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Ch. 14-17 Vocab.
| 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 sift from human power to machine power. |
| Summits. | 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 material. |
| 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 influence. |
| Blight. | A plant disease. |
| Fjord. | A narrow valley or inlet from the sea, originally carved out by an advancing glacier and filled by melting glacial 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 the 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 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 volcanic eruptions. |
| Subsidence. | A geological phenomenon in which the ground in an area sinks. |
| Graben. | A long, narrow area that has dropped 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 volcanic eruption. |