World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Mount Etna is in Italy.

Etna stands on the east coast of the island of Sicily, above the city of Catania. It is the highest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world, erupting frequently.

Argentina, Mexico and the Philippines all have volcanoes of their own, such as Popocatepetl in Mexico and Mayon and Pinatubo in the Philippines, but Etna is not among them.

Answer: D

The International Date Line is the 180° Longitude.

It runs roughly along the 180° meridian, halfway round the world from Greenwich, through the Pacific Ocean. Crossing it eastward a traveller sets the calendar back one day; crossing it westward, forward one day. The line zigzags away from 180° in places to avoid splitting island groups and countries.

The Equator is the 0° parallel of latitude, not a longitude. The 0° meridian is the Prime Meridian through Greenwich, which sets standard time, not the date. The 90° meridians have no such role.

Answer: A

Balkh and Bukhara are in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan respectively.

Balkh is an ancient city in northern Afghanistan, the old Bactra, near Mazar-i-Sharif. Bukhara is one of the great Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The Punjabi proverb uses these two famous and wealthy cities to say that the comfort of one's own home (Chajju's upper room) is greater than the splendour of Balkh and Bukhara.

Neither city is in Iran, Iraq or Saudi Arabia, so the other options are wrong.

Answer: D

The Strait of Hormuz is at S and the Strait of Malacca is at T.

The Strait of Hormuz joins the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, between Iran and Oman, and much of the world's oil trade passes through it. On the map this is the circle S on the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Malacca lies between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra and links the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea; it is the circle T in South-East Asia.

The other circles are P, near the Panama isthmus in Central America, Q, at the western end of the Mediterranean (the Strait of Gibraltar), and R, at the southern end of the Red Sea (Bab-el-Mandeb). So 'R and P', 'Q and R' and 'R and T' each name at least one wrong passage.

Answer: D

None of the places is correctly matched.

1. Dagestan and Novo-Ogaryovo are in Russia (the latter is a presidential residence near Moscow), not South East Asia.
2. The Paracel and Spratly islands are in the South China Sea, not the Black Sea.
3. Zmiinyi (Snake) Island and Odesa are in the Black Sea, not the Red Sea.
4. Rafah and Khan Yunis are in the Gaza Strip in West Asia, not West Africa.

Each region has been swapped, so every option naming a correct pair is wrong.

Answer: D

The International Date Line is, broadly, the 180⁰ longitude.

It runs through the Pacific Ocean, mostly along the 180° meridian, opposite the prime meridian, and bends round island groups so that no country is split between two dates. Crossing it westward adds a day, and crossing it eastward takes one away.

The Equator is a line of latitude, not longitude. 0° longitude is the prime meridian through Greenwich, which sets Greenwich time but not the date change. 90° longitude has no special role in timekeeping.

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.