Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 3

The correct answer is C, Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest of all by both diameter and mass; it is a gas giant of hydrogen and helium. It also has the fastest rotation of any planet, completing a spin in about ten hours, carries the storm called the Great Red Spot, and holds Ganymede, the largest satellite in the solar system.

Option A, Saturn, is the second largest and is known instead for its bright rings and for having the lowest density of any planet. Options B and D, Neptune and Uranus, are the two outermost planets and are much smaller than Jupiter and Saturn; Neptune is the farthest from the Sun and Uranus is the one that rolls on its side. Keep the size order in mind: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, then the Earth.

The correct answer is C, Neither I nor II. Both pairs are reversed: in Punjab rice is a commercial crop, while in Odisha it is a subsistence crop. The same crop can be commercial in one state and subsistence in another; it depends on why the farmer grows it. A subsistence crop feeds the farmer's own family, and a commercial crop is grown mainly for sale. Punjab and Haryana farmers do not eat much rice, yet they grow it on irrigated land with high-yielding seeds and sell almost all of it to the government at the minimum support price. In Odisha, West Bengal and Assam rice is the staple food, grown mostly on small rain-fed plots for the family's own kitchen. A is wrong because Punjab rice is sold, not eaten at home, so it is commercial. B is wrong because Odisha rice is largely eaten by the growers, so it is subsistence. D fails because neither pair is correct. Exam tip: NCERT line to remember, rice is commercial in Punjab and Haryana but subsistence in Odisha.

The correct answer is A, 82° 30′ E longitude. India keeps one standard time for the whole country, Indian Standard Time, based on the 82° 30′ E meridian, which passes near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. Since the Earth turns one degree every 4 minutes, 82.5 degrees gives 330 minutes, so IST is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. The meridian was chosen because it runs roughly through the middle of India’s east-west spread of about 30 degrees of longitude, from about 68° 7′ E in Gujarat to 97° 25′ E in Arunachal Pradesh. That spread makes the sun rise nearly two hours earlier in Arunachal than in Gujarat. The line passes through five states: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Option B is wrong because 83° 30′ E is one degree too far east. Option C is wrong because 82° E is half a degree short of the standard meridian. Option D is wrong because 82° 50′ E is not the chosen line either. Exam tip: 82° 30′ E × 4 minutes = 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT.

The correct answer is D, Titanium. Ilmenite (FeTiO3) and rutile (TiO2) are the main ores of titanium, and India has large deposits of them in its beach sands. These heavy mineral sands occur mainly along the coasts of Kerala (Chavara), Tamil Nadu (Manavalakurichi) and Odisha (Chhatrapur), often together with monazite, zircon and garnet. Titanium is light, strong and does not rust, so it is used in aircraft, spacecraft and medical implants, while titanium dioxide is the white pigment in paints, paper and toothpaste. Option A is wrong because aluminium comes from bauxite, found mainly in Odisha and Jharkhand. Option B is wrong because copper comes from ores like chalcopyrite, mined at Khetri in Rajasthan and Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh. Option C is wrong because iron is taken from haematite and magnetite; ilmenite does contain iron, but it is mined for its titanium. Exam tip: ilmenite and rutile give titanium, monazite gives thorium and rare earths, and all three come from the black sands of the south-west and east coasts.

The correct answer is D, Granite. Granite forms when magma cools slowly deep inside the Earth's crust, so it is an intrusive or plutonic igneous rock. Slow cooling gives the minerals time to grow, which is why granite shows large, clearly visible grains of quartz, feldspar and mica. It is hard and long-lasting, so it is widely used in buildings, monuments and kitchen tops. Option A is wrong because sandstone is a sedimentary rock made of sand grains pressed and cemented together; the Red Fort in Delhi is built of red sandstone. Option B is wrong because slate is a metamorphic rock formed when shale is changed by heat and pressure. Option C is wrong because basalt is an extrusive igneous rock: lava cools quickly on the surface, giving fine grains, and the Deccan Traps are made of basalt. Exam tip: intrusive means it cools inside, slowly, with big crystals (granite); extrusive means it cools outside, fast, with fine grains (basalt).

