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Class 6 Geography — Reading a map

Find the four things nearly every map carries — its title, its direction arrow, its key and its scale — and use the key to say what a symbol or a colour on the map stands for.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.Which of a map's four helpers do you need if you want to know how far apart two places really are?

  2. 2.A map's key gives blue for water. A long blue line winds across the map from the hills down to the coast. What is it most likely to be?

    • a) The border of a region
    • b) A road
    • c) A river
    • d) A railway line

  3. 3.Match each of a map's four helpers to what it tells you.

    • The title
    • The key
    • The direction arrow
    • The scale
    • How much real ground a length on the paper stands for
    • What each mark and colour stands for
    • Which place the map is showing
    • Which way north lies on the page

  4. 4.Why does a map use small marks instead of drawing everything as it really looks?

    • a) Drawing things properly is against the rules of map making
    • b) Because a map is always drawn by a machine
    • c) Because most people cannot recognise a drawing of a building
    • d) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing

  5. 5.Tap the part of this map that tells you what each symbol on it stands for.

    Write the number of the part.

    12345

  6. 6.A map has no room to draw a real school building, so it puts a small mark on the paper to stand for one instead. What is that mark called?

  7. 7.A physical map shows the natural land — where the mountains, plains and rivers are. A political map shows what people have drawn on it — borders, regions and cities. Which map would show each of these?

    Groups: A physical map · A political map

    • Where the mountains rise
    • Where the plains lie
    • The administrative centre of each region
    • The border between two regions
    • The course of a river
    • The name of every region

  8. 8.What is a map?

    • a) A list of the places in a country
    • b) A photograph taken from the side of a hill
    • c) A drawing of a place as it would look from above
    • d) A model of the whole earth, round like the earth itself

Answer key — Class 6 Geography — Reading a map

  1. 1.
    • the scale
    • scale
  2. 2. c) A river
  3. 3. The title → Which place the map is showing; The key → What each mark and colour stands for; The direction arrow → Which way north lies on the page; The scale → How much real ground a length on the paper stands for
  4. 4. d) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing
  5. 5. 4 — The key
  6. 6.
    • a symbol
    • symbol
  7. 7. Where the mountains rise → A physical map; The border between two regions → A political map; Where the plains lie → A physical map; The administrative centre of each region → A political map; The course of a river → A physical map; The name of every region → A political map
  8. 8. c) A drawing of a place as it would look from above