Lesson Y7-U03-L02

Y7-U03-L02 Drainage Basins: A River's Catchment Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 3

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson Y7-U03-L02, Drainage Basins: A River's Catchment: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 3: Year 7: Rivers and the Water Cycle, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is a drainage basin?

    • The whole area of land that a river collects its water from
    • A flat plain beside the sea where the river meets the coast
    • The deepest point of a lake where the river first flows in
    • Only the channel and banks of the river itself, which carry the water

  2. What do we call the place where a river begins?

    • The confluence
    • The watershed
    • The mouth
    • The source

  3. What is a tributary?

    • The point where a river ends at the sea
    • The place where a river begins in the hills
    • The high edge between two drainage basins
    • A smaller stream or river that joins a bigger river

  4. What do we call the point where two rivers meet?

    • A mouth
    • A source
    • A tributary
    • A confluence

  5. What do we call the place where a river ends?

    • The mouth
    • A tributary
    • The watershed
    • The source

  6. What is the high edge that separates one drainage basin from the next called?

    • The watershed
    • The mouth
    • The confluence
    • The tributary

  7. On an OS map, which blue line is the main river?

    • The thinnest blue line
    • The widest blue line
    • The brown contour line
    • The red road line

  8. On a map, where is a river's source usually found?

    • On the widest part of the river
    • At the spot where two rivers meet
    • High in the hills, where the blue line begins
    • At the sea, where the blue line ends

  9. Is a river's source usually on high ground or on low ground?

    • The flat ground at the river's mouth
    • Low ground near the sea
    • High ground
    • Low ground beside the river bend

  10. Which force pulls water downhill into streams and rivers?

    • Heat from the Sun
    • Gravity
    • Air pressure
    • Wind

  11. Why does rain falling on the hills end up in a river?

    • The river is the only place rain is allowed to fall
    • Rain always falls straight into the river
    • Hills attract rain upwards from the river
    • Gravity pulls it downhill into streams and the river

  12. Rain falls over a drainage basin, away from the river. How does it reach the river?

    • By condensing directly inside the river channel
    • By flowing over the land as run-off
    • By travelling upwards through the watershed
    • By falling only into the mouth of the river

  13. Two towns sit in different drainage basins. Why does their rain reach different rivers?

    • The watershed separates the land that drains to each river
    • Rain falls only at the mouth of each river, near the coast
    • Each town has its own private river that no one else can use
    • The towns are on different continents, far apart across the sea

  14. A town sits near a river's mouth, but the rain falls far away in the hills. Why does that rain still reach the town?

    • Rain can only reach the town if it falls on the town itself
    • The river is fed only by the sea
    • The river carries water from the whole basin down to its mouth
    • Rain falling in the hills stays there forever

  15. Why might a large drainage basin give a town a higher flood risk than a small one?

    • Rain in large basins falls only at the mouth of the main river
    • Large basins have no rivers at all, so the water sinks into the ground
    • The river becomes shallower in a large basin as the land is flat
    • More land drains into the same river, so more water can arrive at once

  16. Why is the watershed described as a high edge?

    • The watershed is always a mountain peak
    • The watershed marks the point where the sea begins
    • The watershed is the highest point in the whole country
    • Land on either side slopes away, so water flows to different rivers

  17. Which feature is found at the upstream end of a river?

    • The watershed, on the basin edge
    • The source, in the hills
    • The mouth, at the sea
    • The confluence, where tributaries meet

  18. What happens to a river's flow as more tributaries join it?

    • The river carries more water downstream
    • The river gets smaller as it flows downstream
    • The river stops flowing at each confluence
    • The river flows uphill from its mouth

  19. A river carries millions of litres past a town. What is the best explanation?

    • It collects run-off from the whole drainage basin above the town
    • It is pumped up from the sea every day by the local water company
    • Rain falls directly into the river at the town only during storms
    • It is fed by a single spring in the hills above the town

  20. Why does all the rain on a group of hills end up in one river?

    • The rain falls only where the river is, in the valley bottom below
    • Each hill has its own sea that the water flows into at the coast
    • The hills are made of rock that blocks all water from the sky
    • The hills form one drainage basin, so run-off drains into the same river

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