Geography · Unit 17

Natural Resources and Energy

The resources people use

Every resource question comes down to the same tension: something is finite, unevenly distributed, and needed by everyone.

The unit covers renewable and non-renewable resources, fossil fuels and how they formed, the renewable alternatives and what each actually requires, and water and food security - which are becoming the resource questions that matter most.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-3

What this unit covers

Natural Resources
Fossil Fuels
Managing Resources
Renewable Energy
Water and Food

Where this fits

Follows Development and the Economy. Leads into Environment and Sustainability.

Where people slip

Renewable does not mean unlimited or harmless. Hydropower floods valleys, wind and solar need mined materials, and biofuel competes with food for land.

How the unit is structured

Natural Resources and Energy runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Fossil Fuels

Fill the blankLevel 1
1. Coal, oil, and natural gas are known as ____ fuels because they formed from ancient living things.
- fossilcorrect
- solar
- nuclear
- wind
They are called fossil fuels because they come from the fossilised remains of ancient plants and animals.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
2. Which of these is a fossil fuel?
- Coalcorrect
- Wind
- Sunlight
- Flowing water
Coal is a fossil fuel, along with oil and natural gas.
Fact or fibLevel 2
3. Fossil fuels formed over millions of years from the remains of ancient living things.
Answer: True
Coal, oil, and gas formed slowly over millions of years from buried plants and tiny sea creatures.
Guess the numberLevel 2
4. About what percentage of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels today?
Answer: 80 percent
Fossil fuels still provide roughly 80 percent of the world's energy.
Match the pairsLevel 2
5. Match each fossil fuel to its description.
Answer: Coal = A solid black rock; Crude oil = A thick dark liquid; Natural gas = A gas with no colour; Peat = Partly formed fuel in bogs
Coal is solid, oil is a liquid, and natural gas is a gas, while peat is an early stage of coal forming in bogs.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
6. Which of these are genuine environmental concerns linked to fracking? (Choose all that apply)
- Contamination of underground water suppliescorrect
- Small earthquakes or tremorscorrect
- Very high use of watercorrect
- Producing radioactive fuel rods
Fracking can pollute groundwater, trigger small earthquakes and uses large volumes of water; radioactive fuel rods relate to nuclear power, not fracking.

Managing Resources

Multiple choiceLevel 1
7. Why should people try to save resources?
- Some resources can run out or take a long time to replacecorrect
- Because they are boring
- Because they are always free
- So machines can rest
Many resources are limited or take a long time to replace, so saving them helps them last longer.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
8. Build the famous saying about looking after resources.
Answer: Reduce reuse and recycle to save resources
The phrase 'reduce, reuse, and recycle' reminds people how to save resources and cut waste.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
9. Which of these actions help save resources? (Choose all that apply)
- Recycling paper and glasscorrect
- Turning off lights not in usecorrect
- Leaving taps running
- Reusing shopping bagscorrect
Recycling, saving electricity, and reusing bags all help conserve resources, while leaving taps running wastes water.
Fill the blankLevel 2
10. Replacing old bulbs with ____ lighting saves electricity because it gives the same light using far less energy.
- LEDcorrect
- neon
- halogen
- incandescent
LED bulbs turn much more of their energy into light than older incandescent bulbs, using only a fraction of the electricity.
Match the pairsLevel 2
11. Match each used material to what it can be recycled into.
Answer: Old newspaper = New paper; Glass bottles = New glass jars; Plastic bottles = Fleece clothing; Aluminium cans = New metal cans
Many everyday materials can be recycled into new products instead of being thrown away.
Odd one outLevel 3
12. Three of these are ways to store energy for later use. Which is the odd one out?
- Burning natural gas straight awaycorrect
- Charging large batteries
- Pumping water up to a high reservoir
- Making hydrogen fuel
Batteries, pumped-storage and hydrogen all store energy for later, whereas burning gas straight away simply uses energy at once.

