Q 01/05

Which South American river carries more water to the sea than the next seven largest rivers combined?

A) Amazon

B) Orinoco

C) Paraná

D) Magdalena

Answer · why

A) Amazon

The Amazon has no bridges across it at all, even though engineers could easily span most of its length. It flows through rainforest with very few road...

Q 02/05

Which island, the world's largest, is part of North America and lies about four-fifths under an ice sheet?

A) Baffin Island

B) Ellesmere Island

C) Greenland

D) Victoria Island

Answer · why

C) Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, which makes the biggest island in North America part of a European realm.

Q 03/05

Which desert in the Americas, the driest outside the poles, is a test site for Mars mission instruments?

A) Sonoran

B) Atacama

C) Mojave

D) Chihuahuan

Answer · why

B) Atacama

The Atacama gets about 15 mm of rain a year, and some of its weather stations have never recorded any at all.

Q 04/05

Which lake on Peru's border, 3,812 metres up in the Andes, is often called the world's highest navigable lake?

A) Poopó

B) Nicaragua

C) Atitlán

D) Titicaca

Answer · why

D) Titicaca

Titicaca is home to the Uru people, who live on floating islands that they build from layers of cut totora reeds.

Q 05/05

Which country's canal takes ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific by sailing southeast rather than west?

A) Nicaragua

B) Panama

C) Honduras

D) Colombia

Answer · why

B) Panama

Panama curves so sharply at that point that the canal's Pacific end lies east of its Atlantic end. Locks at each end lift ships 26 metres up to Gatun ...