Geography Vocabulary Exercise

5. cutting down and clearing away trees.
6. a Brazilian dance with African influences. Carnival takes place to this music.
9. a martial art and dance that developed in Brazil from African origins.
12. Ruled many Latin American countries throughout the 20th century.
13. the most colorful feast day in Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro, people in costumes ride on floats through the streets.
14. place from which important ideas spread. Usually, it is the heartland or place of origin of a major culture.
15. Plain of South America. Areas of grasslands and rich soil.

1. Part of a chain of mountain ranges that run through the western portion of North, Central, and South America.
2. Factors that make people leave rural areas.
3. causes the temperature of the atmosphere to begin to rise, and weather patterns start to change.
4. trade is important because of it. Cuts through the land bridge and connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
7. new political party, which arose in Mexico in 1929.
8. wide range of plant and animal species.
10. Music, developed in Jamaica in the 1960s. These songs deal with social problems and religion.
11. A process of breaking up large landholdings and giving portions of the land to land-poor peasant farmers.