Natural Resources

Fill the blankLevel 1
13. Digging valuable minerals like gold and iron out of the ground is called ____.
- miningcorrect
- farming
- fishing
- weaving
Mining is the process of taking minerals and metals out of the ground.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
14. What is a natural resource?
- Something useful that people take from naturecorrect
- A machine built in a factory
- A type of money
- A computer program
A natural resource is a useful material that comes from nature, such as water, wood, or minerals.
Picture questionLevel 1
15. 🪵 This natural resource comes from trees and is used to build houses. What is it?
- Woodcorrect
- Oil
- Iron
- Sand
Wood is cut from trees and used as a building material and to make paper.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
16. Build the sentence about where natural resources come from.
Answer: Natural resources come from the Earth
Natural resources come from the Earth, not from factories.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
17. Which of these are natural resources? (Choose all that apply)
- Fishcorrect
- Sunlightcorrect
- Coalcorrect
- A television
Fish, sunlight, and coal all come from nature, while a television is a man-made product.
Odd one outLevel 2
18. Which of these is NOT a natural resource?
- A plastic bagcorrect
- Water
- Iron ore
- Natural gas
Plastic is made by people in factories, usually from oil, so it is a man-made material rather than a natural resource.

Renewable Energy

Multiple choiceLevel 1
19. What does 'renewable energy' mean?
- Energy from sources that will not run outcorrect
- Energy that is always very expensive
- Energy that can only be used at night
- Energy made only from coal
Renewable energy comes from sources like the sun and wind that will not run out.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
20. Which of these are renewable energy sources? (Choose all that apply)
- Windcorrect
- Sunlightcorrect
- Coal
- Flowing watercorrect
Wind, sunlight, and flowing water are renewable, but coal is a non-renewable fossil fuel.
Fact or fibLevel 2
21. Wind and solar power are called 'intermittent' because they only generate electricity when the wind blows or the sun shines.
Answer: True
Intermittent sources vary with the weather and time of day, so their output cannot simply be switched on when needed.
Fill the blankLevel 2
22. Electricity made from the energy of flowing water in rivers is called ____ power.
- hydroelectriccorrect
- nuclear
- solar
- coal
Hydroelectric power uses moving water, often held back by a dam, to generate electricity.
Match the pairsLevel 2
23. Match each renewable energy source to what it uses.
Answer: Solar power = Energy from the sun; Wind power = Moving air turning turbines; Hydroelectric power = Flowing water in rivers; Geothermal power = Heat from inside the Earth
Each renewable source uses a different part of nature: the sun, the wind, water, or the Earth's heat.
Guess the numberLevel 3
24. Roughly what percentage of the world's electricity was generated from renewable sources (including hydropower) by the early 2020s?
Answer: 30 percent
By the early 2020s renewables, led by hydropower, wind and solar, supplied around 30% of the world's electricity.

Water and Food

Fill the blankLevel 1
25. Growing crops and raising animals for people to eat is called ____.
- farmingcorrect
- mining
- drilling
- recycling
Farming produces food, which is one of the most important resources people need.
Guess the numberLevel 2
26. About what percentage of the Earth's surface is covered by water?
Answer: 71 percent
Water covers about 71 percent of the Earth's surface.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
27. Build the name of the mid-1900s programme that raised crop yields using high-yield seeds, fertilisers and irrigation.
Answer: The Green Revolution
The Green Revolution greatly increased food production in the mid-20th century through high-yield crop varieties, fertilisers and irrigation.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
28. Which of these are common causes of famine?
- Prolonged drought and repeated failed harvestscorrect
- Armed conflict that disrupts food supplycorrect
- Widespread poverty that limits access to foodcorrect
- An abundance of well-functioning trade routes
Famines usually result from a mix of drought and failed harvests, conflict disrupting supply and poverty limiting access, not from healthy trade routes.
Fact or fibLevel 3
29. A river shared by several countries can cause disputes because a dam or heavy water use upstream reduces the water available downstream.
Answer: True
Upstream countries can cut the flow reaching downstream neighbours, so shared rivers are a common source of water conflict.
Match the pairsLevel 3
30. Match each shared river to the countries that argue over its water.
Answer: River Nile = Egypt and Ethiopia; Tigris-Euphrates = Turkey, Syria and Iraq; Indus = India and Pakistan; Colorado = USA and Mexico
Each of these rivers crosses borders, so the countries along it must share, and sometimes dispute, the water it carries.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Natural Resources and Energy

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

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