Lesson Y7-U04-L02

Y7-U04-L02 Why Settlements Grow Where They Do Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 4

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y7-U04-L02, Why Settlements Grow Where They Do: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 4: Year 7: Population and Settlement, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What is a settlement?

    • A piece of land that is reserved for a national park
    • A large area of empty desert with no buildings
    • A river that flows into the sea at its mouth
    • A place where people live, from one farm to a city

  2. What does the word 'site' mean in the study of settlements?

    • The number of roads that lead into a town
    • The exact piece of land a settlement is built on
    • The distance a river travels to reach the sea
    • The total population of a country

  3. What is a site factor?

    • A measurement of how much rain falls on a town
    • A type of contour line shown on an OS map
    • A reason early people chose a particular spot
    • A rule that stops people building near rivers

  4. Which of these is one of the four key site factors?

    • Water supply
    • Tourist hotels
    • Shopping centres
    • Motorway access

  5. Why did early settlers need water supply close by?

    • To make the land flat for houses
    • To keep the sea away from the village
    • To power factories with its flow
    • To drink, wash and water animals

  6. Why did early settlers want flat land for their settlement?

    • It made the rain fall more often in the area
    • It kept the river from ever flooding nearby
    • It stopped enemies from seeing the village
    • It was easy to build houses on and to farm crops

  7. Why did some settlers build on a hilltop?

    • It was easier to defend and spot enemies coming
    • It was the best place to dig for water
    • It was nearer to the sea for fishing
    • It was warmer, because hilltops always have more sunshine

  8. On an OS map, which colour helps you find water supply?

    • Blue
    • Green
    • Brown
    • Red

  9. Site A sits beside a river on flat valley floor. Which two site factors does it have?

    • Defence and shelter
    • Shelter and water supply only in winter
    • Flat land and defence
    • Water supply and flat land

  10. A dry-point site is found on which kind of land?

    • On the sea shore, where the tide comes in
    • Low by the river, where floods are common
    • Inside a deep pit with no sunshine
    • Raised above the flood, on a mound or hill

  11. Why would a settler avoid building right on the riverbank?

    • The river would be too shallow to fish in, so the homes would have no food
    • The river could flood and damage homes built right on the bank
    • Water would flow up the bank into the houses, soaking the walls and the floors
    • The river would be too far away to drink from, which makes the homes unusable

  12. A spot with water AND flat land grew faster than a spot with neither. Which explanation is best?

    • It was closer to the sea, so the air was salty and the water was far too salty to drink
    • It met more daily needs, so more people could live and farm there
    • It was further from the river, so people there were safer from wild animals
    • It was higher up, so it had less rain and the crops grew more slowly there

  13. In an OS map of a village, which clue shows that a site has water supply?

    • A blue river running right past the village
    • A green patch of woodland far away
    • A red road leading out of the village
    • A brown contour line on a steep slope

  14. A village sits inside a tight river bend on a hill. Which site factor does this most clearly show?

    • Shelter from the sea wind only
    • Flat land, because a hill is flat and good for farming
    • Defence, because the bend and hill are hard to cross
    • No site factor, because it is not near water

  15. A settlement near a river and on a flat valley floor has three site factors. Which combination best explains why it grew quickly?

    • Only defence, because enemies never came to the valley
    • Steep slopes, which are always the best for farming
    • Water supply, flat land and shelter, which meet many daily needs
    • Motorways, tourism and shopping, which were not yet invented

  16. A village by a spring at the foot of a hill has water. Which site factor does the spring best represent?

    • Defence
    • Water supply
    • Shelter from enemies
    • Flat land

  17. Why might a perfect defensive hilltop be a poor place to grow food?

    • Hilltops never receive any rain
    • Hilltops are too close to the river to grow crops
    • Hilltops are always covered by the sea
    • Steep land is hard to plough and farm

  18. Which site factor might an OS map NOT show easily?

    • Water supply shown by a blue river
    • Flat land shown by widely spaced contour lines
    • Shelter shown by hills around the settlement
    • Soil quality, which cannot be seen from the map

  19. Explain why one really good site might offer three site factors at once.

    • Site factors only happen in deserts, where everything is found together
    • Settlers always chose the same site, so factors repeat
    • Map symbols automatically add site factors to every spot
    • A valley floor beside a river can have water, flat land and shelter together

  20. Which pair of clues best matches the defence site factor?

    • A castle sits on a steep hilltop and a village lies inside a tight river bend
    • Houses are built on a flat valley floor beside the fields
    • A river runs through the village and a spring rises at the hill base
    • Wide, level fields of crops lie around the village

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