The correct answer is A, Waterways. Water transport needs no track or road to be built, and a ship or barge can carry huge loads on little fuel, so the cost per tonne is the lowest. That is why coal, iron ore, food grains, cement and containers travel across oceans and along rivers and canals in ships and barges. NCERT's geography textbook calls waterways the cheapest way of carrying heavy and bulky goods over long distances. India's inland waterways, such as National Waterway 1 on the Ganga from Prayagraj to Haldia, use the same idea. The price paid for the low cost is slow speed. B is wrong because railways are cheaper than roads for bulk goods but still cost more than waterways. C is wrong because airways are the fastest but the costliest, and suit light and valuable goods. D is wrong because roadways are best for short distances and door-to-door delivery. Exam tip: cheapest, waterways; fastest, airways; door-to-door, roadways.

The correct answer is D, Nitrogen and Oxygen. Together these two gases make up about 99 percent of the air around the Earth. Nitrogen alone is about 78 percent of the atmosphere and oxygen about 21 percent. The remaining 1 percent is mostly argon, with very small amounts of carbon dioxide, helium, ozone, hydrogen and water vapour. NCERT's Class 7 geography book puts it in one line: nitrogen and oxygen are the two gases that make up the bulk of the atmosphere. Plants need nitrogen to grow, and all living things need oxygen to breathe. A is wrong because ozone and helium are found only in tiny amounts, though ozone shields us from ultraviolet rays. B is wrong because hydrogen, unlike nitrogen, is present only in traces in the air. C is wrong because carbon dioxide is a very small share of the air, even though it traps heat and matters for climate. Exam tip: nitrogen about 78 percent, oxygen about 21 percent, argon about 0.93 percent.

The correct answer is D, 74.04%. This is the overall literacy rate the Census of 2011 reported for India, the figure used in textbooks and exam papers. The Census counts a person aged seven or above who can read and write with understanding in any language as literate, so small children are left out. The same Census gave 82.14 percent for males and 65.46 percent for females, and the paper has cleverly put both of those numbers in the options. Kerala was the most literate state and Bihar the least. A is wrong because 16.68 is the gap between the male and female rates (82.14 minus 65.46), not a literacy rate at all. B is wrong because 65.46 percent is the female literacy rate of 2011, not the overall rate. C is wrong because 82.14 percent is the male literacy rate of 2011. Exam tip: Census 2011 literacy is 74.04 overall, 82.14 male and 65.46 female; the overall figure always lies between the two.

The correct answer is C, a seasonal shift in wind direction that brings heavy summer rain and dry winters. That is exactly what the Indian monsoon is. The word monsoon comes from the Arabic mausim, meaning season, and describes winds that reverse direction with the season. From June to September the south-west monsoon blows from sea to land and gives India about three-quarters of its yearly rain. From October the winds reverse, the north-east monsoon blows from land to sea, and most of the country stays dry; only Tamil Nadu gets its main rain in this retreating season. A is wrong because summer is the wet season, not the dry one. B is wrong because a monsoon is a change in wind direction, not a sudden change in temperature. D is wrong because summer rain is heavy, not moderate, and winter is dry rather than completely rainless. Exam tip: monsoon = seasonal wind reversal; south-west June to September wet, north-east October to December dry except Tamil Nadu.

The correct answer is D, Manipur. Nepal touches five Indian states: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim. Manipur lies far to the east in the North-East and shares its international border only with Myanmar. Bihar has the longest border with Nepal, and the India-Nepal border is an open border of about 1,750 km along which people move without a visa. Two easy memory hooks: the Kali river separates Uttarakhand from Nepal, and the Siliguri corridor of West Bengal lies between Nepal and Bangladesh. A is wrong because Sikkim lies between Nepal and Bhutan and shares its western border with Nepal. B is wrong because Bihar has the longest boundary with Nepal among all states. C is wrong because the Darjeeling district of West Bengal borders eastern Nepal. Exam tip: Nepal's five neighbours are Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim; Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal touch Myanmar.

