NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 2 –40End-of-chapter exercise — Questions, activities and projects

Book page 39 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Explain the following terms: (a) Continent (b) Ocean (c) Island

Answer

(a) Continent

A continent is a large continuous expanse of land — a landmass so big that it is not counted as an island even though water surrounds it. There are seven of them in the most widely used count: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. Asia is the largest and Australia the smallest, and India is a part of Asia.

(b) Ocean

An ocean is a very large body of salt water — the largest water bodies on the Earth. There are five: the Pacific (largest), Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic (smallest). They are not truly separate; the boundaries drawn between them on maps are only conventions. Their smaller extensions are called seas, bays and gulfs — for example the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, both parts of the Indian Ocean.

(c) Island

An island is a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides and small enough not to be called a continent. There are lakhs of them, of every size. Greenland is the largest island in the world. India has more than 1,300 islands, including two major groups — the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea.

	What it is	How many	Example
Continent	A large continuous expanse of land	Seven (most common count)	Asia
Ocean	A very large body of salt water	Five	Indian Ocean
Island	Land smaller than a continent, surrounded by water on all sides	Lakhs	Greenland; Lakshadweep

The tricky bit: a continent is also surrounded by water — so what makes it not an island? Only size, and an agreement among people. Australia is called a continent; Greenland, which is smaller, is called an island. There is no natural law that fixes the line.

Q2.

Let us draw – Without looking at the maps in this chapter, draw the continents free hand on a sheet of paper and colour them. Then compare your drawing with the map of oceans and continents in the chapter.

Answer

This is a memory-and-observation activity, so no one can do it for you. What matters is how you do it and what you check afterwards.

How to draw it:

Close the book. Take a full A4 sheet in landscape.
Draw a big oval for the whole world, then a light horizontal line across the middle — that is the Equator. This one line will save you from most mistakes.
Block in the shapes roughly, largest first: Asia in the top right, Africa below and to its left with the Equator crossing its middle, Europe as a small piece above Africa and left of Asia, North America in the top left, South America below it and mostly south of the Equator, Australia to the lower right, and Antarctica as a band along the bottom.
Colour the land and leave the water blue. Write the names of the seven continents and the five oceans.

Then compare with Fig. 2.3 and check these five things:

Check	What people usually get wrong
Sizes	Asia should be by far the biggest; Europe should be small — smaller than Antarctica.
The Equator	It crosses South America, Africa and the islands of Indonesia. It must not cross India, Australia or Europe.
Joins	North and South America are joined by a narrow neck; Europe and Asia are one landmass with no sea between them.
Position of Australia	Entirely south of the Equator, south-east of Asia — not next to Africa.
Oceans named	Pacific on both edges of the map, Atlantic in the middle-left, Indian below Asia, Southern round Antarctica, Arctic at the top.

Tip: keep your first attempt. Draw it again a week later without looking, and put the two side by side — the second one is always startlingly better, and that is the real point of the exercise.

Q3.

Let us do – On the outline map of the world given below, label all the continents and oceans.

Answer

Twelve labels go on the map — seven continents and five oceans. Work from the dashed lines already printed on the outline: the middle one is the Equator. Here is where each label belongs.

Label	Where to write it on the outline map
North America	The big landmass at the top left, above the Equator
South America	Below it, joined by a narrow neck; the Equator crosses its northern part
Europe	The small landmass in the upper middle, north of the Mediterranean and west of Asia
Africa	The large block in the middle of the map; the Equator runs across its centre
Asia	The huge landmass on the right of Europe, occupying most of the top right
Australia	The island continent to the south-east, below Asia and south of the Equator
Antarctica	The long white band right along the bottom of the map
Pacific Ocean	Twice — once on the far left edge and once on the far right edge (the map cuts it in two)
Atlantic Ocean	Between the Americas on one side and Europe and Africa on the other
Indian Ocean	South of Asia, between Africa and Australia
Southern Ocean	The strip of water all around Antarctica
Arctic Ocean	At the very top, above North America, Europe and Asia

How to do it neatly:

Write ocean names in blue and continent names in black or brown, so the two groups can be told apart at a glance.
Print the letters in capitals, spread across the shape, not squeezed into a corner.
Label the biggest features first — you will then have room for the small ones.
Finally, mark the Equator itself and write ‘0°’ at its left end.

Self-check before you hand it in: Is Asia your largest label and Australia your smallest? Does the Equator pass through South America, Africa and Indonesia only? Is the Pacific written twice? Is the Southern Ocean below the Indian and Atlantic, not beside them? If all four are right, the map is right.

Q4.

Solve this crossword. ACROSS — 1. Abundantly produced by the oceans; 3. A large expanse of landmass; 6. A large continent of which India is a part; 8. A major source of pollution of the oceans; 10. The coldest continent. DOWN — 2. The largest island on Earth; 4. A huge destructive wave from the ocean; 5. The smallest continent; 7. The largest body of water on the Earth; 9. A landmass (but not a continent) surrounded by the sea or ocean.

Answer

Here is the completed grid, followed by the reasoning for each clue.

The completed crossword. The red numbers are the clue numbers printed in your book.

Clue	Letters	Answer	Where the chapter says it
1 Across — Abundantly produced by the oceans	6	OXYGEN	Page 38: more than half the world's oxygen comes from the oceans' flora
3 Across — A large expanse of landmass	9	CONTINENT	Page 28: “a large continuous expanse of land is called a continent”
6 Across — A large continent of which India is a part	7	EURASIA	Page 35: geologists regard Europe and Asia as one continent, Eurasia — and India is part of it
8 Across — A major source of pollution of the oceans	7	PLASTIC	Page 38: several million tonnes of plastic waste are thrown into the oceans every year
10 Across — The coldest continent	10	ANTARCTICA	Page 37: “a continent with a very cold climate and harsh environment”
2 Down — The largest island on Earth	9	GREENLAND	Page 37: you would have to add the ten largest States of India to reach its size
4 Down — A huge destructive wave from the ocean	7	TSUNAMI	Page 33: caused by a strong undersea earthquake or a volcanic eruption
5 Down — The smallest continent	9	AUSTRALIA	Page 36: only 8 squares in the size diagram
7 Down — The largest body of water on the Earth	7	PACIFIC	Page 32: “the Pacific Ocean is the largest of all”
9 Down — A landmass (but not a continent) surrounded by the sea or ocean	6	ISLAND	Pages 36–37: the definition of an island

How the crossings prove the answers: the G of OXYGEN starts GREENLAND; the T of CONTINENT starts TSUNAMI, and its E is the third letter of GREENLAND; EURASIA is fixed by the U of AUSTRALIA, the A of TSUNAMI and the A of GREENLAND; PLASTIC crosses AUSTRALIA at its A; and ANTARCTICA takes its first A from AUSTRALIA, its I from PACIFIC and its last A from ISLAND.

Why 6 Across is EURASIA and not ASIA: the row has seven squares, and the crossing letters give _ U _ A _ _ A. ASIA has only four letters and would not fit. The chapter itself introduces ‘Eurasia’ on page 35 as the geologists' name for the single Europe-and-Asia landmass, of which India is a part.

Was this helpful? Report an error