Grade 4 Social Studies Practice Test: How People Adapt to and Change the Environment
- People and the Environment
- 10 questions
- 13 minutes
People adapt to their surroundings, and they also change them to meet their needs. Tip: ask yourself whether people are fitting in with nature or reshaping it.
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Question 1
Inuit families in the Arctic traditionally wore thick clothing made from animal skins and fur. This is an example of people
Correct answer: A
Wearing warm clothing made from local animals is a way of fitting in with a cold climate. Changing the environment would mean reshaping the land itself.
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Question 2
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Correct answer: D
Weather can change from hour to hour, but climate describes the pattern a place has year after year. A desert can have a rainy day and still have a dry climate.
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Question 3
Hoover Dam was built across the Colorado River. What is one main purpose of a dam like this?
Correct answer: B
A dam holds back water in a lake called a reservoir. Water rushing through the dam turns machines that make electricity.
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Question 4
Farmers in a dry region dig ditches and use pipes to bring river water to their fields. What is this called?
Correct answer: C
Irrigation brings water to crops where there is not enough rain. Erosion is the wearing away of soil and rock.
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Question 5
Along the Mississippi River, people built high walls of earth on the riverbanks to keep floodwater out of towns. These walls are called
Correct answer: D
A levee is a raised bank along a river that helps stop flooding. A canal is a waterway that people dig for boats or water.
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Question 6
In the Andes Mountains and in parts of Asia, farmers cut flat steps into steep hillsides. Why do they build these terraces?
Correct answer: A
Terraces give farmers flat fields on a mountain. They also slow down rainwater so it does not carry the soil away.
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Question 7
A company cuts down all the trees on a steep hillside. What problem is most likely to happen next?
Correct answer: C
Tree roots hold soil in place. Without them, heavy rain carries soil away, which is called erosion, and animals lose their homes.
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Question 8
Why did many early towns and cities grow up next to rivers?
Correct answer: B
People need water for drinking and farming, and boats could carry goods on rivers. In fact, land near rivers can flood, which is why people built levees.
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Question 9
Which example shows people CHANGING (modifying) the environment rather than adapting to it?
Correct answer: D
A tunnel reshapes the land itself. The other choices are ways of living with the conditions that are already there.
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Question 10
Hurricanes most often strike which part of the United States?
Correct answer: B
Hurricanes form over warm ocean water and lose strength over land. That is why coastal states in the South and East are hit most often.
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