Q 01/05

Which country spans eleven time zones and borders fourteen others?

A) Canada

B) Russia

C) China

D) Brazil

Answer · why

B) Russia

Russia would be even larger had it not sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing Britain could seize the hard-to-defend colony.

Q 02/05

Which organ, the heaviest inside the human body, produces bile and stores glycogen?

A) Pancreas

B) Kidney

C) Liver

D) Stomach

Answer · why

C) Liver

The liver regrows lost tissue so well that a living donor can give part of theirs, and both pieces grow back to near full size.

Q 03/05

Which organelle, the site of aerobic respiration, has its own DNA, almost always inherited from the mother?

A) Ribosome

B) Mitochondrion

C) Nucleus

D) Golgi apparatus

Answer · why

B) Mitochondrion

The mitochondrion has a genome like a bacterium's, supporting the theory that it began as a free-living microbe engulfed by an early cell.

Q 04/05

Which 1803 deal with Napoleon's France nearly doubled the size of the United States for $15 million?

A) Louisiana Purchase

B) Gadsden Purchase

C) Transcontinental Treaty

D) Oregon Treaty

Answer · why

A) Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase worked out at less than three cents an acre, and Napoleon sold because war with Britain was imminent.

Q 05/05

Which planet hosts the Great Red Spot, a giant storm tracked since the 1800s?

A) Saturn

B) Neptune

C) Mars

D) Jupiter

Answer · why

D) Jupiter

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is wider than Earth, yet it has been shrinking for about a century, and no one knows exactly what makes it red.