World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: B

South America is given here as about 8.9 per cent of the world's area, covering roughly 17.8 million km².

That places it fourth among the continents, behind Asia, Africa and North America.

Answer: A

The low-latitude or tropical zone is the belt lying between the Tropic of Cancer (23½° N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23½° S). It is the only part of the Earth where the Sun can be directly overhead.

The middle latitudes lie between 23½° and 66½° in each hemisphere, and the high latitudes beyond the polar circles.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The Atlantic and the Pacific

The Panama Canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama to join the Atlantic and the Pacific, saving ships the long and dangerous voyage around Cape Horn - a saving of some 13,000 km on a New York to San Francisco passage. Unlike the Suez Canal it is not at sea level. The land rises well above the oceans, so ships are lifted about 26 metres through a series of locks to Gatun Lake, carried across, and lowered again. Each transit uses a vast quantity of fresh water from the lake, which is why droughts in Panama restrict traffic. A French attempt under Ferdinand de Lesseps failed in the 1880s at enormous cost in lives, chiefly to yellow fever and malaria. The United States completed it in 1914 and transferred it to Panama in 1999. Because of the isthmus’s shape the canal runs roughly northwest to southeast, so a ship heading for the Pacific actually travels eastward.

Answer: A

Both statements are the core of Von Thunen's agricultural location theory (1826), which explains land use as concentric rings around a market: transport cost rises with distance, so intensive and perishable production stays close in and extensive production moves out.

Answer: C

The Indus system has five major tributaries, and both listed groups belong to it: the Jhelum, Chenab and Ravi together with the Beas and Sutlej. Since each option names only part of the set, the combined choice is correct.

These five rivers give Punjab its name - panj (five) and ab (waters) - and all eventually join the Indus in Pakistan.

Answer: D

All three statements about the Moon are true. It is the Earth's only natural satellite; it has no liquid water on its surface, only traces of ice in permanently shadowed polar craters; and its gravity is too weak to retain an atmosphere, leaving it in near-vacuum.

Since each option is individually correct, the combined choice is the answer.

Answer: B

The Takla Makan lies in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, in western China. Covering about 337,000 km², it is one of the largest sandy deserts in the world.

It is ringed by the Kunlun, Pamir and Tian Shan ranges, which cut it off from every source of moisture, and the Silk Road skirted it on both sides rather than crossing it.

Answer: A

The chinook is a warm, dry wind that descends the eastern flank of the Rockies, warming as it is compressed and capable of raising temperatures sharply in hours. The sirocco blows off the Sahara, the harmattan across West Africa and the loo over northern India.

Answer: C

The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia, covering some 350,000 sq km across Western Australia and South Australia.

Answer: A

The Ajanta caves are in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra. Thirty rock-cut Buddhist caves were carved into a horseshoe cliff between the 2nd century BC and about 480 AD.

Their murals are the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian painting, and the site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.