Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 20

The correct answer is A, (a)-(iv), (b)-(i), (c)-(ii), (d)-(iii). Marble is a metamorphic rock, formed when limestone is changed deep inside the earth by great heat and pressure; the Taj Mahal is built of it. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock, made of sand grains carried by wind or water and pressed together in layers over long periods, and it is the red stone of Fatehpur Sikri. Coal is counted as a fossil fuel, formed from plant remains buried in swamps millions of years ago and slowly changed by heat and pressure. Granite is an igneous rock, formed when molten magma cools and hardens below the surface, which gives it a coarse, grainy look and great hardness. B, C and D are wrong because each swaps at least two of these pairs, most often putting granite with sedimentary rocks or marble with igneous rocks. Exam tip: limestone becomes marble, magma gives granite, sand gives sandstone.

The correct answer is B, Tropical Deciduous Forests. These are called monsoon forests because they grow where rainfall comes with the monsoon, between about 70 and 200 centimetres a year, and the trees shed their leaves for six to eight weeks in the dry season to save water. They are the most widespread forests of India, covering much of the northern plains, the Deccan plateau and the lower Himalayan slopes. The moist type, with over 100 centimetres of rain, gives teak, sal, shisham, sandalwood and bamboo, while the drier type gives teak, axlewood and bel. Option A is wrong because montane forests are the belts of oak, deodar, pine and fir that change with height in the mountains. Option C is wrong because tropical evergreen forests grow in very wet areas above 200 centimetres of rain and never shed all their leaves together. Option D is wrong because mangrove forests are tidal forests of deltas and coasts. Exam tip: monsoon forest means tropical deciduous, and sal and teak are its trees.

The correct answer is B, Troposphere. The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere, lying right above the Earth's surface, and nearly all weather happens in it. It reaches about 18 km over the equator and about 8 km over the poles, and it holds roughly three quarters of the mass of the air along with almost all the water vapour and dust. Because this layer is heated from the ground upwards, the temperature falls with height by about 6.5 degrees Celsius per kilometre, which keeps the air churning and makes clouds, rain, storms and winds possible. Its upper limit is called the tropopause. A is wrong because the mesosphere lies above the stratosphere and is the layer where meteors burn up. C is wrong because the ionosphere is far higher and reflects radio waves back to Earth. D is wrong because the stratosphere holds the ozone layer and has calm air that jet aircraft use. Exam tip: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, from the ground upwards.

The correct answer is C, Salem - Tamil Nadu. The Salem Steel Plant lies in Salem district of Tamil Nadu, so this is the only correctly matched pair. It is a SAIL unit set up in 1981 and is known for stainless steel cold-rolled coils and sheets rather than ordinary construction steel. The other three pairs name the wrong state. A is wrong because the Bokaro Steel Plant, built with Soviet help in the 1960s, stands in Jharkhand, which was carved out of Bihar in 2000. B is wrong because the Durgapur Steel Plant, built with British help, is in West Bengal and not in Odisha. D is wrong because the Rourkela Steel Plant, India's first public sector integrated plant and built with West German help, is in Odisha and not in West Bengal. Exam tip: Rourkela-Germany-Odisha, Durgapur-Britain-West Bengal, Bhilai-Russia-Chhattisgarh, Bokaro-Russia-Jharkhand.

The correct answer is B, Bhabar. Where the rivers leave the hills they drop their coarsest load, and the resulting belt of gravel and pebbles is so porous that the smaller streams sink into it and vanish. This belt, about eight to sixteen kilometres wide, runs along the whole northern edge of the plains and is known as the bhabar.

Option A, the terai, is the belt immediately south of the bhabar, where the same streams come to the surface again, creating a marshy and once heavily forested tract. Option C, bhangar, refers not to a position at the foot of the hills but to the older alluvium of the plains, lying above the flood level and often containing lime nodules called kankar. Option D, khadar, is the newer alluvium of the active floodplains, renewed by fresh silt at every flood. Bhabar and terai are a pair and are the two most often interchanged in answer sheets.

