the automobile.
C)The automobile and the airplane.
D)The steel plow and the railroad.

Question 27

The Canadian River flows through ________ and eventually into the ________.

Question 28

The agricultural industry in the Great Plains experienced the combination of drought and financial depression in the 1890s and again in the 1930s.This pattern is called what?

A)A dust-bowl economy.
B)The economic cycle.
C)A boom-bust economy.
D)The forty-year cycle.

Question 29

Before it became a U.S.state,eastern Oklahoma was set-aside for what?

A)As "Indian Territory" for thousands of Native Americans displaced from the southeastern United States
B)The Nation of Oklahoma
C)An expansion area for Texas.
D)None of the above.

Question 30

Most major cities in the northern Great Plains are located where?

A)In the center of the region
B)Near the edge of the region
C)Near the border with Canada
D)In the southern portion of the region

Question 31

The capital,which is also the transportation and economic center of the province,of Manitoba is what?

A)Calgary
B)Regina
C)Winnipeg
D)Saskatoon

Question 32

Population growth in the Great Plains of the last 30 years has been concentrated where?

A)In urban areas
B)In rural areas
C)In exurban areas
D)In suburban areas

Question 33

Looking at the map (11.5),the three major U.S.cities with the highest risk of tornados are ________.

Question 34

Most secondary sector activity in the Great Plains is related to what primary sector activity?

A)Mining
B)Logging
C)Agriculture
D)There is little secondary sector activity in the Great Plains

Question 35

The United States and Canada produce 99% of the world's exports of what crop,most of which is produced in the Great Plains?

A)Corn
B)Wheat
C)Sunflowers
D)Cotton

Question 36

What negative perceptions about the Great Plains might discourage high-technology firms from locating in the region?

A)That the region is dull and uninteresting.
B)That it will be hard to find H1-B immigrant workers there.
C)That it is hard to find well-educated workers there.
D)None of the above.

Question 37

The tiny town of Nicodemus,Kansas was designated a National Historic Landmark because historically its residents were ________.

Question 38

In comparison to the Great Plains region of the United States,large cities are ________ economically significant in the Canadian Prairies.

A)More
B)Less
C)About the same
D)There are no large cities in the Canadian Prairies

Question 39

The forced migration of tens of thousands of people from the "Five Civilized Tribes" - Cherokee,Choctaw,Chickasaw,Creek and Seminole from their homelands in the southeastern United States to "Indian Territory" in what is now Oklahoma is called what?

A)The Five Tribes Act
B)The Homesteading Act
C)The Trail of Tears
D)The Jackson Accord.

Question 40

The Department of Energy is investing $60 billion in rural parts of the United States,largely in the Great Plains,in order to develop what alternative source of energy?

A)Biofuels
B)Solar power
C)Wind
D)Hydroelectric

Question 41

Compare and contrast the patterns of early settlement in the Canadian Great Plains to those in the U.S.portion of the Great Plains.What factors led to differences and similarities?

Question 42

Explain the environmental problems associated with the use of water from the Ogallala aquifer and how people in the Great Plains are dealing with these issues.

Question 43

The discovery of ________ in the Bakken Formation along the border between Saskatchewan,North Dakota,and eastern Montana has caused an economic boom and low rates of unemployment in the area.

Question 44

Use what you know about the current conditions and history of the Great Plains to create a proposal for a sustainable future for the region.Include five points in your plan and consider who should implement each point.

Question 45

Despite the fact that many parts of the Great Plains are facing economy stagnation and population loss,there are a number of characteristics such as ________ that make the region attractive to new residents.

Question 46

Discuss the reasons for the movement of the meatpacking industry from cities in the Rust Belt such as Chicago to the Southern Great Plains.Be sure to include the roles of technology and labor.

Question 47

The Dust Bowl was caused by a combination of ________ and ________.

Question 48

Describe how the climate and weather patterns in the Great Plains impact people living in the Great Plains.Name at four different hazards and discuss how each of them form.

Question 49

Buffalo Commons proposed by geographers Frank and Deborah Popper could potentially generate revenue through ________.

Question 50

Relative to many other parts of North America,the Great Plains has ________ elderly in relation to the number of younger residents.