Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 25

The correct answer is B, Bangladesh. The Jatiya Sangsad, or National Parliament, is the single house legislature of Bangladesh and sits in the Sangsad Bhaban at Dhaka. Option A is wrong because Nepal has a Federal Parliament of two houses, the Pratinidhi Sabha, or House of Representatives, and the Rastriya Sabha, or National Assembly. Option C is wrong because Sri Lanka has a single house simply called Parliament, which replaced the earlier Senate and House of Representatives. Option D is wrong because Bhutan has a Parliament of the National Assembly and the National Council, under a monarchy that moved to a constitutional form in 2008. The South Asian names are asked together, so learn Sansad, Jatiya Sangsad, Majlis-e-Shoora and Pratinidhi Sabha as one set. The Maldives, with the People’s Majlis, is the fifth name in that neighbourhood group.

The correct answer is B, Unity, Faith, Sacrifice. The Indian National Army took 'Ittehad, Etmad, Qurbani' as its motto, and those three words mean unity, faith and sacrifice.

Subhas Chandra Bose reorganised the INA at Singapore in 1943 and gave it the war cry 'Jai Hind' and the marching song 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja'. The army had a women's regiment named after Rani Lakshmibai, which was led by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.

Option A, Unity and Discipline, is the motto of the National Cadet Corps. Option C, Do or Die, was Gandhi's call to the people in the Quit India Movement of 1942. Option D, Service before self, is a general service slogan and was not the motto of the INA.

Exam tip: INA — motto Ittehad, Etmad, Qurbani; slogan Jai Hind; founded 1942 and reorganised by Bose in 1943.

The correct answer is A, Sound Navigation and Ranging. Sonar sends a pulse of sound into the water and times the echo returning from the sea bed, a shoal of fish or a submarine; since the speed of sound in sea water is roughly 1,500 metres a second, the time gives the distance. This method of measuring depth is called echo sounding. Option B is wrong because the standard expansion uses Sound rather than Sonic and Ranging rather than Reflection. Option C is wrong because sonar is used for navigation and distance finding, not for recording sound. Option D is wrong because sonar is used by surface ships and submarines alike, so the word Submarine is not part of the acronym. Remember the pair: radar for air with radio waves, sonar for water with sound.

The correct answer is D, Foreign Policy of India. Panchsheel is the name given to the five principles that guide India's conduct towards other countries.

The five are mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. They were written into the preamble of the agreement on trade and intercourse with the Tibet region of China, signed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954. The word itself comes from Buddhist usage, where the five rules of conduct are called panchsheel, and these principles later fed into the non-aligned movement.

A is wrong: the Fundamental Duties were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 and now number eleven. B is wrong: NITI Aayog is a policy think tank set up in 2015 and has nothing to do with this term. C is wrong: inter-state relations are dealt with in Articles 261 to 263 of the Constitution.

Exam tip: Panchsheel means the five principles signed by Nehru and Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954, the base of India's non-alignment.

The correct answer is A, Bengal Gazette. The Bengal Gazette, also called the Calcutta General Advertiser and popularly known as Hicky's Gazette, was started by James Augustus Hicky in 1780 and is the first newspaper published in India. It attacked senior officials of the East India Company and was suppressed within two years. Option B is wrong because Samachar Darpan, brought out from Serampore in 1818, is the first newspaper in an Indian language, Bengali, but not the first newspaper in the country. Option C is wrong because Bombay Samachar, started in Gujarati in 1822 by Fardunjee Marzban, is the oldest newspaper in India still in print, a different distinction. Option D is wrong because Udant Martand of 1826 is the first Hindi newspaper. All four carry a first, so read the stem closely.

The correct answer is C, France and Germany. The Maginot Line was the chain of concrete forts that France built along its border with Germany.

It is named after Andre Maginot, the French war minister who pushed the project through, and it was built in the 1930s after the First World War to stop another German invasion. The line was deep, heavily armed and widely thought to be impregnable, but it covered only the German frontier. In 1940 the German army simply went around its northern end through the Ardennes in Belgium and France fell in six weeks, which is why a Maginot Line is now a byword for a defence that is strong in the wrong place.

A is wrong: no such line divides Namibia and Angola. B is wrong: the United States and Canada are separated by the 49th Parallel. D is wrong: the Germany and Poland boundary is the Oder Neisse Line, fixed after the Second World War.

Exam tip: Maginot Line is France and Germany, while the Siegfried Line was Germany's own answering line of defences.

