Section: Urban Land Use

Name Class Date

Skills Worksheet

Active Reading

Section: Urban Land Use

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

Environmental conditions in the center of a city are different from those of the surrounding countryside. Cities both generate and trap more heat. The increased temperature in the city is called a heat island. Heat is generated by the infrastructure that makes a city run. Roads and buildings absorb more heat than vegetation does. They also retain heat longer. Atlanta, Georgia, is an example of a city that has a significant heat island.

Scientists are beginning to see that heat islands can affect local weather patterns. Hot air rises over a city, cooling as it rises, and eventually produces rain clouds. In Atlanta and many other cities, increased rainfall is a side effect of the heat island. The heat is land effect may be moderated by planting trees for shade and by installing rooftops that reflect rather than retain heat.

IDENTIFYING MAIN IDEAS

One reading skill is the ability to identify the main idea of a passage. The main idea is the main focus or key idea. Frequently, a main idea is accompanied by supporting information that offers detailed facts about the main idea.

Read each question and write the answer in the space provided.

1. Authors often include a main idea in one sentence of a passage. In the space below, write the sentence that you think best summarizes the main idea of this passage.

2. Why does the author mention Atlanta, Georgia?

3. Scientists use conditional words such as many, sometimes, could, and might when they are writing a statement of probability rather than of fact. What conditional word does this author use? Which sentence is it in?

4. What does this conditional word suggest about the statement in which it is used?

Active Reading continued

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Read each question and write the answer in the space provided.

5. What is the condition that causes increased temperatures in a city called?

6. The prefix infra- means “within” or “below.” A structure is something that is built. Use this information to define the infrastructure of a city.

RECOGNIZING SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

One reading skill is the ability to recognize similarities and differences between two phrases, ideas, or things. This is sometimes known as comparing and contrasting.

Read each question and write the answer in the space provided.

7. How is temperature in urban areas different from temperature in surrounding rural areas?

8. How might the weather be different in the city than it is in the surrounding countryside?

RECOGNIZING CAUSE AND EFFECT

One reading skill is the ability to recognize cause and effect.

Read each question and write the answer in the space provided.

9. What is the result of increased temperature in a city?

10. Explain how heat can affect a city’s weather.

11. What can city dwellers do to counteract the heat-island effect?

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TEACHER RESORCE.PAGE

Answer Key

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TEACHER RESORCE.PAGE

Concept Review

MATCHING MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. g 9. a

2. e 10. c

3. f 11. d

4. a 12. a

5. d 13. d

6. b 14. a

7. c 15. b

8. h 16. d

17. c

18. a

Critical Thinking

ANALOGIES

1. d 5. b

2. a 6. b

3. c 7. c

4. d 8. c

INTERPRETING OBSERVATIONS

9. Sample answer: The lower temperature may indicate a rural area or openspace. The higher temperature mayhave been recorded in an area withasphalt or similar surfaces that absorband reradiate heat.

10. Plant more vegetation. Plants lower thetemperature of the surrounding area.

11. Yes; plants absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, and filter pollutants fromthe surrounding air and water. Plantsalso add scenic beauty.

AGREE OR DISAGREE

12. Accept any thoughtful answer.Sample answer: Agree; although preserving tracts of land decreases theamount of land that can be developed, people like to live and work inareas that include open space.Therefore, developers can attractmore people to buy homes by developing land in environmentally sustainable ways. Open space alsoreduces drainage problems byabsorbing and slowly releasing largequantities of precipitation.

13. Accept any reasonable answer. Sampleanswer: Disagree; although reforestation has been known to occur on itsown in some cases, such as whenunproductive farmland has been abadoned, the speed at which land isbeing developed and logged suggeststhat deliberate human intervention isneeded to slow or reverse the environmental damage caused by the loss ofso many trees.

14. Accept any thoughtful answer. Sampleanswer: Agree; many urban areas weredeveloped around the use of automobiles. Many urban areas were builtwithout regard to future traffic congestion. Better urban land-use plansinclude more public transportation.

REFINING CONCEPTS

15. Sample answer: Selective cutting oftrees, while more expensive to do, is far less destructive to forestecosystems.

16. Sample answer: Rural areas supporturban areas. Resources such as cleanwater, clean air, food, wood products,and scenic beauty are provided byrural areas.

17. Accept any reasonable answer.Possible answers include infrastructure problems such as constructingnew highways; widening existingroads; developing new shopping centers, houses, schools; or building anew airport. Overcrowding could alsohave an impact on power supply,waste treatment, fire and police protection, schools, libraries, hospitals,and the water supply.

Active Reading

SECTION: HOW WE USE LAND

1. what you find on a patch of land

2. a forest, a field of grain, and a parking lot

3. 2,500 or more

4. a governing body

5. wood, crops, and minerals

6. large areas of open space; few

7. buildings; roads; 2,500 or more

8. If it is not classified as urban, it isrural.

9. Urban areas use land for buildingsand roads. In rural areas, land isopen and may provide resources forhuman consumption.

10. b

11. a

12. c

13. a

14. b

15. a

16. b

17. c

18. c

19. a

SECTION: URBAN LAND USE

1. “Environmental conditions in the center of a city are different from those ofthe surrounding countryside.”

2. The author is using Atlanta as anexample of a city that is experiencingthe heat-island effect.

3. may; the last (sentence 11)

4. It is a statement of probability; inother words, trees and reflectiverooftops may moderate the heat-island effect, but they may not.

5. a heat island

6. anything that is built within or belowa city

7. The temperature is often higher in a citythan it is in the surrounding countryside.

8. It might rain more often.

9. a heat island

10. Hot air rises over a city, cools, andproduces rain clouds.

11. plant trees and install rooftops that donot retain heat

SECTION: HOW WE USE LANDMatching

1. h

2. c

3. g

4. e

5. d

6. a

7. f

8. b

9. The author compares the amount ofwood the average person in the UnitedStates uses to each person cuttingdown a 30 m-tall tree every year.

10. In both, trees are removed from anarea of land.

11. In clear-cutting, all the trees areremoved; in selective cutting, onlymiddleaged or mature trees are used.

12. Clear-cutting—Advantages: It is lessexpensive than selective cutting;Disadvantages: It destroys wildlifehabitats and causes soil erosion.Selective cutting—Advantages: It isless destructive than clear-cutting;Disadvantages: It is more expensive.

Map Skills

1. marshes and swamps

2. crops and grazing, pastures and woods

3. urban areas, crops and grazing

4. grassland or pastures and woods

5. Answers may vary but will likelyinclude the suggestions that forestsprovided lumber for construction,while land suitable for crops andgrazing made agriculture near urbandwellers possible.

Quiz

SECTION: HOW WE USE LAND

Matching

1. h

2. c

3. g

4. e

5. d

6. a

7. f

8. b

Multiple Choice

9. a

10. d

SECTION: URBAN LAND USEM

Matching Multiple Choice

1. b 7. d

2. d 8. d

3. f 9. d

4. e 10. a

5. b

6. c

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