Chapter 3 The Desert Important Questions Class 7 An Alien Hand English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. What desert plants and animals learn to require?
Answer
Desert plants and animals learn to require much less water than most plants and animals.
Question 2. What can a camel do at one time?
Answer
A camel can drink a lot of water at one time.
Question 3. What do you mean by burrow?
Answer
It means move underground by digging.
Question 4. What does a desert has?
Answer
A desert may have mountains and hills. It may also have an oasis.
Question 5. Why do we sweat?
Answer
We sweat because we must keep our body temperature constant.
Question 6. When people usually call it a desert?
Answer
If a place has little or no water and vegetation, then people usually call it a desert.
Question 7. What is the popular belief regarding vegetation in desert?
Answer
The popular belief is that it is an endless stretch of sand where no rainfalls and therefore, no vegetation grows.
Question 8. What are ‘sand dunes’?
Answer
Sand dunes are heaps of sand and deposition that shift and move endlessly across the desert.
Question 9. How is absence of moisture helpful in desert?
Answer
The absence of moisture blanket in desert lands causes the desert to heat up rapidly during the day and to cool off rapidly at night.
Question 10. What does a desert consist of?
Answer
A desert is not always a flat, unchanging wasteland of dry sand. It may have mountains and hills. It may have an oasis, big or small.
Question 11. What does the smaller desert animals do?
Answer
The smaller desert animals do not drink water. They burrow underground during the hot day and come out at night to eat.
Question 12. What is Oasis?
Answer
An Oasis is like a green island in the middle of a desert where a spring or a well gives plants and trees a better chance to grow.
Question 13. How do desert plants and animals adapt themselves with scarcity of water?
Answer
Desert plants and animals learn to require much less water than most plants and animals.
Question 14. How do small animals manage in desert?
Answer
Small animals remain in their hideouts or burrows during the day and come out at night only. Animals gets moisture from the meal they eat or from seeds and plant juices.
Question 15. How can the desert also be beautiful place?
Answer
The desert can be a beautiful place, it is the home of a variety of people, animals and plants that have learnt to live under very hot and dry conditions.
Question 16. What is the reason behind the camels can live without water for several days.
Answer
The reason is that they sweat very little. Camels can stand high temperature. They do not need to sweat, and can retain the water they drink for long period of time.
Question 17. Describe how cactus plants store water?
Answer
Cactus plants store water in their thick stems. Their roots lie close to the surface of the ground and quickly absorb the moisture from the light rains that occasionally falls.
Question 18. Why deserts is an important part of natures life?
Answer
Deserts are an important part of natures great plan because they are there like the dense forest and the deep oceans. Just because they are hot and dry, we should not look upon them as useless parts of the earth.
Question 19. Why do we human beings sweat?
Answer
We human beings sweat because we must keep our body temperature constant. We sweat when it gets hot, and this cools the body.
Question 20. What happen whenever there is rainfall in a desert?
Answer
Whenever it rains, which is rare, desert flowers bloom and the sight can be as rewarding as that of any tropical garden.
Question 21. How do desert plants adapt themselves?
Answer
Desert plants store water in their thick stems. Their roots lie close to the surface of the ground and quickly absorb the moisture from the light rains that occasionally fall.
Question 22. What is the unique feature of ship of the desert?
Answer
The camel adapted it in desert. It can drink a lot of water at one time and sweat a little. It can do with-out water for days together.
Question 23. What is the real definition of a desert?
Answer
If a place has little or no water and vegetation, people usually call it a desert.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. A camel can do without water for days together. What is the reason given in the text?
Answer
Camel can do without water for days together because they sweat very little. Sweating cools the body when it gets hot. Camels can stand a high body temperature so they do not need to sweat and can therefore retain the water they drink for a long period.
Question 2. What happen in the humid climates in the desert?
Answer
In humid climates, the moisture in the air acts like a blanket and protects the earth’s surface from the hot rays of the sun. The absence of this blanket in desert lands causes the desert to heat up rapidly during the day and to cool off rapidly at night.
Question 3. What are called ‘Sand dunes’?
