Search Previous Year Questions

The correct answer is Guyana.

Key Points

Guyana

• A country on South America’s North Atlantic coast is defined by its dense rainforest.
• It's culturally connected to the Caribbean region.
• Its Capital, Georgetown, is known for British colonial architecture, including the tall, painted-timber St. George’s Anglican Cathedral.

Additional Information

Gabon

• A country along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa has significant areas of protected parkland.
• The forested coastal terrain of its famed Loango National Park shelters a diversity of wildlife, from gorillas and hippos to whales..

Guinea

• A country in West Africa, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean.
• It's known for the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, in the southeast.
• The reserve protects a forested mountain range rich in native plants and animals, including chimpanzees and the viviparous toad.
• On the coast, the Capital City, Conakry, is home to the modern Grand Mosque and the National Museum, with its regional artefacts.

Guinea-Bissau

• A tropical country on West Africa’s Atlantic coast that’s known for its national parks and wildlife.
• The forested, sparsely populated Bijagós archipelago is a protected biosphere reserve.
• On the mainland, the capital, Bissau, is a port with Portuguese colonial buildings in its old city center.

The correct answer is Andes mountain range.

Key Points

Andes:

• It is a mountain range in South America.
• It is the longest mountain range in the world.
• The highest peak is Mount Aconcagua (6,962 m) (volcanic origin, but now it’s dormant).
• The world’s highest volcanoes are in the Andes.
• The Andes Mountains line the western edge of South America, from Venezuela all the way along Chile to South America’s southern tip (about 9,000 km in all), making them the longest mountain range in the world.
• Along that route, they cross through Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
• By width, they cross into Argentina, which borders Chile.

​

Additional Information

Rocky Mountains:

• The Rocky Mountains are huge mountain ranges that extend from Canada to central New Mexico.
• They took shape during a period of intense plate tectonic activity about 170 to 40 million years ago.
• The Rocky Mountains are the largest mountain range in North America, stretching for 2,982 miles (4,799 km).

The Himalayan Mountains

• The Himalayas are geologically young and structurally fold mountains.
• These mountain ranges run in a west-east direction from the Indus to the Brahmaputra.
• They form an arc, which covers a distance of about 2,400 Km.
• The northernmost range is known as the Great or Inner Himalayas or the Himadri, lesser Himalayas, and Shivalik.

​The Alps:

• These are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe.
• Stretching approximately 1,200 km across eight Alpine countries (from west to east)
• The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided.
• Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,809 m (15,778 ft) is the highest mountain in the Alps.
• The altitude and size of the range affect the climate in Europe; in the mountains, precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones.

The correct answer is Nilgiri hills.

Key Points

Nilgiri Hills 

• Found where the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats meet.
• The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in western Tamil Nadu of Southern India.
• The highest peak is Doddabetta at 2,637 metres (8,652 ft).
• The Nilgiri Hills are part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
• The highest waterfall, Kolakambai Fall, north of Kolakambai hill, has an unbroken fall of 400 ft (120 m).

Additional Information

Cardamom Hills: 

• The Cardamom Hills are a mountain range of southern India and part of the southern Western Ghats located in southeast Kerala and southwest Tamil Nadu in India.

Anaimalai Hills: 

• The range of mountains that forms the southern portion of the Western Ghats and span the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in Southern India.

Sahyadri Hills:

• The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast.
• Western Ghats also known as Sahyadri is a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula.

The correct answer is Banguela

Key Points

Benguela Current:

• Benguela Current, is the oceanic current that is a branch of the West Wind Drift of the Southern Hemisphere.
• It flows northward in the South Atlantic Ocean along the west coast of southern Africa nearly to the Equator.
• Merging with the westward-flowing Atlantic South Equatorial Current.

Additional Information

The Gulf Stream:

• It is a powerful current in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream is an intense warm ocean current.
• The Gulf Stream is the western boundary current of the N. Atlantic subtropical gyre.
• The Gulf Stream transports a significant amount of warm water (heat) poleward.
• The Gulf Stream originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida.

The Norwegian Current:

• It is one of two dominant Arctic inflows of water.
• It can be traced from near Shetland, north of Scotland, otherwise from the eastern North Sea at depths of up to 100 metres.
• It finally passes the Opening into the Barents Sea, a large outcrop of the Arctic Ocean.

Florida Current:

• It is a thermal ocean current that flows from the Straits of Florida around the Florida Peninsula in the North Atlantic Ocean.
• And then along the southeastern coast of the United States before joining the Gulf Stream Current near Cape Hatteras.
• Its contributing currents are the Loop Current and the Antilles Current.

The correct answer is New Guinea.

Key Points

New Guinea

• It is the world's second-largest island with an area of 785,753 km².
• Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the 150-kilometre-wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf.
• The largest island is Greenland.
• Greenland has an area of 2,166,086 square km.
• New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world.
• Madagascar is the Largest Island in Africa and the oldest geological island on Earth.

Borneo

• A giant, rugged island in Southeast Asia’s Malay Archipelago, is shared by the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, Indonesian Kalimantan and the tiny nation of Brunei.
• It’s known for its beaches and ancient, biodiverse rainforest, home to wildlife including orangutans and clouded leopards.

