Q 01/05

What is the world's largest island?

A) Madagascar

B) Greenland

C) Borneo

D) New Guinea

Answer · why

B) Greenland

Australia is usually counted as a continent rather than an island; the island's ice sheet covers 81% of it.

Q 02/05

According to the sagas, why did Erik the Red give the world's largest island its pleasant-sounding name?

A) It was green in summer

B) To lure settlers there

C) After his wife Groa

D) From an Inuit word

Answer · why

B) To lure settlers there

He had been exiled from Iceland along with his father, who had committed manslaughter.

Q 03/05

Roughly what proportion of the world's largest island is covered by its ice sheet?

A) 50%

B) 65%

C) 75%

D) 81%

Answer · why

D) 81%

The island's population of about 56,000 makes it the least densely populated country on Earth.

Q 04/05

What is the world's second-largest island?

A) Borneo

B) Baffin Island

C) Madagascar

D) New Guinea

Answer · why

D) New Guinea

It is split between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and has the highest plant biodiversity of any island.

Q 05/05

Borneo, the third-largest island, is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and which small sultanate?

A) Brunei

B) Bhutan

C) Oman

D) Bahrain

Answer · why

A) Brunei

It sits at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia and is crossed by the equator.