Q 01/05

Outside the United States, the Pampas are the most consistently active region on Earth for which violent storms?

A) Hurricanes

B) Blizzards

C) Tornadoes

D) Sandstorms

Answer · why

C) Tornadoes

Tornadoes spin out of the severe thunderstorms that build here in spring and summer. The same storms bring intense hail and some of the most frequent ...

Q 02/05

Argentina's national sport was first played by gauchos on horseback using which live animal as the ball?

A) A duck

B) A piglet

C) A rooster

D) A hare

Answer · why

A) A duck

A duck, alive and tucked inside a basket, was the original ball, and the game's name, pato, is simply Spanish for duck. Juan Perón declared it the nat...

Q 03/05

Which South American country lies entirely within the Pampas, which also cover parts of Argentina and southern Brazil?

A) Paraguay

B) Uruguay

C) Bolivia

D) Chile

Answer · why

B) Uruguay

Uruguay sits wholly on these grasslands, though its share is hillier than the Argentine flats, with low grassy ridges known as cuchillas.

Q 04/05

Which naturalist paid a farmer 18 pence for a Toxodon skull while riding across the Pampas region in 1833?

A) Charles Darwin

B) Richard Owen

C) Alexander von Humboldt

D) Alfred Russel Wallace

Answer · why

A) Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin bought the skull during the voyage of the Beagle. Local children had been using it for target practice and had knocked out its teeth wi...

Q 05/05

Gauchos on the Pampas traditionally sip which caffeine-rich herbal infusion from a gourd through a metal straw?

A) Chicha

B) Guaraná

C) Mate

D) Horchata

Answer · why

C) Mate

Mate is brewed from a South American holly. Its metal straw, the bombilla, doubles as a sieve that holds back the chopped plant material.