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Ch. 14-17 vocabulary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
cultural diffusion | The process by which people adopt the practices of their neighbors |
Renaissance | The revival of art, literature, and learning that took place in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries |
Industrial Revolution | The shift from human power to machine power |
summit | The highest point of a mountain or similar elevation |
prevailing westerlies | The constant flow of air from west to east in the temperate zones of the earth |
euro | The common currency used by member nations of the European Union |
compulsory | Required |
fertile | Able to produce abundantly |
ore | A rocky material containing a valuable mineral |
tertiary economic activity | An economic activity in which people do not directly gather or process raw materials but pursue activities that serve others; service industry |
moor | Broad, treeless, rolling land, often poorly drained and having patches of marsh and peat bog |
bog | An area of wet, spongy ground |
glen | A narrow valley |
peat | spongy material containing waterlogged and decaying mosses and plants, sometimes dried and used as fuel |
cultural divergence | The restriction of a culture from outside influences |
blight | A plant disease |
fjord | A narrow valley or inlet from the sea, originally carved out by an advancing glacier and filled by melting glacier ice |
geothermal energy | Energy produced from the earth's intense interior heat |
mixed economy | A system combining different degrees of government regulation |
dialect | A variation of a spoken language that is unique to a region or community |
Impressionism | A style of art where painters try to catch visual impressions made by color, light, and shadows |
nationalize | To bring a business under state control |
recession | An extended decline in business activity |
confederation | A system of government in which individual political units keep their sovereignty but give limited power to a central government |
reparation | Money paid for war damages |
inflation | A sharp, widespread rise in prices |
lignite | A soft, brownish-black coal |
dike | An embankment of earth and rock built to hold back water |
polder | An area of low-lying land that has been reclaimed from the sea |
decentralize | To transfer government power to smaller regions |
canton | A political division or state; one of the states in Switzerland |
neutral | Not taking sides in a war |
perishable good | A product that does not stay fresh for long |
strip mining | The process whereby miners strip away the surface of the earth to lay bare the mineral deposits |
navigable | Deep and wide enough enough to allow the passage of ships |
dry farming | A farming technique that leaves land unplanted every few years in order to gather moisture |
sirocco | A hot, dry wind from northern Africa |
hub | A central point of concentrated activity and influence |
seismic activity | Earthquakes and and volcanic eruptions |
subsidence | A geological phenomenon in which the ground in an area sinks |
graben | A long, narrow area that has dropped in between two faults |
inhabitable | Able to support permanent residents |
tsunami | A huge wave caused primarily by a disturbance beneath the ocean, such as an earthquake or a volcanic eruption |