Class 12 English Notes Chapter 9 Hunger and Population Explosion Punjab all boards Grade 12 FSc Pre Engineering include solved exercises, review questions, MCQs, and chapter overview.
Chapter 9 Hunger and Population Explosion Class 12 English Notes
Q 1. What does hunger mean on a large scale as viewed by the author?
Answer:
Hunger on a large scale as viewed by the author does not mean feeling hungry for some time, but it means never having enough to eat. It is a situation where people do not have sufficient food to eat and are uncertain about their regular supply of food.
Q 2. Describe some great famines of the past.
Answer:
A large number of famines occurred in Asia in the past. The major ones include the ninety famines that occurred in North China in one century, which resulted in the death of nine and a half million people. The famine that occurred in Russia in 1921-22 killed several million people whereas ten million people died in the famine in Bengal in 1969-70. The worst famine of the century occurred in India in 1964-65.
Q 3. How do famines occur?
Answer:
Famines occur because of several reasons. The major cause of famines is the greater number of consumers as compared to the amount of food available. They are also caused because of the failure of crops due to diseases and lack of rains.
Q 4. What is the main reason for population increase today?
Answer:
The main reason for the population increase today is the increasing difference between birth-rate and death-rate. The number of people born in a year is greater than the number of people who die.
Q 5. What is meant by birth-rate and death-rate, and how do they affect the population of a country?
Answer:
Birth-rate means the number of live births in a specified area over a specific period of time while death-rate means the number of deaths in a specified area over a specific period of time. They are usually expressed as the number of live births or deaths per 1,000 people of the population per year. They affect the population of a country as the difference between birth-rate and death-rate determines the increase or decrease in the population of a country. If the birth-rate is higher than the death –rate in a country, it would result in an increase in population. For example, in the United Kingdom, the birth-rate for 1963 was 18.2 and the death-rate was 11.6. So the population is growing at the rate of 6.6 per 1,000 of the population.
Q 6. What have public health measures to do with increase in population?
Answer:
Public health measures have a lot to do with the increase in population. In Asia and Far East, public health measures for the treatments of diseases and epidemics have resulted in the decrease in death-rate and consequently an increase in population. For example, in Ceylon, the death rate was reduced by one-third due to the discovery of DDT which killed off mosquitoes which carried malaria.
Q 7. Account for the high birth-rate in under-developed countries?
Answer:
In the under-developed countries, there is a tendency to let the population multiply unchecked. On average, a couple should be having two children only to replace themselves in order to keep the population at the same level, which is not the case in these countries. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to convince the people living in under-developed countries to limit the size of their families because they take pride in expanding their families. This results in the increase in birth-rate.
Q 8. Why is birth rate not so high in the more advanced countries?
Answer:
The birth-rate is not so high in more advanced countries because a check and balance are maintained between the birth and death rates annually. An average woman in the U.S.A has only three children, so the population increases only by almost half as compared to other countries.
Q 9. Give a brief account of the poor economic conditions prevailing in underdeveloped countries.
Answer:
The economic conditions of under-developed countries are deplorable. An under-developed country is marked by poverty, so there are beggars in the urban areas and poor farmers in the rural areas. It lacks factories and usually has inadequate supplies of electricity. It has poor roads and railways. Hospitals and schools are few and far between and most of the people are uneducated. The export products of such a country are usually raw material which is mostly subject to price fluctuations. This leaves a bad impact on their economy.
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