The Physical Environment
Senior 1 · English
The Physical Environment
Lesson 1 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
Stand on a hill in almost any district of Rwanda and you will see more hills, fold after fold, fading into blue. That view explains the country's nickname, the Land of a Thousand Hills. But the landscape changes as you travel: from volcanoes in the north-west, to the deep lake in the west, to the dry grasslands in the east. The text below is a short geography of that journey. Read it like a scientist: look for numbers, names and directions.
Before you read: Which physical features can you see from your home or school: a hill, a river, a valley, a lake, a forest, a volcano?
Size and position. Rwanda is a small country in East Africa, a few degrees south of the Equator. It has an area of 26,338 square kilometres and no coastline, so it is landlocked. Uganda lies to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Although the country is close to the Equator, the whole of it is high above sea level, so the air is much cooler than in most equatorial countries.
The volcanoes. In the north-west, a chain of volcanoes called the Virunga Mountains runs along the border. Five of them stand in Rwanda: Karisimbi, Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura. Karisimbi, at 4,507 metres, is the highest point in the country; its name comes from amasimbi, a Kinyarwanda word for snow, and in the dry months a little snow or hail sometimes lies on its summit. The forests on the slopes of the volcanoes are home to mountain gorillas. The Rwandan volcanoes are quiet today (the last small eruption, on the northern side of Bisoke, was in 1957), but the soil they made long ago is rich, so the farms around Musanze produce some of the country's best potatoes.
The western mountains and Lake Kivu. South of the volcanoes, a line of high mountains called the Congo–Nile Ridge runs from north to south. Rain that falls on its western side flows to the Congo River; rain on its eastern side flows to the Nile. Below the ridge lies Lake Kivu, the largest lake in Rwanda. It is about 89 kilometres long, and at its deepest point it goes down about 480 metres. The lake is shared with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The central plateau. East of the mountains, the land becomes a high plateau of rolling hills and steep valleys. Kigali, the capital, is built across several of these hills, at an average height of about 1,567 metres. The longest river in the country, the Nyabarongo, winds through this region before it joins the Akagera River.
The eastern lowlands. Towards the Tanzanian border, the land becomes lower, flatter and drier. Here there are savanna grasslands, swamps and a string of lakes, many of them inside Akagera National Park, where giraffes, zebras and elephants live. The lowest point in the country, however, is in the far south-west, where the Rusizi River leaves Rwanda at about 950 metres.
A cross-section shows the shape of the land as if you cut through it with a knife and looked at the cut from the side. This one follows a line across the middle of Rwanda from west to east.
| Word | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| physical feature | a natural part of the land: a mountain, river, lake, valley, forest | Lake Kivu and the Virunga volcanoes are Rwanda's best-known physical features. |
| volcano | a mountain formed by lava and ash coming up from inside the earth | Karisimbi is a volcano. |
| summit | the highest point of a mountain | Hail sometimes lies on the summit. |
| chain (range) | a line of mountains | The Virunga Mountains form a chain. |
| ridge | a long, narrow line of high land | The Congo–Nile Ridge runs north to south. |
| plateau | a large area of high, fairly flat land | Kigali is on the central plateau. |
| valley | low land between hills, often with a river | A stream runs along the valley. |
| swamp (wetland) | low land that is wet and soft for most of the year | Papyrus grows in the swamps near the Akagera. |
| savanna | flat grassland with a few trees, in a warm, drier climate | Giraffes live on the savanna. |
| landlocked | with no coast; surrounded by other countries | Rwanda is a landlocked country. |
| altitude | height above sea level | At high altitude the air is cooler. |
| fertile | (of soil) able to grow good crops | Volcanic soil is very fertile. |
Definition
Subject: the person or thing that does the action or is described in a sentence. The lake is deep.
Subject-verb agreement: the rule that a verb must match its subject in number. A singular subject takes a singular verb; a plural subject takes a plural verb.
Example: The volcano is high. The volcanoes are high. Karisimbi rises above the others. The Virungas rise along the border.
| Singular subject | Plural subject | |
|---|---|---|
| be (present) | The lake is deep. | The lakes are deep. |
| be (past) | Nyiragongo's last eruption was in 2021. | Its two most recent eruptions were in 2002 and 2021. |
| have | Rwanda has no coastline. | The hills have steep sides. |
| other verbs (present simple) | The river flows east. | The rivers flow east. |
| there is, there are | There is a swamp near the river. | There are many lakes in the east. |
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| A phrase between the subject and the verb does not change the verb. Find the real subject. | The chain of volcanoes runs along the border. |
| One of + plural noun takes a singular verb. | One of the lakes is shared with the DRC. |
| Each and every take a singular verb. | Each volcano has a name. Every district has hills. |
| Two subjects joined by and take a plural verb. | The Nyabarongo and the Akagera flow to Lake Victoria. |
| Uncountable nouns take a singular verb. | The soil near Musanze is fertile. Rain falls twice a year. |
| A distance, amount or area is treated as one thing. | 26,338 square kilometres is a small area for a country. |
Worked example
Analyse the sentence: The forests on the slopes of the volcanoes ___ home to mountain gorillas. (is or are?)
Warning
Tip
The see-saw rule: in the present simple, the -s sits on only one side. If the subject has an -s (lakes), the verb has none (lie). If the subject has no -s (the lake), the verb takes it (lies).
BBC Masterclass: subject-verb agreement, part 1, BBC Learning English (3 minutes). Listen for how the teacher finds the real subject in a long sentence, then try the same test on the example box above.
In pairs, describe a physical feature of Rwanda without naming it, in four sentences. Use at least one plural subject, one singular subject and one tricky subject (one of, each, the … of …). Your partner guesses the feature.
This feature is in the west of the country. One of its islands belongs to the DRC. Its water is very deep, and fishermen go out on it at night. Many hotels stand along its shore near Karongi and Rubavu. What is it? (Lake Kivu)
Write 80 to 100 words about the physical features of your district or of a district you know well. Say where it is, what the land is like (hills, valleys, rivers, lakes, forests), and how people use the land. Underline every verb, then check that it agrees with its subject.
Rulindo District is in the Northern Province, just north of Kigali. The land is very hilly, and each hill has steep sides and narrow valleys between them. The Nyabarongo River flows along part of the district's western border. Most of the hills are covered with small farms, where families grow beans, maize and bananas on terraces. On some slopes there are tea plantations, and the green rows of tea bushes look beautiful after the rain. One of the biggest problems is soil erosion, because heavy rain washes soil down the steep slopes.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