The correct answer is C, New Delhi. The Bahai House of Worship, known the world over as the Lotus Temple, stands at Bahapur near Kalkaji in New Delhi. It was designed by the Iranian-born Canadian architect Fariborz Sahba in the shape of a half-open lotus with twenty-seven marble-clad petals arranged in nine groups, and it was opened to visitors in 1986. Like every Bahai house of worship it has nine sides and nine entrances and holds no idol, altar or pulpit. Option A is wrong because Mumbai's landmarks of this kind are the Gateway of India and the Haji Ali Dargah, not a Bahai temple. Option B is wrong because Chennai is known for the Kapaleeshwarar Temple and the San Thome Basilica. Option D is wrong because Kolkata's famous buildings are the Victoria Memorial and the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.

The correct answer is C, San Francisco Conference. The Charter of the United Nations was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945, at the close of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, by the delegates of fifty nations; Poland signed a little later and so the organisation began with fifty-one original members. The Charter came into force on 24 October 1945, once the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the others had ratified it, and that day is kept as United Nations Day. The name United Nations was coined by President Franklin Roosevelt. Option A is wrong because The Hague is the seat of the International Court of Justice, not the place of signing. Option B is wrong because London is where the General Assembly held its first session, in January 1946. Option D is wrong because no United Nations conference was held at Berlin. Exam tip: signed 26 June 1945 at San Francisco and in force from 24 October 1945.

The correct answer is C, Sweden and Eduskunta, which is the wrong pair. The Eduskunta is the parliament of Finland; the parliament of Sweden is the Riksdag, a single house body. Option A is a correct pair, because the Storting is the Norwegian parliament, set up with the constitution of 1814. Option B is a correct pair, because the Folketing is the parliament of Denmark, which became a single house in 1953 when the upper house was abolished. Option D is a correct pair, because the State Great Khural is the parliament of Mongolia. The five northern names, Storting, Riksdag, Folketing, Eduskunta and Althing, should be learnt together, since examiners shuffle them against one another. A useful hook is that the three names ending in ting, Storting, Folketing and Althing, belong to Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

The correct answer is A, 1962. The Sino-Indian War was fought between 20 October and 21 November 1962, when China attacked across the Himalayan frontier. The fighting ran in two separate theatres, Aksai Chin in Ladakh in the west and the North East Frontier Agency, today Arunachal Pradesh, in the east. China declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 November 1962 and kept Aksai Chin. Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister and the reverses cost Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon his post; the war pushed India to enlarge its army and raise mountain divisions trained for high altitude. Option B is wrong because no India-China war took place in 1969. Option C is wrong because 1973 is remembered for the Kesavananda Bharati judgment and the launch of Project Tiger, not a war. Option D is wrong because 1964 is the year Nehru died. Exam tip: 1962 with China, 1965 and 1971 with Pakistan, 1999 Kargil.

The correct answer is C, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC was founded at the Baghdad Conference of 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and its secretariat has been at Vienna in Austria since 1965. It coordinates the petroleum policies of its member states and its production decisions move world crude prices, which is why Indian papers ask about it. Option A is wrong because the word is Exporting, not Enriched; enrichment belongs to uranium, not oil. Option B is wrong because OPEC is an organization of states and not a commission, and the word Producing does not appear in its name. Option D is wrong because no body of that name exists. A related term is OPEC Plus, the wider group that includes Russia and other non-member producers.

The correct answer is D, India Gate. The All India War Memorial in New Delhi is the monument known today as India Gate.

It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in memory of the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War and in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The Duke of Connaught laid its foundation stone in 1921 and the arch was completed in 1931, the year New Delhi was formally inaugurated as the capital. The names of more than thirteen thousand servicemen are carved on its walls. The Amar Jawan Jyoti, the flame added in 1972 after the war of 1971, burned under the arch for fifty years before it was merged with the flame at the National War Memorial close by.

A is wrong: the Charminar is a gateway of 1591 in Hyderabad, built by Quli Qutb Shah. B is wrong: the Lal Qila, or Red Fort, was Shah Jahan's palace fort in Delhi. C is wrong: the Jama Masjid of Delhi is a mosque, also built by Shah Jahan.

Exam tip: India Gate is the All India War Memorial, designed by Lutyens, built between 1921 and 1931.

The correct answer is B, Jugal Kishore Shukla. Udant Martand was brought out from Calcutta on 30 May 1826 by Jugal Kishore Shukla as a weekly, and it is the first newspaper in Hindi; 30 May is observed as Hindi Journalism Day on that account. The paper closed within about a year and a half for want of subscribers. Option A is wrong because Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi founded the Hindi weekly Pratap at Kanpur in 1913 and died in the Kanpur riots of 1931. Option C is wrong because Raja Ram Mohan Roy edited Sambad Kaumudi in Bengali and Mirat-ul-Akhbar in Persian. Option D is wrong because Madan Mohan Malaviya was associated with the Leader of Allahabad and with Hindi journalism later in the century, not with Udant Martand. The paper is also remembered for proving that a Hindi readership existed before any Hindi daily could be sustained.