The correct answer is C, Palk Strait – Palk Bay – Gulf of Mannar. Moving south between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, you pass the strait first, then the bay, then the gulf. The Palk Strait is the northern channel that links the Bay of Bengal with Palk Bay, between Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu and the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. Palk Bay is the shallow water body just south of it. It is closed on the south by the chain of Pamban (Rameswaram) Island, Adam's Bridge (Ram Setu) and Mannar Island, and beyond that chain lies the Gulf of Mannar, which opens into the Indian Ocean and is a marine biosphere reserve known for coral reefs and dugongs. Option A is wrong because it starts with the Gulf of Mannar, the southernmost of the three. Option B is wrong because it puts the Gulf of Mannar above Palk Bay. Option D is wrong because Palk Bay lies south of Palk Strait, not north of it. Exam tip: from north to south, strait, bay, Adam's Bridge, then the Gulf of Mannar.

The correct answer is A, Borneo. Of the four islands listed, Borneo has the largest area; it is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. The world's top islands by area run Greenland, New Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, Baffin and Sumatra, with Australia counted as a continent rather than an island. Borneo lies in South-East Asia and is the only island shared by three countries: Indonesia, whose part is called Kalimantan, Malaysia, with Sabah and Sarawak, and the small nation of Brunei. Option B is wrong because Great Britain, though the largest island in Europe, ranks only around ninth in the world. Option C is wrong because Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, is the fourth-largest, just behind Borneo. Option D is wrong because Sumatra, also in Indonesia, is sixth, well behind Borneo. Exam tip: remember the top four as Greenland, New Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, and that Borneo belongs to three countries.

The correct answer is A, Himadri Range. The Himadri, or Greater Himalaya, is part of the Himalayan system, the youngest fold mountains in India, formed as the Indian plate pushed into the Eurasian plate and folded up the sediments of the old Tethys Sea. The uplift began only about 50 million years ago and is still going on, which is why the region has frequent earthquakes. The Himadri is the highest and most continuous range, with an average height of about 6,000 metres and peaks such as Kanchenjunga and Nanda Devi. Within the Himalaya itself, the outer Shiwalik range is the youngest, but it is not among the options. Option B is wrong because the Aravalli is the oldest fold mountain range of India, worn down over hundreds of millions of years. Option C is wrong because the Western Ghats are the raised western edge of the ancient Deccan plateau. Option D is wrong because the Vindhyas are an old range of Peninsular India made of ancient sedimentary rocks. Exam tip: oldest range, Aravalli; youngest, the Himalaya, and within it the Shiwaliks.

The correct answer is A, Orange River. The Orange River is the longest river of South Africa, about 2,200 km long. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains of Lesotho, flows west across South Africa and falls into the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay. For part of its course it forms the border between South Africa and Namibia. Its main tributary is the Vaal, and the Augrabies Falls lie on the Orange. The Limpopo is the other big river of South Africa, flowing east into the Indian Ocean. B is wrong because the Nile, the longest river in the world, flows north through countries such as Uganda, Sudan and Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea. C is wrong because the Congo flows through Central Africa, crosses the Equator twice and enters the Atlantic. D is wrong because the Niger flows through West Africa (Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria) into the Gulf of Guinea. Exam tip: South Africa = Orange and Limpopo; Nile = north-east Africa; Congo = crosses the Equator twice; Niger = West Africa; Zambezi = Victoria Falls.

The correct answer is C, Deccan Plateau. The Deccan plateau is the large triangular block of the Peninsular plateau south of the Narmada, bounded by the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in the north, the Western Ghats in the west and the Eastern Ghats in the east, with an average height of about 600 metres. It is higher in the west, up to 900 to 1,200 metres along the Western Ghats, and tilts east, so the Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri flow east into the Bay of Bengal. Its north-western part is the Deccan Trap of basalt lava, which weathers into black cotton soil. Option A is wrong because the Marwar plateau is a low upland of eastern Rajasthan, drained by the Banas. Option B is wrong because the Meghalaya plateau is a detached block in the north-east, made of the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills. Option D is wrong because the Chota Nagpur plateau lies in Jharkhand, drained by the Damodar and rich in coal and iron. Exam tip: Deccan = between Satpura, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, high in the west, sloping east.

