Free Social Change and Development MCQs with Answers
175 Social Change and Development MCQs from Sociology, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.
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175 questions · page 14 of 18
131. For Thomas Robert Malthus the appropriate way to control population was to_____________?
- A. use artificial means of birth control
- B. postpone marriage
- C. pass legislation prohibiting families from having more than one child
- D. do all of the above
Explanation: Malthus rejected artificial birth control and argued that population growth should be checked through preventive measures such as delaying marriage. He called postponement of marriage a preventive check on population.
Correct answer: postpone marriage132. GM crops are different from anything that has existed before because ______________?
- A. they are produced by techniques of cross-breeding
- B. they are capable of drastically improving agricultural yields
- C. they involve transplanting genes between different organisms
- D. they have become front-page stories in the news everyday
Explanation: GM crops are distinctive because genetic material can be transferred between different organisms, such as inserting a bacterial gene into a plant. Ordinary cross-breeding combines genes within compatible breeding populations rather than directly transplanting selected genes across species.
Correct answer: they involve transplanting genes between different organisms133. In the on-going climate change debates which of these groups is least likely to be identified as having an interest in overemphasizing the need for global action on climate change ?
- A. the media
- B. fossil fuel corporations
- C. academic climate change researchers
- D. countries such as the Maldives at risk of rising sea levels
Explanation: Fossil fuel corporations generally have an economic interest in minimizing or delaying strong climate action because it threatens their core business. The media, researchers, and highly vulnerable countries may instead have reasons to emphasize the risks, though their interests are not identical.
Correct answer: fossil fuel corporations134. Which of the following vehicles emits the most carbon per passenger per kilometer ?
- A. single-occupancy light truck
- B. high-occupancy city bus
- C. long-haul aero plane
- D. high-speed coal-fired train
Explanation: A single-occupancy light truck usually produces the highest carbon emissions per passenger-kilometre because one person bears the vehicle's fuel emissions. Buses and trains spread emissions across many passengers, while aircraft emissions vary by aircraft and occupancy.
Correct answer: single-occupancy light truck135. Which one of these statements is correct _______________?
- A. global warming is simply another term for the greenhouse effect
- B. global warming is a problem caused mainly by unregulated industrialization in the developing countries
- C. global warming is the rise in average temperature at Earth's surface
- D. global warming is an entirely natural phenomenon
Explanation: Global warming means the long-term rise in Earth's average surface temperature. The greenhouse effect is the heat-trapping atmospheric process, and global warming is not simply identical to that process or exclusively a natural phenomenon.
Correct answer: global warming is the rise in average temperature at Earth's surface136. Which perspective on environmental issues tends to adopt an agnostic stance towards the severity of the problem itself ?
- A. critical realism
- B. social constructionism
- C. structural Marxism
- D. ecofeminism
Explanation: Social constructionism examines how society defines and frames environmental problems rather than deciding independently how severe they objectively are. This makes it relatively agnostic about the problem's actual severity, unlike critical realism.
Correct answer: social constructionism137. Environmental issues were central to the work of_____________?
- A. Karl Marx
- B. Emile Durkheim
- C. Max Weber
- D. None of these
Explanation: Marx, Durkheim and Weber discussed society's relationship with nature, but environmental issues were not a central, distinct focus of any of their major sociological programmes. Therefore, none of these is the best answer.
Correct answer: None of these138. Urban gentrification is an example of____________?
- A. segregation
- B. invasion
- C. redlining
- D. none of these
Explanation: Invasion describes a new social group moving into an area and altering its population and land use; gentrification commonly involves wealthier residents entering and transforming a lower-income neighbourhood. Segregation and redlining are related urban processes but do not define gentrification.
Correct answer: invasion139. Which model of city growth describes the city as a central business district surrounded by a zone in transition than a zone of workingmen's homes residential zones, and the commuters. zone ?
- A. the multiple nuclei model
- B. the sector models
- C. the concentric circle models
- D. the social area analysis model
Explanation: Burgess's concentric-zone model places the central business district at the centre, followed by a zone in transition, working-class housing and commuter suburbs. The multiple-nuclei and sector models organise urban space differently.
Correct answer: the concentric circle models140. Coercive and punitive measures to reduce fertility have aroused considerable indignation among many citizens in Western nations. Such measures have included_____________?
- A. Italy's practice of punishing couples who have two or more children.
- B. china's practice of fining a woman who is pregnant with a second child 20 per cent of her pay if she refuses to have an abortion.
- C. France's elimination of tax deductions for families with more than two children.
- D. Brazil's refusal to grant a divorce to couples with children
Explanation: China's coercive population-control policy included financial penalties for unauthorised pregnancies and pressure to terminate them. The other examples do not accurately describe well-known national fertility-control practices.
Correct answer: china's practice of fining a woman who is pregnant with a second child 20 per cent of her pay if she refuses to have an abortion.