← Back to the activity

Year 7 Geography — Mountains, plateaus and plains

Tell a mountain, a plateau and a plain apart by the shape and height of the land, and say why people live and farm where they do.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.What happens to the air as you climb higher up a mountain?

    • a) It gets warmer first and then colder again
    • b) It gets colder
    • c) It stays exactly as it was at the bottom
    • d) It gets warmer

  2. 2.Tap the plateau in this drawing of the land.

    Write the number of the part.

    1234

  3. 3.Many rivers begin high up in the mountains rather than out on the plains. What makes the mountains such a likely place for a river to start?

    • a) Plains are too crowded with people for a river to begin on one
    • b) Rain and melting snow gather there, and water runs downhill
    • c) Rivers are made inside rock and pushed out at the top
    • d) The air is thinner up there, so water forms more easily

  4. 4.Land that rises above the country around it, but is lower and more rounded than a mountain and far easier to climb, is called a ______.

  5. 5.Raised land with a flat top and steep sides, standing above the country around it, is called a ______.

  6. 6.Which of these is the best description of a plain?

    • a) Land that rises much higher than everything around it
    • b) Raised land with a flat top and steep sides
    • c) The low land lying between two mountains
    • d) A wide stretch of flat, low, level land

  7. 7.Match each word to what it means.

    • A peak
    • A range
    • A valley
    • A hill
    • The low land lying between two mountains
    • The narrow top of a mountain
    • A line of mountains standing in a row
    • Land that rises above the ground around it, but lower and rounder than a mountain

  8. 8.A river reaches the edge of a plateau and drops over it as a waterfall. Why does the waterfall form just there?

    • a) Because rivers can only flow on flat ground
    • b) Because a plateau is made of water underneath
    • c) Because the land falls away steeply at the edge, and the water goes with it
    • d) Because the water is heavier at the edge than in the middle

Answer key — Year 7 Geography — Mountains, plateaus and plains

  1. 1. b) It gets colder
  2. 2. 3 — A plateau
  3. 3. b) Rain and melting snow gather there, and water runs downhill
  4. 4.
    • hill
    • a hill
  5. 5.
    • plateau
    • a plateau
    • table land
    • tableland
  6. 6. d) A wide stretch of flat, low, level land
  7. 7. A peak → The narrow top of a mountain; A range → A line of mountains standing in a row; A valley → The low land lying between two mountains; A hill → Land that rises above the ground around it, but lower and rounder than a mountain
  8. 8. c) Because the land falls away steeply at the edge, and the water goes with it