Of course some of our Gadling readers were quick to correctly answer today’s winning geography bee question. But do you want to see if you really have what it takes to be a geography genius?
I’ve assembled a quiz, which includes all the official National Geographic questions Caitlin Snaring had to answer correctly to win the Bee earlier today.
Some of the questions were accompanied by visual aids, but smart Gadling readers should be able to make educated guesses without those. This selection of questions illustrates the broad range of topics and issues that the study of geography encompasses.
Have fun, and feel free to post your guesses or gripes in the comments below! (I’ll post answers in the comments sometime later this week.)
1) Which country, with a significant population of Italian descent, is home to one of the world’s most famous opera houses, the Teatro Colon? (Choose from one of these three: Argentina, Brazil, Chile)
2) The huipil is the traditional blouse for a Maya woman. The blouse, which can identify the community to which a woman belongs, is worn in what country that is home to Volcan Tajumulco, the highest peak in Central America? (Visual aid with this question.)
3) The people shown here belong to the Yedina tribe, who inhabit the islands and marshy shores of a shrinking African lake. This lake is located near the junction of Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and what other country? (Visual aid with this question.)
4) Tamanduas break open insect nests with their claws and use their long sticky tongues to eat insects. These animals live in parts of South America and also on a nearby island that borders the Gulf of Paria. Name this island.
5) A transportation and communications center in the eastern Mediterranean was created in 1950 from an old city and its more modern suburb. Give the number and name of this city, targeted by Iraqi missiles during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. (Participants had to identify city and location on map.)
6) The rare brown-bearded saki and white-faced saki monkeys can be found in what South American country that is separated from Suriname by the Courantyne River?
7) Karaim, an endangered member of the Turkic language family, remains spoken by fewer than one hundred people in the southernmost Baltic state. Name this country.
8) Forks such as this were used in the practice of cannibalism in an island country whose largest island is Viti Levu. Name this country.
9) From this list of five items, name the item that does not belong, and say why: Port-of-Spain, Castries, Paramaribo, Roseau, Santo Domingo
And these were the first four questions of the championship round, in which Caitlin and second place winner, Suneil Iyer competed:
1) What is the Arabic term for a valley in the hot desert areas of northern Africa and the Middle East that carries a stream occasionally?
2) In late March 2007, Protestant and Catholic political leaders from Northern Ireland agreed to form a power-sharing government that took effect in early May 2007. The leaders met in what city that lies at the mouth of the Lagan River?
3) The second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa is also the richest Portuguese-speaking country in Africa. Name this country.
4) Lampedusa, an island whose geographical location has made it a target for illegal immigrants seeking to enter the European Union from Africa, is administered by which country?