Class 7 Geography Social Science Chapter

5 Water
Q. 1. Answer the following questions briefly. 

(a) What is precipitation? 

(b) What is water cycle? 

(c) What are the factors affecting the height of the waves? 

(d) Which factors affect the movement of ocean water? 

(e) What are tides and how are they caused? 

(f) What are ocean currents? 

Ans.​ (a) Falling of moisture in the form of rainfall, snow, fog, sleet and hailstone is 
termed as precipitation. 

(b) The water cycle is the process by which water continually changes its form and 
circulates between oceans, atmosphere and land. 

(c) Winds, earthquakes, volcanic eruption or under water landslides are the factors 
affecting the height of the waves. The stronger the wind blows, the bigger the wave 
becomes. 

(d) Temperature, winds, gravitational pull of the sun, the earth and the moon; warm and 
cold currents are the factors that affect the movement of ocean water. 

(e) Tides are the rhythmic rise and fall of ocean water that occur twice in a day. The 
strong gravitational pull exerted by the sun and the moon on the earth’s surface causes 
the tides. 
(f) Ocean currents are streams of water flowing constantly on the ocean surface in 
definite directions. 

Q. 2. Give reasons: 

(a) Ocean water is salty. 

(b) The quality of water is deteriorating. 

Ans.​ (a) The water of the oceans is salty as it contains large amount of dissolved salts. 

(b) Water is being used injudiciously. Whatever potable water is available, its quality is 
not good. It is because industrial effluents and untreated water of industries get mixed 
into streams and rivers. Swerage water also gets mixed into these water bodies. As a 
result, the quality of water is deteriorating day by day. 

Q. 3. Tick the correct answer. 

(a) The process by which water continually changes its form and circulates between 
oceans, atmosphere and land 

(i) Water cycle  (ii) Tides  (iii) Ocean currents. 

(b) Generally the warm ocean currents originate near 

(i) Poles  (ii) Equator  (iii) None of these. 

(c) The rhythmic rise and fall of ocean water twice in a day is called 

(i) Tide (ii) Ocean current (iii) Wave 

Ans.  (a)—(i), (b)—(ii), (c)—(i) 

  

Q. 5. For Fun 

Be a Detective 

1. The name of one river is hidden in each of the sentences below. Spot it. Example: 
Mandira, Vijayalakshmi and Surinder are my best friends 

Ans.​ Ravi 

(a) The snake charmer’s bustee, stables where horses are housed, and the piles of 
wood, all caught fire accidentally. (Hint: Another name for River Brahmputra) 

(b) The conference manager put pad, material for reading and a pencil for each 
participant. (Hint: A distributary on the Ganga-Brahmputra delta) 

(c) Either jealousy or anger cause a person’s fall (Hint: Name of a juicy fruit!) 

(d) Bhavani germinated the seeds in a pot (Hint: Look for her in West Africa) 

(e) “I am a zonal champion now” declared the excited athlete. (Hint: The river that has 
the biggest basin in the world) 

(f) The tiffin box rolled down and all the food fell in dusty potholes. (Hint: Rises in India 
and journeys through Pakistan) 
(g) Malini leaned against the pole when she felt that she was going to faint. (Hint: Her 
delta in Egypt is famous) 

(h) Samantha mesmerised everybody with her magic tricks. (Hint: London is situated on 
her estuaiy) 

(i) “In this neighbourhood, please don’t yell! Owners of these houses like to have peace. 
Warned my father when we moved into our new flat”. (Hint: colour!) 

(j) ‘Write the following words’, Marc! “On”, “go”, “in”……….. said the teacher to the 

little boy in KG Class. (Hint: Rhymes with ‘bongo’) 

Now make some more on your own and ask your classmates to spot the hidden name. 
You can do this with any name: that of a lake, mountains, trees, fruits, school items etc. 

TAns. eesta, (b) Padma, (c) Orange, (d) Niger, (e) Amazon, (f) Indus, (g) Nile, 

(h) Thames, (i) yellow,(j) Conga. 

Carry on Detective 

2. With the help of an atlas, draw each river which you discovered in For fun (0, on 

an outline map of the world. 

Ans.​ Do yourself. 

  

VERY SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

Q.1. What is terrarium? 
Ans​. It is an artificial enclosure for keeping small house plants. . 

Q.2. Which type of water do the ocean bodies and the seas contain? 

Ans​. They contain salty water. 

Q.3. What do you mean by salinity? [V. Imp.] 

Ans​. Salinity is the amount of salt in grams present in 1000 grams of water. 

Q.4. What is the average salinity of the oceans? 

Ans​. The average salinity of the oceans is 35 parts per thousand. 

Q.5. What is the salinity of Dead sea? 

Ans.​ The salinity of Dead sea is 45 parts per thousand. 

Q.6. Why do swimmers float in Dead Sea? 

Ans​. Swimmers float in Dead sea because the increased salt content makes it dense. 

Q.7. What is the significance of World Water Day? 

Ans​. On the occasion of World Water Day (22nd March) the need to conserve water is 
reinforced in different ways. 

Q. 8. What is Tsunami? [V. Imp.] 

Ans​. Tsunami is a Japanese word that means ‘Harbour Waves’ as the harbours get 
destroyed whenever there is Tsunami. 

