1. Introduction to the United States and Canada
Chapter 5 Notes
Introduction to the
United States and Canada

2. 1. Which country extends farther north?
Answer: Canada

3. 2. What ocean serves both Seattle and Vancouver?
Answer: Pacific Ocean

4. 3. What major cities have grown up in the region of the Great Lakes?
Answer: Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo

5. 4. What generalization can you make about the largest metropolitan areas?
Answer: All border the ocean or great lakes except Dallas

6. 1. Into which body of water does the Mississippi drain?
Answer: Gulf of Mexico

7. 2. What ranges lie between the Rockies and the Pacific coast?
Answer: Alaska Range, Cascades, Coast Range, Coast Mountains, and Sierra Nevada

8. 3. Which mountains do you think are older- the Appalachians or the Rockies?
Answer: Appalachians

9. 4. Which of these plains has the highest elevation?
Answer: The Great Plains.

10. 1. How does the picture of the night lights on page 119 compare to the population density map on page 118?
Answer: Areas of bright light are concentrated in areas of high population density

11. 2. How does a shopping mall reflect a high standard of living?
Answer- Many consumer goods are available for purchase

12. 3. About how many people live in the urban areas of Canada and the United States?
Answer- Canada : 22.5 million, United States: 200 million

13. 4. What is Northern 2/3’s of Canada sparsely populated?
The climate is subarctic

14. 4b. Where do most Americans live?
Answer- East Coast and Great Lakes area

15. 1. In what ways do the climates of U.S. and Canada differ?
Answer- Canada is COLDER

16. 2. What conclusions can you draw about temperate grasslands?
Answer- They grow in areas that provide good farmland.

17. 3. What type of vegetation does the region support?
Answer- primarily desert scrub, along with regions of chaparral and coniferous forest

18. 4. Where is the tundra region located?
Answer- Extreme northern parts of Canada and the U.S.

19. 1. What economic activity accounts for most of the environmental change?
Answer- Farming

20. 2. How does the physical geography of the region encourage links between the two countries?
Answer- Shared waterways and no physical separations

21. 3. In what other ways do you think the Great Lakes and the St
3. In what other ways do you think the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River are important to industry in the U.S. and Canada?
They provide transportation routes for raw materials and finished goods

22. 4. Why do you think there is controversy over economic activities that alter the environment?
Answer- Logging: environment versus making a living

23. 1. Cordillera
A related set of mountain ranges.
Continental divide
Separates rivers flowing toward opposite sides of the continent.

24. Drainage Basin
The entire area of land that is drained by a major river and its tributaries
Tributary
Rivers and streams that carry water to a major river.

25. Prairie
A temperate grassland characterized by a great variety of grasses.
Literacy
The ability to read and write.

26. Standard of living
A measurement of a person’s or group’s education, housing, health care, and nutrition.
Hydroelectric power
Electricity that is generated by moving water.

27. 2. Name the landform that dominates the central United States and Canada.
Answer: Plains

28. 3. How has human activity affected the landscape of Canada and the U.S.?
Answer: People have changed the environment so dramatically that little natural vegetation remains.

29. 4. What role have abundant natural resources played in the economics of the U.S. and Canada?
Answer: It has helped this region become a major producer of the world’s goods and services.

30. 5. Which country lies closer to the equator?
Answer: Canada
6. Which Canadian city is situated southwest of Ottawa on the shores of Lake Ontario?
Answer: Toronto