X /SOCIAL SCIENCE/ALL SYLLABUS UPTO MAY/ MS_0609

SOCIAL SCIENCE Marks: 60

1. Which soil is well known for its water holding capacity? [1]
(a) Black soil (b) Red soil (c) Latarite soil (d) Loomy soil

2. Rows of trees which are planted in between the crops are known as [1]
(a) Strip cropping (b) Shelter belts
(c) Contour ploughing (d) Terrace farming

3. Khaddar soil is found in [1]

(a) Low areas (b) Flood pains
(c) Above the flood pain (d) Below the flood pain

4. When was the first earth summit held? [1]

(a) 1992 (b) 1994 (c) 1996 (d) 1997

5. Which country has high Human Development Index than India? [1]
(a) Nepal (b) Bhutan (c) Sri lanka (d) None of the above

6. How many times the leader of Belgium amended their constitution? [1]
(a) 4 times (b) 3 times (c) 2 times (d) 8 times

7. What was the official language of Sri lanka? [1]

(a) Tamil (b) Sinhala (c) Hindi (d) German

8. Horizontal distribution of power means [1]

(a) Centre, state and local
(b) Legislature, executive and judiciary
(c) Among the political parties and Pressure groups
(d) None of the above

9. Apart from central and state Government which other Government was introduced by
the Belgium? [1]
(a) Local Government (b) Community Government
(c) Cultural Government (d) Social Government

10. Which area was occupied by the French speaking people of Dutch? [1]
(a) Flemish region (b) Wallonia Region
(c) Brussles (d) None of the above

11. What is resource planning? Mention the steps which are involved in resource planning.[3]
Ans. A resource planning is a technique or skill of proper or judicious use of resources. Steps
involved in the resource planning are as follows:
(i) Identification and inventory of resources across the regions of the country. This involves
surveying, mapping and qualitative and quantitative estimation and measurement of the
resources.
(ii) Planning for resource development with appropriate technology, skill and institutional set
up needs to be done.
(iii) Matching the resource development plans with overall national development plans.

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12. Write a short note on soil erosion. [3]

Ans. (i) The removal of soil by the forces of nature, particularly wind and water is known as soil
erosion.
(ii) Wind and water are powerful agents of soil erosion because of their ability to remove soil
and transport it.
(iii) Soil erosion makes the land unsuitable for cultivation and the land so developed is called
bad land.
(iv) Soil erosion in certain areas has become a menace. Large areas of agricultural land in the
states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat have been transformed
into ravines.
(v) Gully erosion is the most spectacular type of erosion. This has already degraded about 40
lakh hectares of land in the country. Reducing flow of water by constructing dams, by
planting more trees, by restricting grazing of animals, and applying proper farming
techniques are some of the methods to check soil erosion.
(vi) Sheet erosion and drill erosion are other types of erosion.

13. What are the components of Human Development Index? [3]

Ans. (i) Per capita income or the average income of a citizen. Per Capita Income is calculated in
dollars for all countries so that it can be compared. It is also done in a way so that every
dollar would buy the same amount of goods and services in any country.
(ii) Life expectancy at birth denotes, average expected length of life of a person.
(iii) Infant Mortality Rate or the number of children dying before the age of one year per
thousand births.
(iv) Gross Enrolment Ratio or literacy rate for three levels means enrolment ratio for primary
school, secondary school and higher education beyond secondary school.

14. What were the political problems faced by Belgium? [3]

Ans. Problems of ethnic composition-
1. 59% Dutch speaking, 40% French speaking, 1% German speaking.
2. But in its capital Brussels - 80% French speaking, 20% Dutch speaking.
3. French community was rich and powerful.

15. Describe the horizontal distribution of power. What are its advantages? [3]
Ans. (i) Power is shared among different organs of government, such as the legislature, executive
and judiciary. We call this horizontal distribution of power because it allows different
organs of government placed at the same level to exercise different powers.
(ii) Such a separation ensures that none of the organs can exercise unlimited power. Each
organ checks the others. This results in a balance of power among various institutions.
(iii) Similarly, although judges are appointed by the executive, they can check the functioning
of executive or laws made by the legislatures. This arrangement is called a system of
checks and balances.

