Class: 8th Subject: Social Studies

Chapter No: 5 Topic: Industry

Self-made questions
Q1: what is industry?

Ans: Industry is the work and processes involved in making things in factories
i.e. manufacturing process.

Q2: What are bulk carriers and what are they used for?

Ans: Bulk carriers are up to 350 metres long, with the engines and living
quarters at the rear, with the rest of the ship a huge open space for cargo.
These ships are used to transport the goods which are not suitable for
containers such as coal, metal ores, grains etc.

Q3: What is the cheapest way of getting goods from one side of the world to the
other?

Ans: Sending goods by sea, especially large and bulky ones (mineral ores, coal,
grains, machinery, vehicles, etc) is the cheapest way of getting them from one
side of the world to the other.

Q4: Define mining.

Ans: Mining is digging of earth generally deep underground for metal ores
(such as iron, copper, gold, silver), minerals and precious stones. There are two
types of mining;

 Deep Mining
 Open Mining

Q5: Why is deep mining is so dangerous?

Ans: Deep mining is dangerous because of the danger of tunnel collapsing or
poisonous gasses especially in coal mining.

Q6: What is opencast mining?

Ans: Opencast mining occurs where the minerals lies near the surface.
Following steps are done in this method;

 Clearing of vegetation
 Explosives used to loosen rocks
 Digger used to remove loose rocks
 Rocks or minerals loaded into trucks

Q7: What is Quarrying?

Ans: Quarrying is another form of opencast mining and is used mainly for
obtaining rocks used for building and construction.

Q8: What do you know about tankers?

Ans: Tankers are huge floating tanks powered by engines, usually used for
transporting oil. They can be 450 metres long and 68 metres wide, and weigh
up to half a million tonnes.

Q9: Who developed the conveyor belt system?

Ans: Henry Ford, an American industrialist, was the first person to develop the
conveyor belt to make his early motor cars.

Q10: How oil and gas are formed?

Ans: Oil and gas are the remains of plants buried millions of years ago deep in
the Earth. Millions of years ago there was only one land mass on Earth and
there was a huge sea with many plants around it. With the passage of time, the
sea and plants were buried and over a long period of time the plants
decomposed and changed into oil.
 Exercise Questions
Q1: Why, do you think, is industry classified into three levels? Define the
levels, giving an example of each.

Ans: Industry is classified into three levels. The purpose of this classification is
to group industries according to common characteristics and this system can
help to organize and compare specific statistical information such as
import/export, employment, tax revenues, and wage information.

The three levels of industry are primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Primary industry is getting the raw materials. These can be from mining,
quarrying, oil and gas drilling, agriculture, forestry, and fishing.

Secondary industry takes these raw materials and makes them into finished
products, ranging from tins to trains, needles to nuclear plants, or shoes to
satellites.

Tertiary industry (service industry) does not produce goods for sale, but
enables the two other levels of industry function effectively.

Q2: What is the importance of oil and gas to industrial development in a

country?

Ans: Oil

 Half of the energy in the world comes from oil.

 It is used for powering cars, trucks, and trains etc.

 Oil is used to produce electricity.

 It is the base for a number of everyday by- products.

 Oil is the raw material for cosmetics, food and cloth dyes.

 Plastics are also made from oil.

 Bitumen for roads, roofs and for strengthening tyres is a by-product of

oil.

Gas

 Gas is a raw material for fertilizers.

 It is a source of energy for making cement.

  It is a cheap and convenient domestic fuel.

 Gas is a very flexible and can be easily transported.

Q3: Make a list of the advantages of container transport: which do you think
are the most important ones? Can you think of any disadvantages?

Ans: Some of the advantages and disadvantages of container transport are:

Advantages

 All of the containers are the same size and shape that is why they can be
packed much more closely than loose goods.

 Containers protect the goods much better as they can be locked at the
depot or factory to prevent pilferage and stealing.

 Goods in containers are much less likely to suffer damage.

 As the containers are made of metal, they can be left outside without any
fear of the goods inside becoming damaged by rain, etc.

Disadvantages

 Docks have to be equipped with specialist equipment for handling the

containers, and container ships can face problems when the ports do not
have adequate facilities.

 Vulnerable and expensive goods would be lost at sea in bad weather,

causing losses worth millions.

 Re-positioning of empty containers is a big problem.

Q4: Think of one advantage and one disadvantage of each of these methods of
production.

I-Handwork/craftsmanship

II-Early factories, machine-operated

III-Assembly line process

IV-Automated factories/robots

Ans: Handwork/craftsmanship

Advantage; Individuals can create different designs and patterns, if necessary

according to buyer’s wish.
Disadvantage: Handwork takes a long time to make therefore it is usually
much more expensive.

Early factories, machine-operated

Advantage: In early factories far more articles were made, so that prices were
lower and more people could own things.

Disadvantage; People in the past had worked at their own pace, and had a rest
when they felt like it. In the factories they had to keep going as the steam
engine running. The factory owners were often cruel about getting maximum
profit out of their workers.

Assembly line process

Advantage: With the help of assembly line process, the output is now several
hundred times quicker than by a single man working on his own.

Disadvantage: Workers had to keep up with the assembly line, they could not
take rest.

Automated factories/robots

Advantage: All chances of human error and faulty products are eliminated.
Goods are available in much wider range on cheaper prices.

Disadvantage: Far fewer workers are needed which can lead unemployment.