Time to put geography skills to the test
By Ellen Creager
Gannett News Service
Think you know your geography? Test yourself with our travel quiz.
For every right answer, 10 points.
For every wrong answer, zero.
Scoring: 0-30: Um, do you have any idea where you are right now?
40-60: Considering that 43 percent of Americans ages 18-24 cannot locate Ohio on a map, you're not doing too badly.
70-100: You rock. A-plus.
THE QUIZ
1. Which three places make up the points of the Bermuda Triangle?
A. Bahamas, Bermuda and Puerto Rico
B. Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Tortola
C. Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico
2. Recife is the capital of Pernambuco state in what country?
A. Italy
B. Spain
C. Brazil
3. Historic Nara, Japan, celebrates an anniversary in 2010. How old is the country’s first capital city?
A. 570 years
B. 1,300 years
C. 4,000 years
4. The Northern Pacific Gyre lies in the Pacific Ocean between Japan and the west coast of the U.S. What does it contain?
A. A huge pod of an estimated 2,000 endangered gray whales
B. A giant debris field of garbage trapped in a spinning circle
C. An underground sea mountain 7 miles tall
5. Last year, a mosaic of an angel was discovered under the floor of the Hagia Sophia. Where and what is the Hagia Sophia?
A. Istanbul, Turkey. It’s a museum that previously was a Byzantine Christian church and a mosque.
B. Luxembourg. It’s a cathedral built to honor St. Sophia, the country’s patron saint.
C. Mexico City. It’s a traditional market where the image of the angel is said to have healing powers.
6. If you want to go whitewater rafting on the Kampar River, where do you go?
A. Wheeling, W.Va.
B. Gopeng, Malaysia
C. Johannesburg, South Africa
7. Tourists love Devonshire cream tea — scones, clotted cream and raspberry jam with tea. But where in England is Devonshire?
A. In dairy country just east of London
B. Southwest England
C. Near the Scottish border
8. Most people call the region the Caribbean, but what is its formal name?
A. The West Indies
B. The East Indies
C. The South Indies
9. Tourists who visit the Galapagos Islands leave for their trip from what city?
A. Quito, Ecuador
B. Santiago, Chile
C. La Paz, Bolivia
10. What was the United States’ first national park?
A. Great Smoky Mountains
B. Yellowstone
C. Yosemite
ANSWERS
1. C. Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico are points of the Bermuda Triangle, where many ships and planes have disappeared.
2. C. Recife, capital city of Pernambuco state, is one of the largest cities in Brazil, with more than 1.5 million people.
3. B. Nara, near Kyoto, will mark its 1,300th anniversary in April 2010. It was Japan’s capital in A.D. 710-784.
4. B. The Northern Pacific Gyre, a system of currents, contains a debris field of mostly plastic bits and non-biodegradable human trash. Some people call the debris field — twice the size of Texas and growing — the great Pacific garbage patch.
5. A. Turkey. Hagia Sophia, built in A.D. 532. by Emperor Justinian, became a museum in 1935.
6. B. The Kampar River is in Gopeng, Malaysia, a hot destination for 2010.
7. B. Devonshire is next to Cornwall in southwest England. It’s the biggest county in the country.
8. A. The West Indies. That’s to distinguish it from the East Indies off the coast of Africa. Also, “Greater Antilles” or “Lesser Antilles” is used to describe the Caribbean. The Greater Antilles are Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The Lesser Antilles are all the tiny islands southward, such as Barbados, St. Maarten and Dominica.
9. A. The Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador, so the jumping off spot is its capital city.
10. B. If you watched Ken Burns’ PBS special this fall, you’ll know the answer is Yellowstone, in 1872.