Chapter 1
How And Where Do People Live?
CHAPTER
1How And
Where Do
People Live?
Answers to Textbook
Let’s try it! (pg 3)
Figures 1.2(a) and (b) show a natural environment and a human environment respectively.
Describe the natural and human environments shown in the photographs.
Figure 1.2(a) shows the presence of natural features such as a lake, cliffs and natural
vegetation. There are no human activities and no changes have been made to the
environment.
Figure 1.2(b) shows man-made structures such as tall office buildings and a row of
shophouses. Human activities are taking place along the river such as the sale of goods.
Let’s try it! (pg 9)
1. Read the following text.
(a) Which type of human society is described in the text?
Hunter-gatherer society
(b) Provide evidence from the text for your answer.
Small community, environment which supplies them with food, water and shelter
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2. How do the activities in an industrial society differ from those in an agrarian society?
In an agrarian society, people farm and rear livestock, mainly for their own consumption.
Excess crops or livestock may be sold for profit. On the other hand, manufacturing and
commercial farming are carried out for profit in an industrial society.
Let’s try it! (pg 11)
Refer to Figure 1.10.
1. What is the increase in percentage of North America’s population living in cities from
1950 to 2010?
19 per cent
2. Which region experienced the greatest increase in percentage of population living in
cities from 1950 to 2010?
South America (36 per cent)
3. Which region is projected to experience the greatest increase in percentage of
population living in cities from 2010 to 2025?
Asia (9 per cent)
Let’s try it! (pg 14)
In 2013, Singapore was the third most densely populated city state in the world after
Macau and Monaco. In that year, Singapore had a population of 5,399,200 and a land area
of 716 square kilometres.
(a) Calculate Singapore’s population density in 2013.
7,540 people per square kilometre
(b) Is this population density considered high or low? Suggest reasons for Singapore’s
population density.
High population density. This is due to a large population living in a small area.
TEACHING POINT
• Guide students to refer to maps such as the ones found at
http://maps.google.com or http://maps.bing.com to help them. A topographical
map of China may be useful for finding out the elevation of the land.
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Chapter 1
How And Where Do People Live?
ACTIVITY
Answers to Workbook
1.1
Understanding how human
society developed
A group of people who live in a country, region or area and who share laws, organisations
and customs is known as a human society. In this activity, you will find out more about the
development of human society.
1. Figure 1.1 shows some activities that people in early human societies were involved
in. Describe the activities that helped them survive.
• Trading items such as cloth
• Hunting wild animals for food using simple weapons such as bows and arrows
• Fishing for food
2. What are some of the challenges that early human societies may have faced living in
such an environment?
• Exposure to elements of weather
• Insufficient food gathered
• Difficulty in finding places in which to settle down (for the nomads)
• Sustaining a growing population in their tribes or villages
3. Describe the activities that took place in agrarian and industrial societies.
In an agrarian society, people grew crops and reared animals. In an industrial society,
people mass produced goods in factories.
TEACHING POINT
• Encourage students to carry out research on the cities of Manchester in
England, Detroit in the United States of America and Shanghai in China to
understand how the Industrial Revolution affected the development of cities.
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ACTIVITY
1.2
Describing the features of a
city
One of the most distinct features of a city is its large population size. In this activity, you
will examine the population sizes of some cities.
1. Figure 1.2 shows the cities with more than 10 million people in 2011.
(a) With the aid of online infomation, plot these 15 cities on the world map below.
New York City
Los Angeles
Delhi
Karachi
Mumbai
Mexico City
São Paulo
Beijing
Dhaka
Kolkata
Tokyo
Shanghai
Manila
Rio de Janeiro
Buenos Aires
N
(b)
Describe the distribution of these cities in the world.
Of the 15 cities with more than 10 million people in 2011, nine were in Asia. Three were located in North America and another three were in South America. Such large cities with more than 10 million people were not in Europe, Africa or Australia.
2. The table below shows the birth rates and death rates of selected countries in 2013.
Using the formula that you have learnt, calculate the natural increase for each of the
countries. Write your answers in the extreme right column of the table.
Birth rate (per
1,000 people)
Death rate (per
1,000 people)
Natural increase (per
1,000 people)
Brazil
15
6
9
Cameroon
38
12
26
Finland
11
10
1
Japan
8
10
-2
Singapore
10
5
5
Vietnam
16
6
10
Country
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Chapter 1
How And Where Do People Live?
TEACHING POINT
• Discuss with students what is implied by the different rates of natural increase.
Bring across themes such as ageing population and use of resources.
3. Refer to Figure 1.2, which shows the top 15 largest cities by population. Delhi, India,
has a land area of 1,483 square kilometres while Manila, Philippines, has a land area
of 619.5 square kilometres. Given this data, calculate which of the two cities had a
greater population density in 2011. Explain your answer.
To determine the population density of each city, we can use the following formula:
Number of people
Area they occupy (in square kilometres)
Population density =
From this formula, we can determine that Delhi, India, had a population density of 15,307
people per square kilometre in 2011 while Manila, Philippines, had 19,209 people per
square kilometre. Therefore, Manila, Philippines, had a greater population density than
Delhi, India, in 2011.
4. Figure 1.4 shows three accounts of people who live in Singapore. Based on their
account, describe the ways in which Singapore can be considered a cosmopolitan city.
• Diverse ethnic culture
• Celebration of different festivals throughout the year
• Diverse ideas
• Presence of people from different parts of the world
• Wide range of cuisine
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