The correct answer is C, Mexico. Milpa is the name given to shifting cultivation in Mexico and in the neighbouring parts of Central America, where maize, beans and squash are grown together on a patch cleared from the forest. In shifting cultivation a plot is cleared by cutting and burning the trees, cropped for two or three years until the ash-fed soil loses its fertility, and then left fallow while the farmer moves to a fresh patch. Because the same practice grew up in forest belts across the world, it carries a different local name in each region. A is wrong because in India it is called jhum in the north-east, podu in Andhra Pradesh and bewar or dahiya in Madhya Pradesh. B is wrong because in Malaysia and Indonesia it is known as ladang. D is wrong because in Brazil it is called roca or coivara. Exam tip: milpa in Mexico, ladang in Malaysia, roca in Brazil, chena in Sri Lanka and jhum in north-east India.

The correct answer is B, Shiwalik and Lesser Himalaya. Duns are flat-floored longitudinal valleys formed where rivers coming out of the Lesser Himalaya were held up behind the rising Shiwalik and filled the depression with gravel and silt. Dehra Dun in Uttarakhand is the largest, and Kotli Dun and Patli Dun are the other examples exams name. Option A is wrong because the valley belt between the Greater and the Lesser Himalaya includes the Kashmir valley, which is filled with Karewa lake deposits rather than being called a Dun. Option C is wrong because the Karakoram and the Ladakh range lie in the Trans-Himalayan zone north of the Greater Himalaya, where the Indus flows between them. Option D is wrong because the Zaskar range also belongs to the Trans-Himalayan system and holds no Duns.

The correct answer is A, Zanskar Range. Zoji La, or the Zojila pass, lies in the Zanskar range of the Himalayas at a height of about 3,528 metres. It is on the Srinagar to Leh highway between Sonamarg in the Kashmir valley and Drass in the Kargil district, and it is the gateway to Ladakh. Heavy snow closes it in winter, which is why the Zojila tunnel is being built to keep the route open through the year and give the armed forces year-round access to Ladakh. Option B is wrong because the Ladakh range holds the Khardung La and Chang La passes. Option C is wrong because the eastern Karakoram range holds the Karakoram pass and Saser La on the old trade route to Central Asia. Option D is wrong because the Dhauladhar range runs through Himachal Pradesh above Dharamshala and Kangra. Exam tip: Zoji La in the Zanskar range for Kashmir to Ladakh, Khardung La in the Ladakh range beyond Leh.

The correct answer is D, Iron oxide. Laterite soil is rich in oxides of iron and aluminium, and the iron oxide gives it its red brick colour. The soil develops in regions of high temperature and heavy seasonal rain, where water washes the lime, silica and plant nutrients down through the soil and leaves the insoluble iron and aluminium behind. This process is called leaching, and the name laterite comes from the Latin word for brick, since the hardened soil is cut into blocks for building. It is found in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and the hills of Maharashtra. Option A is wrong because laterite soil is poor in phosphorus, nitrogen and humus and needs manure. Option B is wrong because calcium carbonate, or lime, is exactly what leaching removes, and it is instead plentiful in black and arid soils. Option C is wrong because potash too is washed away. Exam tip: leaching leaves iron and aluminium, so laterite is red and acidic.

