Where Your Things Are Actually Made · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Following your things around the world

Geography · People & Environments · ages 16-18
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Why do firms split production across borders?

    • Each place does its stage best or cheapest
    • Managers enjoy long flights
    • Labels look better with many countries

  2. What does tracing a product mean?

    • Listing its adverts
    • Following it through countries, noting each stage
    • Guessing where it was made

  3. A long supply chain keeps working fine when one link fails.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. A government taxes imports of steel parts. How does a firm building across borders respond?

    • It plans around the barrier or shifts that stage
    • It ignores all taxes forever
    • It stops selling to every customer

  5. A phone has chips from one country, screens from another, and assembly in a third. What does each move show?

    • Random choices by bored managers
    • Each stage placed where it runs best or cheapest
    • A law forcing three-country labels

  6. What do supply chain managers actually run each day?

    • The colour of the packaging only
    • The weather at every port
    • The flow of parts, stock, and information

  7. Two countries sign a deal cutting import taxes and sharing standards. What should follow for splintered production?

    • All trade between them must stop
    • Supply chains grow shorter everywhere
    • Firms dare to split stages across those borders

  8. A missing chip halts car plants on three continents. What does this prove about long chains?

    • Cars need no chips at all
    • Long chains are fragile at single links
    • Ports never matter to factories
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Following your things around the world W1-mt_d1ovR3Nk3S-s1

  1. Each place does its stage best or cheapest · Firms place each stage where workers, resources, and laws fit best.
  2. Following it through countries, noting each stage · You follow the object back stage by stage through countries.
  3. False · One jammed link makes the whole chain wobble.
  4. It plans around the barrier or shifts that stage · Barriers raise costs, so firms plan routes and stages around them.
  5. Each stage placed where it runs best or cheapest · The split follows where each stage fits best.
  6. The flow of parts, stock, and information · They time flows so shelves stay full and costs stay low.
  7. Firms dare to split stages across those borders · Lower barriers make multi-border production safer to plan.
  8. Long chains are fragile at single links · One failed part can idle plants across the world.
Worksheet · LightMySky