Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 29

The correct answer is B, Athens. The Parthenon is the temple of the goddess Athena, built in the fifth century before the common era on the Acropolis, the rocky height above Athens in Greece, and it is the most famous monument of the classical Greek world. Option A is wrong because Rome holds the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Pantheon, which belong to a different civilisation and are often confused with the Greek monuments. Option C is wrong because Cairo in Egypt stands near the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx. Option D is wrong because Jerusalem's monuments, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, belong to a different tradition altogether and are not connected with Athena. Greece and Italy are the two countries whose ancient monuments appear most often in this chapter, so the civilisation named in the question is itself a clue to the country.

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 B, Edwin Lutyens. India Gate, 42 metres high, was designed by Edwin Lutyens and completed in 1931 as the All India War Memorial, carrying the names of soldiers who died in the First World War and the Third Anglo Afghan War. Option A is wrong because Herbert Baker worked with Lutyens on New Delhi and designed the secretariat blocks on Raisina Hill, but not this arch. Option C is wrong because George Wittet designed the Gateway of India at Mumbai, completed in 1924, and the Prince of Wales Museum. Option D is wrong because William Emerson designed the Victoria Memorial at Kolkata, completed in 1921. Keep the three apart by city: Lutyens in Delhi, Wittet in Mumbai, Emerson in Kolkata. The flame of the immortal soldier that once burned here was merged with the flame at the National War Memorial nearby.

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 B, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Durand Line was agreed in 1893 between British India and the Amir of Afghanistan and is named after Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the Government of India who negotiated it; after 1947 it became the boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Option A, India and Pakistan, are separated by the Radcliffe Line of 1947 and, in Jammu and Kashmir, by the Line of Control. Option C, India and China, are divided in the eastern sector by the McMahon Line of 1914 and elsewhere hold positions along the Line of Actual Control. Option D, Afghanistan and Iran, share a border that carries no such famous name. India itself has a short border of about 106 kilometres with Afghanistan along Ladakh, which is its shortest land frontier.

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 B, Bhutan. Bhutan calls itself Druk Yul, which means the land of the thunder dragon, and the dragon appears on its national flag; the name is traced to the thunderstorms that roll through its Himalayan valleys. Option A, Nepal, is wrong; it is better known as the birthplace of the Buddha at Lumbini and as the country of Mount Everest, and it carries no dragon epithet. Option C, Myanmar, is wrong because it was historically called the Golden Land or the Land of Pagodas. Option D, Thailand, is the most tempting distractor because it is called the Land of White Elephants and, in older books, the Land of Smiles; candidates who recall only that the nickname involves an animal often pick it. Keep Bhutan with the dragon and Thailand with the white elephant.

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, the Bahai faith. The Lotus Temple at Kalkaji in Delhi was completed in 1986 to a design by the architect Fariborz Sahba, and its twenty seven marble petals are grouped in threes to form nine sides with nine doors, since the Bahai houses of worship are always nine sided and open to people of every religion. Option A is wrong because the best known Jain temples of the region are at Delhi's Lal Mandir and in Rajasthan at Ranakpur and Dilwara. Option B is wrong because Zoroastrian places of worship are fire temples, found mainly in Mumbai and Gujarat. Option D is wrong because Sikh places of worship are gurdwaras, such as Bangla Sahib in Delhi. Remember the number nine with this temple.

The correct answer is B, Monthly channel. India Post moves its mail through six named channels, and there is no 'Monthly channel' among them. Under the Mail Network Optimisation Project the department separated its traffic so that each kind of article travels on a route with its own time norms. The six are the Metro channel, for mail between the big metro cities; the Rajdhani channel, linking the state capitals; the Green channel, for local mail inside a city; the Business channel, for corporate and bulk business mail; the Periodical channel, for newspapers and magazines; and the Bulk mail channel, for very large mailings. Because of this split, a letter addressed to a metro city does not travel with local city mail. A is wrong because the Metro channel is one of the six. C is wrong because the Rajdhani channel, which joins the capitals, is also one of them. D is wrong because the Business channel handles corporate and bulk mail and is on the list. Exam tip: the six mail channels are Metro, Rajdhani, Green, Business, Periodical and Bulk.

The correct answer is C, 1947. The Radcliffe Line was the award of the boundary commissions for Punjab and Bengal, headed by the British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe, and it was published in August 1947 at the time of Partition. Its eastern stretch divided Bengal, so after 1971 the same line became the boundary between India and Bangladesh. Option A, 1893, is the year of the Durand Line between British India and Afghanistan. Option B, 1914, is the year of the Simla Convention at which Sir Henry McMahon drew the McMahon Line. Option D, 1972, is the year of the Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan, under which the Cease Fire Line of 1949 was renamed the Line of Control. Keeping these four years in order, 1893, 1914, 1947 and 1972, answers most questions in this chapter.