The correct answer is A, Dang. Dang is not a South Indian tribe. The name belongs to the Dangs district of southern Gujarat, whose tribal people are mainly Bhil, Warli and Konkana, all of western India. The other three are communities of the Nilgiri hills, where Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka meet. The Toda are pastoralists known for their barrel-shaped huts and their buffalo-centred rituals. The Badaga are farmers of the Nilgiri plateau who speak a tongue close to Kannada. The Irula, a Scheduled Tribe of Tamil Nadu, are known for snake catching and for collecting forest produce. Option B is wrong because the Toda are the best known tribe of the Nilgiris. Option C is wrong because the Badaga live on the same plateau, around Udhagamandalam. Option D is wrong because the Irula are spread across Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Exam tip: remember Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Badaga and Irula as the five main Nilgiri tribes, and place Bhil, Warli and the Dangs in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The correct answer is A, Mangrove Forests. Palm, coconut, keora and agar are the trees named for India's mangrove or tidal forests, which grow where the land meets the sea in deltas, estuaries and creeks. Their roots stand in salt water and mud, so many of them send up breathing roots above the ground to take in air. The largest such belt in India is the Sundarbans of the Ganga and Brahmaputra delta in West Bengal, famous for the sundari tree that gives it its name and for the Royal Bengal tiger, and mangroves also line the Mahanadi, Godavari and Krishna deltas and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Option B is wrong because evergreen forests of very heavy rainfall give rosewood, mahogany and ebony. Option C is wrong because deciduous or monsoon forests give teak, sal and shisham. Option D is wrong because montane forests of the hills give pine, deodar, oak and silver fir. Exam tip: tidal forest, Sundarbans and breathing roots all mean mangroves.

The correct answer is D, Sikkim. Sikkim does not touch Myanmar. Its neighbours across the border are Nepal to the west, China in the north and east, and Bhutan to the south-east. Only four Indian states share the border with Myanmar - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram - and that border runs for about 1,643 km. Option A is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh meets Myanmar along its south-eastern edge. Option B is wrong because Mizoram has a long stretch of the Myanmar border besides its border with Bangladesh. Option C is wrong because Manipur meets Myanmar on the east, and Moreh in Manipur is the main trading town on that border. Sikkim is India's least populated state and shares borders with three countries, but Myanmar is not one of them. Exam tip: remember the Myanmar border states as A-N-M-M - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.

The correct answer is A, Gujarat. The Kawas Thermal Power Station stands at Kawas near Hazira in the Surat district of Gujarat, on the bank of the Tapi. It is a gas-based station run by NTPC with an installed capacity of about 656 MW, and it draws its fuel from the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline that carries gas from the Bombay High and South Basin fields. Gujarat's western coast has several such gas stations because the offshore fields and the landing terminals lie close by, which keeps the cost of moving the fuel low. A gas station can also be started and stopped quickly, so it helps meet the evening peak in demand. B is wrong because Maharashtra's big gas station is Uran, not Kawas. C is wrong because NTPC's West Bengal stations, such as Farakka, burn coal. D is wrong because Rajasthan has coal and lignite stations like Suratgarh and Giral. Exam tip: Kawas and Gandhar are NTPC's gas stations in Gujarat; Uran is Maharashtra's.

The correct answer is D, Bolivia. A landlocked country has no coastline on an open sea or ocean. South America has only two such countries, Bolivia and Paraguay. Bolivia once had a Pacific coast, but it lost that coastal province to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) and has been landlocked ever since. It still keeps a navy, which patrols Lake Titicaca, the lake it shares with Peru and one of the highest navigable lakes in the world. La Paz is the seat of government, while Sucre is the constitutional capital. Option A is wrong because Uruguay lies on the Atlantic coast, and its capital Montevideo stands on the Rio de la Plata estuary. Option B is wrong because Suriname has an Atlantic coastline in the north of the continent, with Paramaribo as its port capital. Option C is wrong because Peru has a long Pacific coast, with Lima and the port of Callao. Exam tip: South America’s two landlocked countries are Bolivia and Paraguay.

The correct answer is B, 1.64 percent. The Census of 2011 puts the average annual exponential growth rate of India's population for the decade 2001 to 2011 at 1.64 per cent. The same census counted 121.09 crore people, a decadal growth of 17.7 per cent, which was the first decade since independence in which the number added was smaller than in the decade before. Census 2011 was the fifteenth census of the country and the seventh after independence, and its motto was Our Census, Our Future. Option A is wrong because 1.97 per cent was the annual rate for the earlier decade of 1991 to 2001, and the fall from 1.97 to 1.64 is the point of the question. Options C and D are wrong because rates above two per cent belong to the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, when growth was at its peak. Exam tip: 2001 to 2011 means 17.7 per cent for the decade and 1.64 per cent a year.

