Which country has Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein as its executive, legislative and judicial capitals?

The correct answer is B, Yen. The yen is the money of Japan and its capital is Tokyo. It is one of the most traded currencies in the world, along with the United States dollar, the euro and the pound sterling.

Option A, the won, is the currency of both South Korea, whose capital is Seoul, and North Korea. Option C, the yuan, also called the renminbi, belongs to China, whose capital is Beijing; students confuse yen and yuan because the names look alike, so remember that the longer name goes with the larger country. Option D, the baht, is the currency of Thailand, whose capital is Bangkok. All four options come from East and South East Asia, which is exactly how a paper setter builds a trap for this question.

The correct answer is C, Canberra. Canberra was planned and built as the capital of Australia because Sydney and Melbourne could not agree on which of them should hold the seat of government, and the new city was placed between them. It lies in the Australian Capital Territory and holds the Parliament House and the High Court. The currency of Australia is the Australian dollar.

Option A, Sydney, is the largest city of Australia and the capital of the state of New South Wales, known for its Opera House and Harbour Bridge, which is why most students pick it. Option B, Melbourne, is the capital of Victoria and was the temporary seat of the federal parliament before Canberra was ready. Option D, Perth, is the capital of Western Australia. None of the three is the national capital.

The correct answer is B, Bhutan. The ngultrum is the currency of Bhutan, whose capital is Thimphu. It is pegged to the Indian rupee at par, and the Indian rupee is accepted across Bhutan, which is why the two economies are closely tied. Bhutan is a landlocked Himalayan kingdom that shares its borders only with India and China.

Option A, Nepal, uses the Nepalese rupee and its capital is Kathmandu. Option C, the Maldives, uses the rufiyaa and its capital is Male. Option D, Myanmar, uses the kyat and its capital is Naypyidaw, which replaced Yangon in 2006. All four are neighbours of India, so the question is really testing whether the currency list of the neighbourhood has been learnt as a block rather than in pieces.

The correct answer is C, Myanmar. Naypyidaw became the capital of Myanmar in 2006, when the government moved out of Yangon, which had been the capital under the older name Rangoon. Myanmar shares a long land border with India in the north east, touching Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, and its currency is the kyat.

Option A, Cambodia, has its capital at Phnom Penh and uses the riel. Option B, Laos, has its capital at Vientiane and uses the kip. Option D, Vietnam, has its capital at Hanoi and uses the dong, and its best known city is Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. Since all four are South East Asian neighbours, the safest way to hold this group is to learn capital and currency together rather than separately.

The correct answer is A, Bangladesh. The taka is the currency of Bangladesh, whose capital is Dhaka. Bangladesh was created in 1971 and shares the longest land border that India has with any country, touching West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Option B, Sri Lanka, uses the Sri Lankan rupee; its commercial capital is Colombo but the legislative capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Option C, Nepal, uses the Nepalese rupee and its capital is Kathmandu. Option D, Afghanistan, uses the afghani and its capital is Kabul. Candidates lose this mark by pairing the taka with Sri Lanka, so fix in memory that the two names Dhaka and taka rhyme, which ties the capital and the currency of Bangladesh together.

Remember also that Dhaka is both the capital and the largest city of Bangladesh, and that the note issuing central bank of the country is the Bangladesh Bank.