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. A large part of Norway lies north of the Arctic Circle, and at such latitudes the sun does not set for weeks around the summer solstice, so it can be seen at midnight; this is the phenomenon behind the epithet. Option A is wrong; the coastline with its fjords is indeed famous, but it is the reason Norway is called the Land of the Fjords, not the Land of the Midnight Sun. Option C is wrong because the Land of a Thousand Lakes is Finland, its neighbour, which is the commonest confusion in this question. Option D is wrong since the eastern position belongs to Japan, which is the Land of the Rising Sun. Remember that the midnight sun is a question about latitude, not about coasts or lakes.

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 B, Rana Kumbha. The nine storey Vijay Stambha was raised in 1448 by Rana Kumbha of Mewar to mark his victory over Mahmud Khilji of Malwa, and its storeys are covered with sculptured figures of gods and scenes, which is why it is also read as a gallery of Hindu iconography. Option A is wrong because Rana Sanga fought Babur at Khanwa in 1527 and built no such tower. Option C is wrong because Rana Pratap belonged to the later sixteenth century and is remembered for the battle of Haldighati. Option D is wrong because Rana Ratan Singh is linked with the first siege of Chittor by Alauddin Khalji. In the same fort stands the older and smaller Kirti Stambha, a Jain tower of the twelfth century.

The correct answer is C, Class D. Fires are grouped by what is burning, and Class D covers burning metals such as magnesium, sodium, potassium, titanium and aluminium powder. Such a fire must never be fought with water, because the hot metal breaks water apart and frees hydrogen, which can explode. It is smothered instead with a dry powder agent, graphite or a sodium chloride based powder, which cuts off oxygen and carries heat away. A is wrong because Class B is for flammable liquids such as petrol, diesel, oil, paint and solvents. B is wrong because Class C is for flammable gases such as LPG, methane and acetylene. D is wrong because Class A is for ordinary solid fuels like wood, paper, cloth and rubbish, the one class that water puts out well. Exam tip: A solids, B liquids, C gases, D metals, with cooking oils and electrical fires handled separately.

The correct answer is A, the Simla Convention of 1914. The Simla Convention brought together representatives of British India, Tibet and China, and the line drawn there by Sir Henry McMahon runs along the crest of the eastern Himalaya; India treats it as the boundary with China in the eastern sector, while China rejects it and claims Arunachal Pradesh. Option B, the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, ended the First World War and dealt with European boundaries, not with the Himalaya. Option C, the Karachi Agreement of 1949, fixed the Cease Fire Line in Jammu and Kashmir after the first India and Pakistan war. Option D, the Panchsheel Agreement of 1954, set out the five principles of peaceful coexistence between India and China but drew no boundary at all, which makes it the most tempting wrong option.

The correct answer is B, Egypt. The annual flood of the Nile spread fertile silt over a narrow strip of desert and made settled agriculture and the Egyptian civilisation possible, which is why Egypt is called the Gift of the Nile. Option A, Sudan, is wrong although the Nile flows through it and the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet at Khartoum; the epithet is not used for Sudan. Option C, Ethiopia, is wrong even though the Blue Nile rises there at Lake Tana and supplies most of the flood water, because the gift was received downstream. Option D, Libya, is wrong since the Nile does not flow through it at all and it is largely desert. The lesson of the phrase is that a river, not the soil of the country itself, created Egypt's wealth.

The correct answer is B, North Korea and South Korea. The Korean peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel of north latitude after the Second World War, and although the armistice line of 1953 does not follow the parallel exactly, the Demilitarized Zone runs close to it and the parallel remains the name used for the division. Option A, the two Vietnams, were divided along the 17th parallel until unification, and swapping these two numbers is the commonest mistake in the chapter. Option C, the United States and Canada, are divided over a long stretch by the 49th parallel, the straight line that makes the border look drawn with a ruler. Option D, Germany and Poland, are divided by the Oder and Neisse Line, which follows two rivers and is therefore a natural rather than a geometrical boundary.

The correct answer is B, Playground of Europe. Switzerland earned the name from its Alpine scenery, its lakes and the mountaineering and skiing resorts that drew European travellers from the nineteenth century onwards. Option A, Cockpit of Europe, is wrong; that belongs to Belgium, on whose soil so many European battles were fought that the country became a byword for a battlefield. Option C, Sick Man of Europe, is wrong because it was applied to the declining Ottoman Empire, that is to Turkey, in the nineteenth century. Option D, Workshop of Europe, is wrong; industrial epithets of this kind are used for Britain and Belgium rather than for Switzerland. Learning these four together is useful because question setters often place them in one set of options.