Sumatra

• A large Indonesian island west of Java and south of the Malay Peninsula is known for its rugged tropical terrain, wildlife and smouldering volcanoes.
• To the north, the city of Banda Aceh, which was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, has a museum commemorating the disaster.

The correct asnwer is Bora - Siberia.

Key Points

Bora:

• A northerly to north-easterly katabatic wind in areas near the Adriatic Sea (bordering Italy). Hence, option 2 is incorrectly matched.
• Similar nomenclature is used for north-eastern winds in other littoral areas of eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea basins.
• Bora is mainly caused by a temperature difference between the air above the land and the sea surface temperature.
• The bora increases when the air becomes colder and consequently denser at night.

Foehn 

• Foehn is strong, dusty, dry and warm local wind which develops on the leeward side of the Alps mountain ranges. Hence, option 1 is correctly matched.
• The temperature of the winds varies from 15°C to 20°C which helps in melting snow. Thus making pasture land ready for animal grazing and helping the grapes to ripe early.

Mistral:

• Italian maestrale, Cold and Dry Strong Wind in southern France that blows down from the north along the lower Rhône River valley toward the Mediterranean Sea.  Hence, option 3 is correctly matched.

Khamsin:

• Chamsin or Hamsin more commonly known in Egypt as Khamaseen (listen)), is a dry, hot, sandy local wind affecting Egypt.  Hence, option 4 is correctly matched.
• Similar winds, blowing in other parts of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the entire Mediterranean basin.

Important Points

Siberia:

• A vast Russian province encompassing most of Northern Asia, with terrain spanning tundra, coniferous forest and mountain ranges including the Ural, Altai and Verkhoyansk.

The correct answer is Amazon.

Key Points

The Amazon River:

• Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world.
• The second longest river in the world in comparison to the Nile.
• The Amazon river originates in the Andes Mountains of Peru.
• It flows through the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil.
• Amazon river discharges its water into the Atlantic Ocean.
• There are no bridges across the entire width of the Amazon river.​

​

Additional Information

The Nile:

• It is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
• The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest river in the world.

The Mississippi River:

• It is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent.

The Yangtze:

• Yangzi, known as the Chang Jiang, is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world
• The longest in the world to flow entirely within one country.
• It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains and flows 6,300 km in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea.

The correct answer is Dolomite.

Key Points

Dolomite is a sedimentary carbonate rock.

Metamorphic Rocks

• Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have been changed from their original form by immense heat or pressure.
• They are formed when physical and chemical changes occur to igneous, sedimentary, or other metamorphic rocks.
• Metamorphic rocks are almost always harder than sedimentary rocks.
• They are generally as hard and sometimes harder than igneous rocks.
• They form the roots of many mountain chains and are exposed to the surface after the softer outer layers of rocks are eroded away.

Foliated metamorphic rocks:

• These rocks are produced by exposure to heat and pressure which makes them appear layered.
• Phyllite and gneiss are examples of foliated metamorphic rocks.

Non-foliated metamorphic rocks: 

• These rocks don’t have layers.
• Marble and quartzite are examples of non-foliated metamorphic rocks.

Examples of Metamorphic Rocks : gneiss, quartzite, marble, schist, soapstone, and phyllite

Additional Information 

• Igneous rocks are formed from solidified magma or lava.
• Magma is thought to be generated within the layer of partially molten rock underlying Earth’s crust at a depth below about 60 kilometers (40 miles).
• Lava is liquid magma on the Earth’s surface, and the solidified rock is formed by cooled lava.
• Some examples of igneous rocks are Granite, gabbro, basalt, etc.

Sedimentary rocks 

• They are formed from deposited and lithified mineral material.
• Fossils are generally found in sedimentary rock. Among the three major types of rock.
• Fossils are most commonly found in sedimentary rock.
• Mechanically formed — sandstone, conglomerate, limestone, shale, loess, etc. are examples;
• Organically formed — geyserite, chalk, limestone, coal, etc.
• Chemically formed —chert, limestone, halite, potash, etc.

The correct answer is Malwa.

The Malwa plateau lies between Aravali and Vindhya ranges.

Key Points

Malwa Plateau 

• The Malwa Plateau basically refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range.
• Plateau region in north-central India.
• It is bounded by the Madhya Bharat Plateau and Bundelkhand Upland to the north.
• The Vindhya Range to the east and south, and the Gujarat Plains to the west.
• The Malwa Plateau ranges in elevation from about 1,650 to 2,000 feet (500 to 600 meters)
• The western part of the region is drained by the Mahi River.
• The middle section by the Chambal River, and the eastern part by the Betwa River and the headwaters of the Dhasan and Ken rivers.
• Vegetation is of the Savanna Type with Scattered Teak and Sal (Shorea robusta) forests.

Hence, it is clear that the Malwa Plateau is lies between the Aravali and Vindhyan ranges.

The correct answer is Cuba.

• Cuba is called the ‘Sugar Bowl of the World’.

Key Points

• Cuba: 
• It has the largest sugar industry which is now decaying and its position is now taken up by Brazil followed by India.
• It is an island in the Caribbean region.
• The Cuban sugar economy is the principal agricultural economy in Cuba.
• Until 1960 Cuba was the largest Sugar Exporter in the world hence, the name Sugar Bowl of the World.
• But in the year 2017-18 Year Brazil started its lead in Sugar production which was about 38.9 million metric tons.

Additional Information