Academic Vocabulary

1. Academic Vocabulary

2. Biome • A similar climatic condition on the Earth such as communities or plants, animals, and soil organisms.

3. CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) • A free trade agreement between the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and later the Dominican Republic in 2004.

4. Collective Farm • Under communism, a large, state-owned farm on which farmers received wages plus a share of products and profits; also called a kolkhoz.

5. Columbian Exchange • A widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations, diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere.

6. Commercial Agriculture • The production of crops for sale, crops intended for widespread distribution to wholesaler or retail outlets.

7. Cottage Industry (market-oriented agriculture) • A business that employs workers in their homes.

8. Cultural Hearth • A center where cultures developed and from which ideas and traditions spread outward.

9. Desalinization • The removal of salt from seawater to make it usable for drinking and farming.

10. Doldrums • A frequent windless area near the Equator.

11. Dynasty • A ruling house or continuing family of rulers, especially in China.

12. E-commerce • Selling and buying on the Internet.

13. Ecosystem • The complex community of interdependent living things in a given environment.

14. Ecotourism • Tourism based on concern for the environment.

15. Eutrophication • Process by which a body of water becomes too rich in dissolved nutrients, leading to plant growth that depletes oxygen. Eutrophication is apparent as increased turbidity in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, imaged from orbit.

16. Federal System • Form of government in which powers are divided between the national government and the state or provincial government.

17. Formal Region • A region defined by a common characteristic, such as production of a product. Corn Belt

18. Functional Region • A central point and the surrounding territory linked to it.

19. Geopolitical • The relation between politics and territory and compromises the art and practice of analyzing, proscribing, forecasting, and using political power over a given territory.

20. Globalization • Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

21. Homogenous • Of the same or similar kind of nature.

22. Human Development Index • Indicator of level of development for each country, constructed by United Nations, combining income, literacy, education, and life expectancy.

23. Industrialization • Transition from an agricultural society to one based on industry.

24. Innovation • The renewal or improvement of an already existing technology.

25. Leeward • Facing away from the direction from which the wind is blowing. Leeward Side

26. Life Expectancy • The average number of years an individual can be expected to live given current conditions.

27. Market Economy • An economic system based on free enterprise, in which businesses are privately owned, and production and prices are determined by supply and demand.

28. Monarchy • A form of government in which all political power is passed down to an individual.

29. Monotheism • Belief in one God.

30. Monsoon • In Asia, seasonal wind that brings warm, moist air from the oceans in summer and cold, dry air from inland in winter.

31. More Developed Country • A country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development.

32. Multiculturalism • The appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level.

33. Oligarchy • System of government in which a small group holds power.

34. Oral Tradition • Stories passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.

35. Perceptual Region Tha Ghetto • A region defined by popular feelings and images rather than by objective data. Bible Belt

36. Polytheism • Belief in multiple Gods.

37. Primary Economic Activities • The portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth’s surface, generally through agriculture, mining, fishing, or forestry.

38. Quaternary Economic Activities • The sector of the economy that consists of intellectual activities such as government, culture, libraries, scientific research, education.

39. Rain Shadow Effect • Dry area found on the leeward side of a mountain range.

40. Republic • Form of government without a monarch in which people elect their officials.

41. Scarcity • The fundamental economic problem of having seemingly unlimited human needs and wants in a world of limited resources.

42. Secondary Economic Activities • He portion of the economy concerned with manufacturing useful products through processing, transforming, and assembling raw materials.

43. Service Industries • Business that provides a service instead of making goods.

44. Subsistence Farming • Producing just enough food for a family or a village to survive.

45. Sustainable Development • Technological and economic growth that does not deplete the human and natural resources of a given area.

46. Tariff • A tax on imports or exports.

47. Terracing • Used in farming to cultivate sloped land- decreases erosion and surface run-off.

48. Tertiary Economic Activities • The portion of the economy concerned with transportation, communications, and utilities.

49. Traditional Economy • A system in which tradition and custom control all economic activity; exists in only a few parts of the world today.

50. Urbanization • The movement of people from rural areas into cities.