The correct answer is B, North Atlantic Ocean. The Sargasso Sea lies in the middle of the North Atlantic and is the only sea in the world with no coastline. Instead of land, it is bounded by four ocean currents that circle clockwise around it: the Gulf Stream on the west, the North Atlantic Current on the north, the Canary Current on the east and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current on the south. Because it sits in the calm centre of this gyre, its water is warm, clear and very salty. It is named after sargassum, a brown seaweed that floats on its surface in huge mats, and it is the breeding ground of the American and European eels. Option A is wrong because the Arctic Ocean lies around the North Pole, far from this sea. Option C is wrong because the Sargasso Sea is north of the equator, not in the South Atlantic. Option D is wrong because the Indian Ocean is on the other side of Africa. Exam tip: Sargasso Sea means North Atlantic, no coastline, walled by currents, named after floating seaweed.

The correct answer is C, Tapi. Aner, Panzara and Waghur all join the Tapi in the Khandesh region of northern Maharashtra, along with the Purna, Girna and Bori. The Tapi rises near Multai in the Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, flows west for about 724 km through the Satpura and Ajanta ranges and the Khandesh plain, and enters the Gulf of Khambhat near Surat. With the Narmada it is one of the two big west-flowing rivers of the Peninsula that run through rift valleys and form estuaries instead of deltas. The Ukai dam in Gujarat is built on it. A, Kaveri, has the Kabini, Bhavani and Amaravati as tributaries. B, Mahanadi, is joined by the Seonath, Ib and Tel. D, Godavari, receives the Pranhita, Indravati and Manjra. Exam tip: Tapi group = Purna, Girna, Panzara, Waghur, Aner, Bori; Tapi and Narmada are the west-flowing pair.

The correct answer is D, Sambhar. Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan is a saltwater lake, in fact the largest inland salt lake in India, so it is the odd one out. It lies near Jaipur, and its brine has been used to make salt for centuries. It was declared a Ramsar wetland in 1990 and draws flamingos in winter. Most salt lakes in India lie in dry Rajasthan, where evaporation is high and the water does not drain out to the sea. A is wrong because Bhimtal in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand is a freshwater lake. B is wrong because Loktak in Manipur is the largest freshwater lake in north-east India, famous for its floating 'phumdis' and the Keibul Lamjao National Park. C is wrong because Barapani, also called Umiam Lake, near Shillong in Meghalaya, is a freshwater reservoir. Exam tip: Sambhar is India's largest inland salt lake, while Chilika in Odisha is the largest brackish-water lagoon.

The correct answer is C, West Champaran. Piedmont swamp soil is found only in the north-western part of West Champaran, at the foot of the Someshwar hills. Piedmont means 'at the foot of the mountain': streams coming down the hills slow down on the flat land below, and the ground stays wet and marshy, which gives this soil its name. The same corner of the district holds Valmiki National Park and Someshwar fort, the highest point in Bihar. Just to the east, a strip of Terai soil runs along the Nepal border, while most of the Bihar plain is covered by alluvial soil laid down by the Ganga and its tributaries. Option A is wrong because Madhubani, in the Mithila plain, has alluvial soil with a Terai strip in the north. Option B is wrong because Bhagalpur, on the Ganga in east Bihar, has alluvial soil. Option D is wrong because this soil occurs in only one district. Exam tip: piedmont swamp soil means West Champaran, below the Someshwar hills.

The correct answer is C, a-iii, b-i, c-ii, d-iv. Gua and Noamundi, in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, are well-known iron ore mines of the Singhbhum–Keonjhar belt, which feeds steel plants such as the one at Jamshedpur. Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh has the Malanjkhand copper mine, one of India's largest open-cast copper mines. The Amarkantak plateau, where the Narmada and the Son rise, has rich bauxite deposits, the ore of aluminium. Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh is a leading mica belt of India, along with Koderma in Jharkhand and Bhilwara in Rajasthan. Option A is wrong because it gives copper to Amarkantak and bauxite to Balaghat. Option B is wrong because it places iron ore at Amarkantak and bauxite at Gua and Noamundi. Option D is wrong because it puts iron ore at Balaghat, copper at Gua and Noamundi, and mica at Amarkantak. Exam tip: Gua–Noamundi iron ore, Malanjkhand (Balaghat) copper, Amarkantak bauxite, Nellore and Koderma mica.