World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The river is the Zaire (Congo).

The Congo, formerly called the Zaire, rises south of the equator, flows north across it, curves west and then turns south-west, crossing the equator a second time before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.

The Nile flows north from the region of Lake Victoria and crosses the equator only once. The Amazon flows eastwards just south of the equator, and the Mississippi lies wholly in the northern hemisphere.

Answer: A

The Jordan rises near Mount Hermon, flows south through the Sea of Galilee and empties into the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea has no outlet, so the water the Jordan delivers can leave only by evaporation - which is why the lake is so intensely saline and its level continues to fall as the river is drawn off for irrigation.

Answer: A

The Atlas Mountains run about 2,500 km through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, in north-west Africa.

They separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts from the Sahara, and their highest point, Toubkal in Morocco, reaches 4,167 m.

Answer: A

Crude oil bought directly from the national oil companies of producing countries that have a surplus for export is purchased under term contracts - long-standing agreements covering fixed quantities over a fixed period, at prices tied to an agreed formula.

Tenders, whether term or monthly, are competitive bids used mainly for spot purchases from traders, not for government-to-government supply.

Answer: D

Humidity depends on all of these: temperature governs how much vapour the air can hold, location determines proximity to water bodies, and the weather system in place brings moist or dry air masses.

Answer: B

Correct answer: A rapid mass movement of snow and ice down a slope

An avalanche is the rapid downslope movement of a mass of snow, often carrying ice, rock and debris with it. It is a form of mass wasting, driven by gravity once the strength holding the snowpack in place is exceeded. The commonest and most dangerous type is the slab avalanche, in which a cohesive layer of snow releases across a weak layer beneath it - typically buried surface hoar or faceted crystals formed during a cold clear spell. Slopes between about 30 and 45 degrees are the most prone: gentler ones do not release, steeper ones shed snow continuously. Triggers include fresh heavy snowfall, rapid warming, rain on snow, and the weight of a person crossing the slope, which accounts for most fatal avalanches. They are a serious hazard in the Himalaya, particularly for troops posted at high altitude and along routes such as the road to Siachen, and in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

Answer: A

The initial phase of a magnetic storm is preceded by a storm sudden commencement - the abrupt jump in the horizontal field, lasting a few minutes, as the shock front of a solar wind gust compresses the magnetosphere.

The field then stays slightly elevated through the initial phase, before the main phase drives it sharply downward.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Frost shattering of rock

Frost shattering is physical, or mechanical, weathering: rock is broken into smaller pieces with no change in its chemical composition. Water seeps into a crack, freezes, and expands by about nine per cent, prising the crack wider; repeated cycles split the rock apart. It is most effective where temperatures cross freezing point frequently, as on high mountains, and produces the scree slopes below cliffs. The other three are chemical processes, which alter the minerals themselves. Carbonation dissolves limestone in weakly acidic rainwater, creating caves and karst; oxidation rusts iron-bearing minerals and gives lateritic soils their red colour; and hydrolysis converts feldspar into clay, which is the commonest chemical reaction in the crust. The two reinforce each other: physical weathering breaks rock into fragments and so multiplies the surface area available for chemical attack. Physical weathering dominates in cold and arid climates, chemical in hot and humid ones.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers of any language, around 940 million, chiefly because of the population of China. Spanish is second by that measure, then English and Hindi, though the order varies with how dialects and closely related varieties are counted. The picture changes completely if total speakers are counted rather than native ones. English then leads by a wide margin, with well over a billion speakers, because it is so widely learnt as a second language and functions as the working language of international business, science and aviation. The distinction between first-language and total speakers is exactly what such questions turn on, so it is worth reading which is meant. India’s own position is unusual: it has no single national language, but Hindi and English serve as the official languages of the union, alongside 22 scheduled languages.

Answer: A

The soils of the south-eastern United States are Ultisols - deeply weathered, acid, reddish soils that have lost most of their bases through long leaching under a warm, humid climate.

Alfisols are younger and richer in bases, Aridisols are desert soils, and Mollisols are the dark, fertile grassland soils of the prairies.