Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 21

The correct answer is B. Both rivers flow westward along faulted troughs, or rift valleys, that lie between the Vindhya and the Satpura ranges, and both empty into the Arabian Sea through estuaries instead of deltas. Most other large peninsular rivers, such as the Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri, flow eastward down the general slope of the Deccan.

Option A is wrong because both are peninsular rivers: the Narmada rises at Amarkantak and the Tapi in the Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, far from the Himalaya. Option C is wrong because a river flowing into the Arabian Sea through a rift cannot build an eastern delta; in fact the swift flow and the narrow trough prevent either river from building a delta at all. Option D is wrong because both are perennial rivers of considerable size, the Narmada being the largest west-flowing river of the peninsula.

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 B, Bhabar. The Bhabar is a narrow belt about 8 to 16 kilometres wide, laid along the foot of the Shiwalik range, where the rivers leaving the hills drop their coarsest load. Because the deposit is a mass of pebbles and gravel, it is highly porous, and the streams sink into it and vanish from the surface. Option A is wrong because the Terai lies just south of the Bhabar and is the wet, marshy belt where those same streams re-emerge, once covered by dense forest. Option C is wrong because Bhangar is the older alluvium standing above the flood level in terraces and carrying lime nodules called kankar. Option D is wrong because Khadar is the newer alluvium of the flood plains, renewed by almost every flood and the most fertile part of the plain.

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 D, Lignite. Lignite is the low grade brown coal the question describes: it is soft, brown to blackish brown, and holds a high amount of moisture, often 35 to 45 per cent, so it gives less heat when it burns. Coal is graded by how much carbon it holds, and the order from lowest to highest is peat, lignite, bituminous and anthracite. India's main lignite field is at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, with other deposits in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, and it is burnt mostly in power stations built right beside the mines because it crumbles and catches fire easily if carried far. A is wrong because bituminous is the common hard coal used in industry and for making coke. B is wrong because anthracite is the best grade, hard and with more than 80 per cent carbon. C is wrong because peat is the first stage, closer to wood than to coal. Exam tip: peat, lignite, bituminous, anthracite, with quality rising in that order.

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, Serchhip. Serchhip district of Mizoram recorded the highest literacy rate of any district in India in the Census of 2011, at almost 98 per cent. Mizoram was the second most literate state in that census after Kerala, and its small hill districts, helped by mission schools and a high rate of school attendance, came out ahead of every district in the country. The census counted a person aged seven years and above who can both read and write with understanding as literate, and put India's overall literacy at 74.04 per cent. Option A is wrong because Kottayam in Kerala has very high literacy but stands below Serchhip. Option C is wrong because Champhai, also in Mizoram, comes after Serchhip. Option D is wrong because Ernakulam is among Kerala's best districts but again not the highest in India. Exam tip: Kerala is the most literate state and Serchhip in Mizoram the most literate district in Census 2011.

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 B, Polar Region. The Eskimos, who call themselves Inuit, live in the polar region, that is the Arctic lands of Greenland, northern Canada, Alaska and eastern Siberia. Their home is cold tundra where the ground stays frozen for most of the year, so no crops grow and they live by hunting seal, walrus and caribou and by fishing. They travel by dog sledge and kayak, wear clothes of skin and fur, and in winter build the igloo, a dome of snow blocks whose thick walls trap the warmth inside. Their summer shelter is a tent of animal skin called a tupik. A is wrong because the arid region is home to desert people such as the Bedouins of Arabia. C is wrong because the savanna grassland of Africa is home to the Masai herders. D is wrong because the tropical rainforest is home to the Pygmies of the Congo basin. Exam tip: Inuit and tundra, Bedouin and desert, Masai and savanna, Pygmy and equatorial forest.

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 A, the Nilgiri and Anaimalai hills. The Palghat Gap is a wide trough about thirty kilometres across, and it is the principal natural break in the otherwise continuous wall of the Western Ghats. The road and rail routes and the Bharathapuzha river between Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Palakkad in Kerala all use it, and it strongly affects the monsoon winds reaching the interior.

Option B is wrong because the Cardamom and Palani hills lie south of the gap and are continuous with the Anaimalai group. Option C is wrong because the Satpura and Maikal ranges belong to central India, far north of the Western Ghats, near the source of the Narmada. Option D is wrong because the Javadi and Shevaroy hills are outliers of the Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu and have nothing to do with this gap. The other named breaks in the Ghats are the Thal Ghat and the Bhor Ghat in Maharashtra.

