the wide looping curves which are found along parts of the courses of some rivers are called:
a.meanders
b.flood plains
c.river bluffs
d.ox-bow lakes
Mark Twain used the term Meander often for the part of the Mississippi near Island 10.
http://tinyurl.com/yj3gl8h
(Broken Link Removed)
better image
Meander
The correct answer is a. meanders.
To arrive at this answer, one could start by understanding the key terms in the question. In this case, it is the description of "wide looping curves" and "rivers."
Next, one could consider the options provided and eliminate ones that don't fit the given description.
- Flood plains refer to the flat areas bordering a river that are prone to flooding, which is not what is being described in the question.
- River bluffs are steep cliffs or hills found alongside a river, and while they can be related to the formation of meanders, they don't directly represent the looping curves themselves.
- Ox-bow lakes are U-shaped bodies of water that form when a meander of a river is cut off from the main flow, so they are a result of meanders rather than the meanders themselves.
By process of elimination, the correct answer is a. meanders, which refers to the wide looping curves found along parts of a river's course.