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16. How was power shared between the people in Belgium? [5]
Ans. (i) The Belgium Government recognized the existence of regional differences and cultural
diversities.
(ii) Between 1970 and 1993 they amended their constitution four times to work out an
arrangement that would enable everyone to live together within the same country. The
arrangement they worked out is different from any other country and is very innovative.
(iii) Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal
in the central government. Some special laws require the support of majority of members from
each linguistic group. Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.
(iv) Many powers of the central government have been given to state governments of the two
regions of the country. The state governments are not subordinate to the Central Government.
(v) Brussels has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation.
The French-speaking people accepted equal representation in Brussels because the Dutch-
speaking community has accepted equal representation in the Central Government.
(vi) Apart from the Central and the State Government, there is a third kind of government.
This ‘community government’ is elected by people belonging to one language
community – Dutch, French and German-speaking – no matter where they live. This
government has the power regarding cultural, educational and language-related issues.
(vii) They helped to avoid- civic strife between the two major communities and- a possible
division of the country on linguistic lines.

17. State the basic reasons for the tension (Civil War) between Sinhala and Tamil speaking
people in Sri Lanka. [5]
Or
Why do the Sri Lankan Tamils feel alienated in their country?
Ans. (i) In Sri Lanka, the Sinhala community enjoyed a bigger majority and could impose its will
on the entire country. As a result, the democratically elected government adopted a series
of majoritarian measures to establish Sinhala supremacy.
(ii) In 1956, an Act was passed to recognize Sinhala as the only official language,
disregarding Tamil.
(iii) The governments followed preferential policies that favored Sinhala applicants for
university positions and government jobs.
(iv) A new constitution stipulated that the state should protect and foster Buddhism. All these
government measures, coming one after the other, gradually increased the feeling of
alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils.
(v) Tamils felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders
was sensitive to their language and culture. They felt that the Constitution and
government policies denied them equal political rights, discriminated against them in
getting jobs and other opportunities and ignored their interests.
(vi) The Sri Lankan Tamils launched parties and struggles for- the recognition of Tamil as an
official language, for regional autonomy and- equality of opportunity in securing
education and jobs. But their demand for more autonomy to provinces populated by the
Tamils was repeatedly denied.

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18. How did World Bank classify countries? What criteria did they use? What are its
limitations? [5]
Ans. (i) The World Bank classified countries in to High Income countries, Medium Income
countries and Low-Income countries.
(ii) Countries with per capita income above Rs 453000 in 2004 or more are termed as rich
countries.
(iii) Countries with per capita income less than Rs 37000 less are considered low income
countries.
(iv) They used per capita income as the criteria to classify countries
(v) India comes in the category of low-income countries because its per capita income in
2004 was just Rs 28,000 per annum. The rich countries, excluding countries of Middle
East and certain other small countries, are generally called developed countries.

19. In what respects is the criteria used by the UNDP for measuring development different
from the one used by the World Bank? [5]
Ans. (i) United Nations Development Programme used three criteria, life expectancy (health
status), literacy rate and per capita income as the criteria to measure human development
where as World Bank used per capita income only as the criterion to classify countries.
(ii) The World Bank considered the economic aspect i.e. the average income only whereas
UNDP considered over all achievement in different aspects like health status, educational
achievements and average income to measure human development.

20. Distinguish between Khaddar and Bhangar. [5]

OR
Describe the land use pattern in India?
Ans. Khaddar (New)
(i) The Khaddar soils are found in the low areas of the valley bottom of a valley which are
flooded every year.
(ii) These soils are finer in texture.
(iii) The khaddar soils are more fertile as these are found in the low areas of bottom of a
valley which are flooded almost every year.
Bhangar (Old)
(i) The Bhangar soils are found in the higher reaches, about 30 m above the flood level.
(ii) These are coarse in texture.
(iii) These soils are less fertile as these are found on the higher reaches, about 30 m above the
flood level.
21. Mention any four characteristics of black soil. [5]
OR
How have technical and economic development led to more consumption of resources?
Ans. (i) The black soils are made of extremely fine materials i.e., clayey materials.
(ii) These soils are rich in soil nutrients such as calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate,
potash and lime.
(iii) These soils are generally poor in phosphoric content.
(iv) The soil is well known for its capacity to hold moisture.
(v) It covers 16% of India’s total geographical area.
(vi) It is also known as regur soil and cotton soil.

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22. Write a short note on Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit and Agenda 21. [5]
Ans. Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992 In June 1992, more than 100 heads of states met in Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil, for the first International Earth Summit. The Summit was convened for
addressing urgent problems of environmental protection and socioeconomic development at
the global level. The assembled leaders signed the Declaration on Global Climatic Change and
Biological Diversity. The Rio Convention endorsed the global Forest Principles and adopted
Agenda 21 for achieving Sustainable Development in the 21st century.
Agenda 21 It is the declaration signed by world leaders in 1992 at the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which took place at Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. It aims at achieving global sustainable development. It is an agenda to combat
environmental damage, poverty, disease through global co-operation on common interests,
mutual needs and shared responsibilities. One major objective of the Agenda 21 is that every
local government should draw its own local Agenda 21.

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