In which of the following countries is the Pampas grasslands situated?

The correct answer is D, because the tundra is not a temperate region at all. It is the polar belt beyond about 70 degrees latitude, where the warmest month stays below 10 degrees Celsius and the subsoil remains frozen as permafrost, so Koppen codes it ET in his polar E group. Option A is correct and therefore not the answer, since dwarf shrubs, stunted birch and willow do grow in the brief summer. Option B is correct as well, because mosses and lichens are the typical tundra plants and the reindeer feeds on them. Option C is correct too, as the short growing season, the frozen subsoil and the thin soil keep growth low and treeless. The statement in D confuses the tundra with the temperate deciduous forests of the middle latitudes, which is the trap the paper setter wanted.

The correct answer is C, Asia. The Gobi lies in central Asia, across southern Mongolia and northern China, and it is a cold mid latitude desert: it is dry not because of the trade winds but because it is far from the sea and the Himalayan and other ranges cut off the monsoon, and its winters are bitterly cold. Option A, Europe, is wrong because Europe has no true desert; its driest lands are the steppes near the Caspian. Option B, North America, is wrong because the deserts there are the Sonoran, Mojave, Chihuahuan and the Great Basin. Option D, Africa, is wrong because the African deserts are the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari and Namib in the south. Pair the cold deserts in your memory: Gobi in Asia, Patagonia in South America and Turkestan in central Asia.

The correct answer is B, only 2 pairs. North America and Prairie is right, as the prairies are the temperate grasslands of the United States and Canada and the granary of the world. Central Asia and Steppe is right as well, since the steppes run from Ukraine and Russia across Kazakhstan into Mongolia. The other two pairs have been swapped: the grassland of South Africa is the Veld, and the grassland of Australia is the Downs, so South Africa and Down is wrong and Australia and Veld is wrong. Only two pairs are therefore correct. Options A and C give the wrong count, and option D is wrong because two pairs are interchanged. This swap of Veld and Downs is the single commonest trap in questions on world grasslands, so fix it as Veld for Africa and Downs for Australia.

The correct answer is C, Bugyal. Bugyal is the local name in Uttarakhand for the alpine meadows that lie above the tree line in the Greater Himalayas, used by shepherds for summer grazing; in Kashmir the same meadows are called marg, which gives the names Gulmarg and Sonmarg. Option A, Bhabar, is wrong because the bhabar is the narrow belt of coarse pebbles at the foot of the Shiwaliks where the streams disappear underground. Option B, Maru, is wrong because maru means desert and Marusthali is the name of the Thar. Option D is wrong because green meadows is only a translation and not the term geography uses. Note the pair the paper setter wants: bugyal in Uttarakhand and marg in Kashmir, both alpine meadows and not grasslands of the plains.

The correct answer is B, Af. In Koppen scheme the capital A stands for the tropical group, in which the coldest month is still above 18 degrees Celsius, and the small f stands for rain in every month of the year, so Af is the equatorial or tropical rainforest climate of the Amazon, the Congo and Indonesia. Option A, Aw, is wrong because w marks a dry winter, which gives the savanna or Sudan type climate. Option C, Cs, is wrong because C is the warm temperate group and s marks a dry summer, so Cs is the Mediterranean climate. Option D, ET, is wrong because E is the polar group and T stands for tundra, the treeless belt whose warmest month stays below 10 degrees Celsius. Learn the letters as groups first and the small rainfall letters second.