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Regents' Questions and Answers

Physical Geography

Friday, January 21, 1921.

1. Explain in detail the phases of the moon. Account for the faint outline of the entire moon sometimes seen at the young and old crescent stages.

Ans. The moon in revolving about the earth from conjunction with the sun to conjunction varies in appearance with respect to quantity of illumination. These changes in appearance are called. phases. The faint outline of the entire moon seen near new moon is due to earthshine.

2. Find the latitude of a place where the sun is 60° above the horizon at noon on June 21.

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3. Account for the shape of the earth. Why are degrees of longitude longest at the equator and degrees of latitude longest at the poles?

Ans. According to the nebular theory the matter composing the earth became gathered in a molten mass by cohesion and under rotation took an oblate spheroid form, owing to centrifugal force. Longitude is distance between two meridian circles reckoned east or west on a parallel of latitude. Meridians are farthest apart at the equator and converge towards the poles, hence longitude degrees are longest at the equator. Degrees of latitude are longest at the poles because the spheroid shape of the earth causes the convexity of its surface to decrease from the equator toward the poles and the radius of curvature to increase; therefore two radii with the same degree of divergence are farther apart in polar regions.

4. Account for the difference in barometric readings at a given time at sea level and on a mountain. What effects on the human being are produced by low and high altitudes?

Ans. The barometric readings vary as the weight of the air. The air becomes rarer and lighter as we ascend from the sea level, hence the readings vary at the two places. Low altitudes are not so healthful and tend to pulmonary diseases, while high altitudes are more bracing and are more hygienic especially for tuberculosis patients.

5. Define five of the following: absolute humidity, relative humidity, nimbus cloud, fog, dew, frost, hail.

Ans. Absolute humidity is the amount of vapor actually present in the air. Relative humidity is the ratio which the amount of vapor in the air at a given time bears to the quantity of vapor that would saturate the air at that temperature. Fog consists of a vast multitude of globules of water in the air near the earth. Dew consists of lit

tle globules of water condensed from atmospheric vapor by contact with cool bodies. Hail consists of pellets of ice falling in showers.

6. With a cyclone center at St. Louis on a given day forecast the weather for the next day in (a) Pittsburgh, (b) Kansas City.

Ans. (a) Rain, higher temperature, low pressure, wind towards the center of the low. (b) Clear, lower temperature, high pressure and wind outward from center of low.

7. Why is the northwest coast of the United States more affected than the southeast coast of Australia by the adjacent ocean currents? Explain with the aid of a diagram the general circulation of the planetary winds.

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Ans. The southeast coast of Australia is influenced less by the adjacent ocean currents than the northwest coast of the United States because the southwesterlies of Australia blow eastward away from the coast, while the prevailing westerlies of the northwest coast of the United States blow their moist air onto the coast.

8. With the aid of a diagram involving the sun, moon and earth explain spring and neap tides.

Ans. The diagram should show the moon either in conjunction or opposition with the sun to produce spring tides and at quadratures to produce neap tides.

9. Show by examples the relation between the commercial development of a country and the character of its shore line. How may one account for an irregular shore line?

Ans. The coast of Europe by its numerous seas indenting its coast has a great commercial development owing to its water facilities for transportation, while in Africa lack of harbors and navigable rivers has been an important factor in preventing commerce. Irregular shore lines result from a sinking coast.

10. Give four conditions favorable to the growth of corals. With the aid of a diagram give Darwin's theory of the origin of atolls.

Ans. Shallow depths not exceeding 25 fathoms, temperature not below 68° Fah., waters free from mud and ocean currents bringing food. Darwin believed that the reefs formed about an island as it gradually sunk and, when the island disappeared, a body of water surrounded with reefs was left.

11. Under what conditions does a river meander? Show with the aid of diagrams how cut-offs and oxbow lakes are formed. Make an ideal cross sec

tion of a river bed at the middle of an oxbow bend.

Ans. Meanders occur in the lower courses of rivers that are in their old age and are running through soft material in a wide valley. See text-books for diagrams.

12. Explain the difference in origin of granite and limestone. Give a use of granite and a use of limestone. Mention an economic use of each of the following: clay, mica, gypsum, slate, graphite, diamond.

Ans. Granite is a rock consisting of mica. quartz, feldspar and Most granite is igneous, but some appears to be metamorphic. Limestone is mainly from the remains of animals and plants. Granite is used as a building stone. Limestone is used in building and to burn to form quicklime; clay for brick; mica in stones; gypsum for plaster of Paris; slate for roofing; graphite for lead pencils; and diamonds for jewels.