The correct answer is D, Tide. A tide is the regular rise and fall of sea level caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and, to a smaller extent, the Sun, together with the centrifugal force of the spinning earth. Most coasts get two high tides and two low tides in about 24 hours and 52 minutes. When the Sun, Moon and Earth line up at new moon and full moon, the pulls add up and give the high spring tides; when the Sun and Moon are at right angles in the first and third quarters, the pulls work against each other and give the low neap tides. Tides help ships enter ports and are used for tidal power. Option A is wrong because waves are made by wind blowing over the surface. Option B is wrong because a tsunami is a single train of huge waves set off by an undersea earthquake or landslide. Option C is wrong because currents are steady horizontal flows of water such as the Gulf Stream. Exam tip: spring tides at full and new moon, neap tides in the quarters.

The correct answer is C, Bhangar. Bhangar is the older alluvial deposit of the Northern Plains. It forms terraces that stand above the present flood level, so fresh silt no longer reaches it, and long leaching has left calcareous concretions called kankar in its profile. Being less often renewed, it is the less fertile of the two alluviums. Option A is wrong because Khadar is the newer alluvium of the flood plains, renewed by almost every flood and therefore more fertile. Option B is wrong because Bhabar is the pebble belt at the foot of the Shiwaliks where streams disappear underground. Option D is wrong because Terai is the marshy, once heavily forested strip south of the Bhabar where those streams come back to the surface. Candidates often reverse Bhangar and Khadar, so fix that Bhangar is the older one.

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 A, Christians. In Census 2011 Muslims were the largest religious minority of India at 14.2 per cent of the population, and Christians came next at 2.3 per cent, which makes them the second largest minority. Sikhs followed with 1.7 per cent, Buddhists with 0.7 per cent and Jains with 0.4 per cent, while Hindus formed 79.8 per cent. Christians are the largest group in Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya, and they have a strong presence in Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu as well. These are the figures of the 2011 count and they hold until a fresh census is published. B is wrong because Buddhists are smaller than both Christians and Sikhs. C is wrong because Sikhs stand third among the minorities. D is wrong because Muslims are the largest minority, not the second largest. Exam tip: Census 2011 order, Hindu 79.8, Muslim 14.2, Christian 2.3, Sikh 1.7, Buddhist 0.7, Jain 0.4 per cent.

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 B, Aravalli. The Aravalli was folded in the Precambrian era, hundreds of millions of years before the Himalaya rose, and long erosion has reduced it to a chain of low residual ridges running north-east from Gujarat through Rajasthan towards Delhi. Its highest point, Guru Shikhar near Mount Abu, is only about 1,722 metres.

Option A, the Satpura, is a block range of the peninsula, younger than the Aravalli and raised between the Narmada and Tapi troughs. Option C, the Shiwalik, is the youngest range in India, made of loose gravel and sediment shed by the rising Himalaya in recent geological time, so it is the opposite of the right answer. Option D, the Vindhya, is a scarp of sedimentary rock north of the Narmada that acts as the traditional divide between north and south India, but it is not a folded range of the Aravalli's antiquity.

The correct answer is D, Sikkim. Nathu La lies in eastern Sikkim on the old trade route from Gangtok to Lhasa and is one of the passes on India's border with the Tibet region of China; Jelep La, also in Sikkim, is the other. Option A is wrong because the passes of Himachal Pradesh are Rohtang, Baralacha La and Shipki La, the last carrying the Satluj across the border. Option B is wrong because Uttarakhand's passes are Mana, Niti and Lipulekh, used historically by pilgrims and traders. Option C is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh has Bomdi La and Bum La, the latter on the line facing Tibet near Tawang. Questions on this topic usually ask you to match a pass with its state, so it helps to group them state by state before the exam.

The correct answer is B, basalt of the Deccan Trap. The Deccan Trap was formed by vast fissure eruptions that spread sheet after sheet of lava over the north-western peninsula. Weathering of this basalt produces the clayey black soil known as regur or black cotton soil, which holds moisture well and is the basis of cotton cultivation in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Option A, granite, weathers into the red and lateritic soils of much of the southern plateau, not into black soil. Option C, limestone, gives thin calcareous soils and karst landforms and is not the parent material of the regur belt. Option D, the sandstone of the Vindhyan series, produces sandy and poor soils in central India. Only the basalt of the trap country accounts for the deep black soils shown on soil maps of the Deccan.

The correct answer is B, Kanchenjunga. Kanchenjunga rises to 8,586 metres on the Sikkim-Nepal border and is the highest peak in India's undisputed territory, as well as the third highest in the world after Everest and K2. K2 or Godwin Austen, at 8,611 metres in the Karakoram, is higher but lies in the part of Kashmir under dispute. Option A is wrong because Nanda Devi, 7,816 metres in Uttarakhand, is the highest peak lying wholly inside India but is lower than Kanchenjunga. Option C is wrong because Nanga Parbat, 8,126 metres, stands in the western Himalaya in the disputed part of Kashmir. Option D is wrong because Dhaulagiri, 8,167 metres, is entirely in Nepal and is not an Indian peak at all. A quick way to hold the order is that Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga are the world's first three, and of those only Kanchenjunga touches Indian soil that is not in dispute.