The correct answer is B, Japan. The Japanese legislature is the Diet, called Kokkai in Japanese, and it is bicameral: the House of Representatives is the lower house and the House of Councillors the upper. The Prime Minister is chosen by the Diet, and the lower house prevails on a money matter. Option A is wrong because South Korea has the National Assembly, a single house. Option C is wrong because Mongolia has the State Great Khural, a name that comes from the old assemblies of the steppe. Option D is wrong because Vietnam has the National Assembly. Japan is asked often because the word Diet was once used for several European assemblies, which makes it a tempting option for Germany or Hungary. Hold the pair in memory: Diet for Japan, National Assembly for South Korea, and the Khural for Mongolia.

The correct answer is B, Ustad Ahmad Lahori. Shah Jahan raised the Taj Mahal over the grave of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and the court records name Ustad Ahmad Lahori as the chief architect of the work, which went on at Agra from about 1632 to 1653. Option A is wrong because Mirak Mirza Ghiyas was the Persian architect of Humayun's Tomb at Delhi, the garden tomb that the Taj Mahal is descended from, and he died long before Shah Jahan's reign. Option C is wrong because Lal Chand Ustad designed the Hawa Mahal at Jaipur for Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799, more than a century later and in a different kingdom. Option D is wrong because Ustad Isa Khan appears only in later legend and in no contemporary Mughal record, although his name is often repeated in popular accounts of the monument.

The correct answer is C, Honours Your Trust. UCO Bank uses this line in its logo and advertising.

UCO Bank was founded in Kolkata in 1943 as the United Commercial Bank, and the industrialist G. D. Birla was behind its creation. It was one of the fourteen banks nationalised in July 1969, took its present name in 1985, and still has its head office in Kolkata. Taglines are a favourite one-mark question because each public sector bank keeps the same line for years.

Option A, 'Good People to bank with', belongs to Union Bank of India. Option B, 'Where every individual is committed', is the line of Bank of India. Option D, 'Faithful And Friendly', is used by Bank of Maharashtra.

Exam tip: UCO Bank - Kolkata, 1943, 'Honours Your Trust'; Union Bank - 'Good People to bank with'.

The correct answer is B, 100. The Senate of the United States has two members from every state, and with fifty states that makes a hundred Senators, each elected for six years, with the Vice-President of the United States presiding over the house. Option A is wrong because fifty is the number of states, not of Senators, and it is the trap the question is built around. Option C is wrong because 435 is the strength of the House of Representatives, the lower house, where seats are divided among the states in proportion to population. Option D is wrong because 120 is the strength of the Knesset of Israel. Compare this with India, where the Rajya Sabha may have at most 250 members under Article 80.

The correct answer is A, HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the set of rules by which a browser asks a web server for a page and the server sends it back; HTTPS is the same protocol carried over an encrypted connection, which is why banking sites use it. Option B is wrong because the last word is Protocol, a set of rules, and not a Program. Option C is wrong because the first word is HyperText, the linked text of the web, and not High Transfer. Option D is wrong because the acronym ends in Protocol rather than Process. Keep the related expansions together: HTML is HyperText Markup Language, URL is Uniform Resource Locator, FTP is File Transfer Protocol and SMTP, used for outgoing mail, is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

The correct answer is B, Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Tilak, along with G. G. Agarkar, started the Marathi weekly Kesari and the English weekly Mahratta in 1881. The articles in Kesari brought him two sedition trials, and in 1908 he was sentenced to six years' transportation, which he served at Mandalay in Burma, where he wrote the Gita Rahasya. Option A is wrong because Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the moderate leader and Tilak's chief opponent within the Congress, was associated with the Sudharak rather than with these two papers. Option C is wrong because Bipin Chandra Pal founded Bande Mataram in 1906, which Aurobindo Ghosh edited. Option D is wrong because Dadabhai Naoroji started the Gujarati paper Rast Goftar in 1851 and later the journal Voice of India. Kesari still appears in questions as the paper through which Tilak gave the slogan that freedom is our birthright.

The correct answer is B, Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Aibak, the founder of the Slave or Mamluk dynasty of Delhi, laid the foundation of the Qutub Minar in 1199 and completed only its first storey. Option A is wrong because Iltutmish, his son-in-law and successor, carried the tower up to the fourth storey; he raised it, but he did not begin it, and this is exactly the distinction examiners test. Option C is wrong because Alauddin Khalji's work at the Qutub complex was the Alai Darwaza of 1311 and the unfinished Alai Minar, which he meant to be twice the height of the Qutub Minar. Option D is wrong because Firoz Shah Tughlaq came much later and only repaired the tower after it was struck by lightning, adding the fifth and topmost storey in the process.