NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Geography Chapter 7 - Human Environment - Settlement, Transport and Communication

(i) The four main means of transport are roadways, railways, waterways and airways.

(ii) The term ‘settlement’ implies a place where humans construct their homes permanently or temporarily.

(iii) People in the rural hinterland engage in agriculture, forestry, fishing, trading, craftwork, etc.

(iv) Two important merits of the railways are as follows:

       - Railways can transport people and goods faster and cheaper and that too over long distances.

      - Railway networks are extensively developed in the plains and they also connect mountainous regions.

(v) Communication is the process of conveying and receiving messages between two or more participants.

(vi) Mass media is the collection of the modes of communication through which one can communicate with a large number of people. Radio, television, newspapers are examples of the phenomenon of mass media.

(i) – (c) Table

(ii) – (c) Subway

(iii) – (a) Ship

(iv) – (a) Cycle

(i) - (d) A means of communication

(ii) - (c) Inland waterway

(iii) - (a) Areas where people are engaged in manufacturing, trade, services

(iv) - (b) Closely built area of houses

The ever increasing network of roads, railways, airways and waterways, coupled with the progress in transportation and communication, has made world a small place. Distantness and remoteness are fast becoming the words of a bygone era. In today’s world, the distances and the time required to travel the same has shrunk manifold. Communication technologies like cellular phones, email, web cameras, SMS and watsapp have made trans-continental communication possible for individuals. Internet has become a major means of communication as well as dissemination of information. This interconnectivity of people, services and institutions spread across the world has brought the world closer, effectively turning it into a ‘global village’.  Hence, one can say that ‘today’s world is shrinking’.