The correct answer is A, North Sea. Both rivers flow north-west across the plains of Europe and end in the North Sea. The Rhine rises in the Swiss Alps, forms part of the borders of Switzerland, Germany and France, flows through Germany and enters the sea through the Netherlands, where Rotterdam, Europe's busiest port, stands at its mouth. The Elbe rises in the Czech Republic, flows through Germany past Dresden and reaches the North Sea below Hamburg, another major port. Because of these river ports, the North Sea coast is one of the busiest shipping zones in the world. Option B is wrong because the Mediterranean receives rivers such as the Rhone, the Ebro and the Nile. Option C is wrong because the Adriatic, an arm of the Mediterranean between Italy and the Balkans, receives the Po. Option D is wrong because the Black Sea receives the Danube, the Dnieper and the Dniester. Exam tip: Rhine and Elbe to the North Sea; Danube to the Black Sea; Rhone to the Mediterranean; Po to the Adriatic.

The correct answer is C, Loess. Loess is a deposit of fine silt and dust carried by the wind and dropped far from where it was picked up, so it is the classic wind made or aeolian soil. It is loose, porous, pale yellow and stands in steep walls when cut, and because it holds nutrients well it is very fertile. The largest spread in the world is the Loess Plateau of northern China, formed from dust blown out of the Gobi desert, and it also covers parts of central Europe, Central Asia and the Mississippi valley. Option A is wrong because loam is a balanced mixture of sand, silt and clay and is not defined by the wind. Option B is wrong because marl is a clay rich in lime, laid down in water. Option D is wrong because podsol is the ash grey, acidic and leached soil of cold coniferous forest lands. Exam tip: loess means wind blown silt, and the Huang He carries it, which is why the river is called the Yellow River.

The correct answer is D, a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i. Coniferous forests grow in the cold northern belt of Asia, Europe and North America and are made of softwood evergreen trees such as pine, fir and spruce, whose light wood is used for paper and furniture. Mediterranean vegetation belongs to the west and south-west margins of the continents, where winters are wet and summers dry, and it is known for citrus fruits, olives and grapes. Tropical evergreen forests of the hot wet equatorial belt carry heavy hardwood trees such as mahogany, ebony and rosewood. Temperate evergreen forests lie on the eastern margins of the continents, where rain falls through the year. A, B and C are wrong because each misplaces at least two pairs, usually by tying coniferous forests to a continental margin instead of to softwood. Exam tip: conifer means softwood, Mediterranean means western margin, equatorial means hardwood.

The correct answer is B, Anaimudi. Anaimudi stands in the Anaimalai hills of Kerala, where the Anaimalai, Palani and Cardamom hills meet, and rises to about 2,695 metres. It is the highest point of the Western Ghats and of the whole peninsular block, and the highest point in India south of the Himalaya.

Option A, Doda Betta, at about 2,637 metres, is the highest peak of the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu, but it is lower than Anaimudi, and the two are the classic pair set against each other in this question. Option C, Mahendragiri, is a peak of the Eastern Ghats in Odisha and is far lower, since the Eastern Ghats are broken and much less elevated than the Western Ghats. Option D, Guru Shikhar near Mount Abu in Rajasthan, at about 1,722 metres, is the highest point of the Aravalli, an old and heavily eroded range.

The correct answer is A, Saffron. Karewas are thick beds of glacial clay, silt and other lake sediments laid down in the Kashmir valley, which lies between the Pir Panjal and the Greater Himalaya. Their fine, well-drained soil and the valley's cold winters suit saffron, and the Pampore area near Srinagar is the best-known growing tract; almond and apple orchards also stand on these deposits. Option B is wrong because tea needs a warm, humid climate with heavy, well-distributed rainfall and grows in Assam, the Darjeeling hills, the Nilgiris and Kerala. Option C is wrong because rubber is an equatorial crop grown mainly in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and the north-eastern states. Option D is wrong because jute needs the hot, humid alluvial flood plains of West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, not a cold mountain valley.