Answer
Some deserts are almost totally without water. In such places, strong winds blow raising heaps of sand and depositing them as moulds. These are called ‘sand dunes’ that shift and move endlessly across the desert. Few plants can survive on such dry, shifting sands.
Question 4. How do the smaller desert animals fulfil their need for water?
Answer
The smaller desert animals spend the day in the underground burrows to escape the heat. Some of them eat other animals and get the water they need from the moisture from the meat. Others eat plants and get the water they need from plant juices.
Question 5. ‘Desert can be a beautiful place’ yet water is the necessity of every individual. Discuss and throw light on conservation of water and its resources.
Answer
Nature has bestowed us with its bounties and gifts and deserts are one of them. But the hardships faced by the inhabitants are really harsh. Water resources are depleting and no measures are taken into consideration for optimum use of it. Well and rivers are drying up. Constant source of rain water needs to be restored and more canals should be dug so as to provide the basic necessity of every living being.
Question 6. How camel live in the desert?
Answer
The camel, popularly known as ‘ship of the desert’, can drink a lot of water at one time. The camel is a typical desert animal. They can live without water for days together. The reason is they sweat very little. Camels can stand high body temperature. They do not need to sweat and can, therefore retain the water they drink for long period of time.
Question 7. Describe briefly a desert.
Answer
A desert is generally without water and vegetation. It is the home of a variety of people, animals, plants that have learnt to live under very hot and dry conditions. The few plants and animals that live in deserts have developed the ability to require less water than most plants and animals. A desert is not always flat, unchanging wasteland of dry sand. It may have mountains and hills. It may have an oasis, big or small. Thus deserts are an important part of natures great plan.
Question 8. How desert plants lead their lives?
Answer
Desert plants also adapt themselves to the life they lead. Cactus plants store water in their thick stems. Their roots lie close to the surface of the ground and quickly absorb the moisture from the light rains that occasionally fall.
Question 9. Describe a desert in your own way. Write a paragraph and read it aloud to your classmates.
Answer
A desert is generally without water and vegetation but it is as beautiful as a forest. A desert may be too hot or too cold but plants and animals. They have learned to survive in hot and dry and cold condition. Deserts also have a different kind of vegetation.
Question 10. In a desert the temperature rises during the day and falls rapidly at night. Why?
Answer
The air is desert lands is extremely dry. In humid climate, the moisture in the air acts as a blanket that protects the lands from the hot rays of the sun. In desert lands, this protecting covering is absent. Therefore, the land quickly heats up during the day due to the sun’s rays and cools down equally fast at night.
Question 11. Animals and plants that live in desert have adapted themselves yet facing hardship is part of their lives comment.
Answer
Living in deserts is full of hardships be it cold or hot desert. The struggle of sustenance takes a toll on life in desert. They have to face scarcity and extremities of weather conditions. Less flora and fauna blot the beauties of these places. People have to stay inside during day restricting their working hours.
Question 12. What do the smaller desert animals do to live in the desert?
Answer
The smaller desert animals do not drink water. They burrow underground during the hot day and come out at night to eat. Some of them eat other animals and get the water they need from the moisture in the meat. Others eat plants and seeds and get the water they need from plant juices.
Question 13. Write the life style of people in desert area their food, clothes, work, social customs etc.
Answer
Life in a desert is full of hardships. Generally, people do not prefer to live in desert areas. The people who live in desert are mainly nomads who move from place to place in search of food and water. Here are the some facts about the life style of people living in desert area.
- Food: The people of the desert areas mainly eat the roots of desert plants or the crops that they can grow. But their most important food is meat of animal.
- Clothes: They were clothes made from the hairs of animal or animal skin.
- Work: The main occupation of the desert people are hunting of animals and agriculture.
- Social Customs: People living in desert had a nomadic life they have their own custom and tradition. They wear cloths made from the hair of animals or animals skin.
Question 14. What is the popular belief about deserts? What is the truth?
Answer
The popular belief is that deserts are an endless stretch of sand where no rain falls and no vegetation grow. The truth is that the deserts have vegetation but of a different kind. The plants and animals there have learned to survive in difficult conclusion. Deserts can also be very be very beautiful.