13. What are the chief sources of water supply for our cities? What are the principal ways in which these supplies are contaminated? What means are used (a) to keep them pure, (b) to free them from impurities?

Ans. Rivers, lakes and artesian wells. They are contaminated by the drainage from adjoining lands. The adjoining banks should be freed from contamination by man or beast. The water is purified by passing it through sand filters, by precipitation of impurities by alum and by aeration.

14. Give five evidences that the northern part of the United States was invaded by the ice sheet during the ice age in North America, whereas the southern. part was not so invaded. What was a possible cause of the ice age?

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drift; rounded stones and polished stones, and terminal moraines.

15. How are soils formed? What are the essential elements of plant food that soils should contain in order to be productive? What is the object of rotation of crops?

Ans. Soils are formed of loosened and detached mineral particles caused by the weathering of rock masses. Soils should contain soluble phosphates, nitrates, potash and lime together with humus consisting of decayed vegetation. Crops vary in the plant food required and by rotation of crops the soil is not unduly impoverished in some particular

element.

BOOK NOTICES

THE STORY OF OPAL, The Journal of An Understanding Heart, by Opal Whiteley. "This offering is from the diary of Opal Whiteley, a girl now about twenty-one years of age. The writings began when their author was about six years old.

"Opal's diary complete contains about one houndred and fifty thousand words. It was written on old scraps of paper in the Oregon lumber camp where she was left as a child, and its small pieces were made still smaller by a foster sister who found the hidden scraps and tore them up in a fit of temper. Opal saved the pieces which have now been matched together. They afford a remarkable record of things seen and experienced by a lonely child, and of impressions made on a childish mind."

Six instalments of "The Story of Opal," appeared in The Atlantic Monthly from March to August, 1920. No contributions to the magazine in recent years have been given more pleasure or excited more discussion.

Teeming with human interest, humor, and tragedy, this story has startled the

world of cultivated readers by its selftaught wisdom and its naive charm. Ornate board cover, 283 pp., price $2.00. Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston.

HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION, a compilation of standard rules and usage, by Luella Clay Carson, recently President of Mills College, California, formerly professor of Rhetoric and American Literature University of Oregon, Second Revised Edition. This book trains the student in accuracy and effectiveness in the essentials of English composition, and the ready, rapid, and unconscious use of correct forms. It presents the main requisites of good English in such compact and usable form that it becomes a code for accurate expression.

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TRENDS OF SCHOOL COSTS, by W. Randolph Burgess, Department of Education, Russell Sage Foundation.

School budgets in American cities. should be twice as large as before the war according to the report of an investigation just made public by the Russell Sage Foundation. The report maintains that teachers' salaries should now be double the pre-war figures in order to secure the same quality of educational service. Other expenses also have so increased that the entire budget must be doubled to secure efficient schools.

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The findings of the study are contained in this volume. The study is an analysis of the statistics of public school finance from national, state and city reports and special investigation. The volume is a companion to "An Index Number for State School Systems" by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, which made a comparison of the efficiency of the school systems of different states.

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ECONOMICS FOR UPPER GRADES, by Charles F. Dole, with introduction by Albert Shiels, recently superintendent of schools, Los Angeles, California.

Nearly every American has come to realize that much of the social unrest is due to lack of understanding of the principles of economics. Progressive schools are beginning to seek means of enlightening the coming generation regarding the unchanging laws of society and economic progress.

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GRADED READERS, Third Reader, by Joseph H. Wade, Ph. D., district superintendent of schools, New York city and Emma Sylvester, Pd. M. Illustrated by Elizabeth B. Warren. In this Third Reader, the fourth book of the Graded Series, the special aim is to make the child a good reader by introducing him to interesting stories and choice selections from the poetry written specially for children. At the third reader age the child's imagination is very active, hence, the introduction of fairy tales and other stories which make a special appeal to the imagination. Some of the lessons are presented for the first time in a children's reader, and these stories have been selected because of their power to arouse the imagination of the children. A large number of the selections are from English and American sources, but nine other nationalities are also represented. There are familiar fairy tales from Grimm, a fable from Aesop, a story from the Bible, as well as patriotic stories, and some of the best poetry that has been written for children. selected Carefully graded for third-year pupils, charmingly and illustrated, thoroughly equipped with word lists, we believe that the Wade and Sylvester Third Reader will be welcomed by all teachers of reading. This book has proven successful both for basal use and for supplementary reading. Cloth, 215 pages, Ginn and Co., Boston, price 72 cents.

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THE CURRICULUM, by Kenneth Richmond, author of "The of "The Permanent Values in Education;" "Education for Liberty." The aim of this book is to contribute a series of brief suggestions toward the task of making our school curricula simpler, more elastic and

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