Q.9- What happens during high Ode? [Imp.] 

Ans.​ During high tide waves rise high and water covers much of the shore. 

Q. 10. What happens during low tide? 

Ans​. During low tide water falls to its lowest level and recedes from the shore. 

Q. 11. How are tides caused? 

Ans​. The strong gravitational pull exerted by the sun and the moon on the earth’s 
surface causes tides. 

Q.12. Name one warm curreht and one cold current. 

Ans.​ Warm current — The Gulf Stream 

Cold current — The Labrador Ocean current. 

Q. 13. What happened to the Indira point during the tsunami of 2004? 

Ans​. It got submerged. 

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

Q.1. How are spring and neap tides formed. [V. Imp.] 

Ans.​ During the full moon and new moon days, the sun, the moon and the earth are in 
the same line and the tides are highest. These tides are called spring tides. But when 
the moon is in its first and last quarter, the ocean waters get drawn in diagonally 
opposite directions by the gravitational pull of sun and earth resulting in low tides. 
These tides are called neap tides. 

Q.2. How are high tides important?[V. Imp.] 

Ans.​ High tides are important for various reasons: 

 ● They help in navigation 
● The raise the water level close to the shores. This helps the ships to arrive 
at the harbour more easily. 
● The high tides also help in fishing. Many more fish come closer to the shore 
during the high. This enables the fisherman to get a plentiful catch. 
● The rise and fall of water due to tides is being used to generate electricity in 
some places. 

Q.3. What are waves? Write a short note on it 

Ans.​ Waves are the rise and fall of the water on the surface of the ocean. Waves are 
formed when winds scrape across the ocean surface. The stronger the wind blows, the 
bigger the wave becomes. During the storm, the winds blow at very high speed and 
therefore huge waves are formed. These waves are very strong, hence very destruction. 
They may cause huge devastation. 

Q.4. Write a brief note on Tsunami. ​ ​ [Imp.] 

Ans. Tsunami is a Japanese word that means ‘harbour waves’ as the harbours get 
destroyed whenever there is tsunami. An earthquake, a volcanic eruption or underwater 
landslides can shift large amounts of ocean water. As a result tsunami occurs which 
may be as high as 15 m. The tsunami of 2004 is still in our mind. It caused huge death 
and destruction in the coastal areas of India. The Indira point in the Andaman and 
Nicobar Islands got submerged after the tsunami. 

Q.5. Write a note on the importance of water. [V. Imp.] 

Ans​. Water is life. Without water, we can not think of life. Its scarcity may create 
numerous problems but its absence would definitely lead to non-existence of all the 
living beings on the earth. It is a precious resource of the nature. We drink water 
whenever we feel thirsty. We use water in numerous activities such as washing clothes, 
cleaning house floors, watering garden etc. Industries also need water for their 
functioning. Thus, water is very essential and therefore we must conserve it. Our 
careless use of water has created several problems. Whatever water is there, it is not of 
good quality. We should think about the ways of its conservation for our own sake. 
Q.6. Explain water cycle with a neat and labelled diagram. 
[V. Imp.] 

Ans​. The sun’s heat causes evaporation of water, flowing down to stream or drains into 
water vapour. When the water vapour cools down, it condenses and forms clouds. 
These clouds, when become too heavy to float, start falling on the land or sea in the 
form of rain, snow or sleet. Thus, the process by which water continuously changes its 
form and circulates between oceans, atmosphere and land is known as the water cycle. 
  

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

Q.1. Give an account of ocean currents. [Imp.] 
Ans.​ Ocean currents are streams of water flowing constantly on the ocean surface in 
definite directions. The ocean currents may be warm or cold. The warm ocean currents 
originate near the equator and move towards the poles. The cold current 

carry water from polar or higher latitudes to tropical or lower latitudes. For example the 
Labrador Ocean current is cold current while the Gulf Stream is a warm current. The 
ocean current influence the temperature conditions of the area. 

Warm currents bring about warm temperature over land surface. The areas where the 
warm and cold currents meet provide the best fishing grounds of the world. For 
example seas around Japan and the eastern coast of North America. The areas where a 
warm and cold current meet also experience foggy weather and therefore navigation 
becomes difficult. 

Q.2. How do we classify ocean movements? Explain. [V. Imp.] 

Ans.​ Ocean movements can be classified into waves, tides and currents. 

● When the water on the surface of the ocean rises and falls alternately, they 
are called waves. Waves are formed when winds scrape across the ocean 
surface. The stronger the wind blows, the bigger the wave becomes. 
● The rhythmic rise and fall of ocean water twice in a day is known as a tide. 
Tides may be high or low. It is high tide when water covers much of the 
shore by rising to its highest level. It is low tide when water falls to its 
lowest level and recedes from the shore. Tides are caused due to the 
strong gravitational pull exerted by the sun and moon on the earth’s 
surface. High tides help in navigation and fishing. The rise and fall of water 
due to tides is being used to generate electricity in some places. 
● Ocean currents. These are streams of water flowing constantly on the 
ocean surface in definite directions. The ocean currents may be warm such 
as the Gulf Stream and cold such as the Labrador Ocean current. The areas 
where the warm and cold currents meet provide the best fishing ground of 
the world. For example, seas around Japan and the eastern Coast of North 
America.