Defence 2019 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, because the Suez Canal has no locks at all. It is a sea level canal: the Mediterranean and the Red Sea stand at almost the same height, so ships sail straight through without being raised or lowered. The canal, about 193 km long, was built under Ferdinand de Lesseps and opened in November 1869 across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt, separating Africa from Asia. Egypt nationalised it in 1956. Options A, B and D all state facts, so none of them is the answer: the canal did open in 1869, it does join the Mediterranean to the Red Sea through the Gulf of Suez, and it did shorten the voyage from Europe to India by thousands of kilometres, ending the long route round the Cape of Good Hope. Exam tip: Suez is a lock free canal; the Panama Canal is the one with locks, because Gatun Lake lies well above sea level.

The correct answer is B, the amplitude of the sound waves. Amplitude is the maximum displacement of a particle of the medium from its rest position, and the energy carried by a wave increases with the square of the amplitude. A larger amplitude therefore delivers more energy to the ear and is heard as a louder sound. Loudness is measured in decibel.

Option A, the velocity of the wave, is fixed by the medium and its temperature; a loud and a soft sound in the same room travel at exactly the same speed. Option C, frequency, decides pitch, that is whether the sound is shrill or flat, and not how loud it is; turning up the volume of a ringtone does not change its frequency. Option D combines two quantities that both govern properties other than loudness, so it is wrong for the same reasons.

The correct answer is A, Unity and Discipline. The motto of the National Cadet Corps is Unity and Discipline, in Hindi Ekta aur Anushasan. The NCC was set up in 1948 under the National Cadet Corps Act, 1948, and works under the Ministry of Defence with its headquarters in New Delhi. It trains school and college students through its Army, Navy and Air wings, and cadets holding the C certificate can become Army officers through the NCC Special Entry without writing the CDS paper. NCC Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of November every year. An easy way to remember the motto: a cadet's two first lessons are to stand together and to follow orders. B is wrong, because Unity and Integrity is not the NCC motto. C is wrong, because Unity and Command is a made-up pairing. D is wrong, because the word service belongs to the Indian Army's motto, Service Before Self, not to the NCC's. Exam tip: NCC, 1948, Ministry of Defence, motto Unity and Discipline, NCC Day on the fourth Sunday of November.

The correct answer is B, greenhouse gases emission. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted at Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997 under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was the first treaty to set binding targets for cutting emissions. It came into force on 16 February 2005 and asked industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of about 5 per cent below 1990 levels during 2008 to 2012. It covered six gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and created market tools such as the Clean Development Mechanism, which let projects in countries like India earn carbon credits. India ratified it in 2002 but, as a developing country, had no binding target. A is wrong, because cutting poverty is the aim of goals such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, not Kyoto. C is wrong, because nuclear arms are dealt with by treaties like the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968. D is wrong, because farm subsidies fall under the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture. Exam tip: Kyoto 1997, in force 2005, binding cuts for rich nations; Paris 2015, pledges from all nations.