GLOSSARY OF GEOGRAPHY (UNIT 10)

Cereals: Grasses grown for the edible components of their grain, such as rice and wheat.

Mortgage: A loan to finance the purchase of private residential or commercial property.

Speculation: Investment in stocks, property of other assets in the hope of gain, but with the risk of loss.

Crop: A cultivated plant to be harvested as food, animal fodder, fuel or for any other economic purpose.

Agricultural landscape: A landscape that has been transformed by people to cultivate crops and/or rear livestock.

Cultural heritage: The things, places and practices that define who we are as individuals, as communities, as nations or cultures.

Domestic tourism: Tourism in which tourists do not leave their own country.

Large-scale tourism: Travel and accommodation offered to large groups at affordable prices by tour operators.

Tour operators: A company that combines tour and travel components to cater for large-scale tourism.

High-speed rail: A type of rail transport involving high-speed trains.

Peak season: The season when travel is most active and rates are highest.

Off-peak season: The season when travel is less active and rates are lower.

Recession: A business cycle contraction; a general slowdown in economic activity.

GLOSSARY OF GEOGRAPHY (UNIT 9)

Freight: goods or produce transported by ship, aircraft, train, lorry or van.

Capital flows: the money that is moved around the world

Exports: goods or services that are sold outside the country where they are produced.

Imports: goods or services that are brought into a country from abroad for sale.

Balance of trade: the difference between the monetary value of the exports and the imports of a country.

Balance of payments: all monetary transactions between a country and the world

Retail: a type of trade in which businesses sell small quantities of goods directly to consumers.

Wholesale: trade in which buyers purchase large quantities of goods and sell them, in smaller quantities, to other companies.

Trade bloc: a group of countries that join together to form an area with special trade regulations.

Transport network: the connection of road, railway lines, ports or airports that facilitate the transport of goods and/or people.

Market: the meeting of buyers and sellers of goods and services. It can be tangible or abstract and it decides the prices of goods and services

Infrastructure: the basic physical and organizational structures needed for an economy to function.

Trade: the buying and selling of goods to meet the needs of the population.

Bartering: the first way of trading in history

Tourism: a sector dedicated to travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes.

Information society: society in which revolutionary advances an IT dominate the economy

Public services: cover basic need of population

Private services: offer personalised services to companies

GLOSSARY OF GEOGRAPHY (UNIT 8)

Mechanization: The use of machinery in the production process

Mining: The process of extracting minerals from the ground

Mineral: a naturally occurring solid chemical substance such as bauxite. Most minerals need to be transformed to enable them to be used for manufacturing products


Fossil fuels: fuel that is formed by the decomposition of buried organic material, and exposure to heat and pressure, producing substances such as coal, oil and gas.

Industry: any economic activity that produces a service or transforms raw material into consumer goods.

Irrigated farming: is the artificial application of water to the land or soil.

Energy: power that comes from the utilization of physical or chemical resources to provide light and heat or to work machines.

Biomass: organic material used as a fuel that releases energy when burned

Management: the people that run a company and ensure that goods and services of a high enough quality are produced and sold at competitive prices.


Workforce:  the employees required to produce goods and services.

Wind turbine: a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy to drive machinery or generate electricity.

Solar panel:  is a set of solar photovoltaic modules electrically connected and mounted on a supporting structure.


Renewable energy: is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human time-scale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat.  

Non-renewable energy: is a resource that does not renew itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction in meaningful human time-frames.

Traditional energy: refers to the energy sources that are most commonly used

Alternative energy: is any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel. These alternatives are intended to address concerns about such fossil fuels.

Dam: is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams.

Guild: is an association of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town. 

Heavy industry: does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production.

Light industry:  is usually less capital intensive than heavy industry, and is more consumer-oriented than business-oriented (most light industry products are produced for end users rather than as intermediates for use by other industries).

Cutting-edge industries: industries that employ advanced technology

Craftspersons: a person who makes products using basic tools and manual labour.