Geography entrance exam, 2013 E.C. (2021)

Highland forests in Ethiopia grow between about 1,500 and 3,300 metres above sea level. Their trees are Kerkha (bamboo), Tid (juniper), Zigba (podocarpus) and, at the lower edge from 1,500 to 1,800 metres, Woira, the African olive, together with Kosso.

Sholla is the tempting answer, but Sholla and Warka belong to the lowland riverine forests below 1,500 metres. Acacia grows in the dry savanna and cactus in semi desert land.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 3 Natural Resource Base of Ethiopia, section 3.6 Biotic resources of Ethiopia (page 79).

Woodland savanna is grass mixed with scattered trees and bush, and it grows where the rainfall has a strong wet and dry rhythm. In Ethiopia the syllabus places these savanna grasslands in the southern half of the Rift Valley, around Ziway, Langano, Abiyatta and Hawassa.

Wollega, Gonder and Woliso lie on the wetter western and central highlands, where forest and highland woodland take over instead.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 3 Natural Resource Base of Ethiopia, section 3.6 Biotic resources of Ethiopia (page 80).

Slash and burn means cutting the trees and bush on a plot and then burning what is left. The ash gives a quick dose of nutrients and the cleared ground is planted with crops, so the purpose is to prepare land for cultivation.

Charcoal making and timber cutting also destroy forest, but they take the wood away as a product. In slash and burn the wood is burnt on the spot because the farmer wants the field, not the wood.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 6 Human and Natural Environment Interactions in Ethiopia, section 6.5 Impacts of rapid population growth (page 176).

Wildlife areas are graded by how much use they allow. A sanctuary is set aside to protect a particular species and its habitat, and hunting inside it is strictly forbidden. Game reserves and controlled hunting areas, by contrast, do allow licensed hunting.

Note that national parks also forbid hunting, so option B is not wrong in itself. The sanctuary is the strictest of the categories, which is why it is the expected answer.

Hard crystalline basement rocks weather very slowly, so only a thin skin of soil forms on them. Those soils are poor, thin, rocky and acidic, and they range in colour from grey to brown. In Ethiopia they cover the Hararghe plateaus and the Borena lowlands.

Deep, fertile, humus rich soils come from a different parent material: the volcanic rocks of the plateaus, which give the red and black basaltic soils.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 3 Natural Resource Base of Ethiopia, section 3.4 Major soil types of Ethiopia (page 71).

Vertisols, the black basaltic soils, hold a lot of clay. They swell and turn sticky when wet and crack when dry, and water cannot drain through them. Their nutrients are good, but the drainage problem keeps them out of ploughing and leaves them mainly for grazing. They cover about 10 percent of Ethiopia, mostly in Arsi, Bale and central Hararghe.

Regosols and Lithosols are also of little use for crops, but that is because they are shallow, young and coarse, not because water sits in them. Acrisols are heavily leached and low in nutrients.

Textbook: Geography Grade 9, Unit 3 Natural Resource Base of Ethiopia, section 3.4 Major soil types of Ethiopia (page 72).