Week 3 – Exercise Questions
Due: Monday, February 25
For this exercise, please complete the reading assignment
before answering the questions.
Submit your answers to me in a Word(*.doc) document, text
(*.txt) file or PDF file as an attachment. Save your file as
yourinitials_Exercise3.
For this exercise, please refer to your textbook and linked
articles to answer the following questions:
1) Why is “Southwest Asia and North Africa” a more
appropriate term to use for this world region instead of
“The Middle East”? What are some problems with defining
the region?
2) What are five important human modifications of the
Southwest Asian and North African environment? Discuss
how each of these changes have benefited or adversely
impacted the region.
3) Discuss how pastoral nomadism, oasis agriculture, and
dryland wheat farming represent distinctive adaptations to
the regional environments of Southwest Asia and North
Africa. How do these rural lifestyles create distinctive
patterns of settlement?
4) Describe the distinctive contributions of (a) Islam, (b)
European colonialism, and (c) recent globalization to the
region’s urban landscape.
5) Summarize the key patterns and drivers of migration into
and out of the region.
6) Describe the key characteristics of Islam, and explain why
distinctive Sunni and Shiite branches exist today.
7) Compare the modern maps of religion and language for
the region, and identify three major non-Arabic-speaking
areas where Islam dominates. Explain why that is the case.
8) The Economist article “How Silicon Makes Israel’s Desert
Bloom” discusses the rise of the Israel’s agritech industry.
This industry, which utilizes cutting-edge technology
(including artificial intelligence and geospatial imagery
analysis) to improve agricultural output is particularly
important to Israel more than other nations. As the article
states, Israel’s agritech sector is the 2nd largest in the
world (U.S. is ranked #1) and in order to be successful,
Israel’s agritech sector must rely on significant investments
from other nations. According to the article, how has
Israel’s geography contributed to Israel playing such a
significant role in the argitech sector?
9) The New York Times article “Why Pope Francis’ Historic
Visit to the Gulf Matters” discusses the implications of the
recent visit of Pope Francis to the United Arab Emirates
(UAE). According to the article, this was the first modernera
visit by a Catholic Pope to the Persian Gulf region. Why
was the visit by Pope Francis to UAE considered to be so
important and why was UAE chosen to be the first nation
in the region to receive Pope Francis on an official visit?
