How good is your Geography?

A ten year old from Washington just one the National Geographic Bee. Could you have beat him?

Here are ten sample questions which accompanied the article in USA Today:

  1. Which state has the greater area of federally owned land - Pennsylvania or New Mexico?

  2. What is the term for pollution created by the mixture of precipitation and chemicals released by the burning of fossil fuels?

  3. The Union Jack appears on the flag of several countries due to previous rule by which country?

  4. Ivory, Gold and Skeleton have all been the names of coasts of which continent?

  5. What is the name of the fortress in Moscow built in the late 1400s that is used as the center of the Russian government?

  6. Roquefort is the name of a kind of cheese that is aged in limestone caves not far from the town. Roquefort lies near the Pyrenees in what country?

  7. In December 2000, Ethiopia signed a peace accord ending a two-year border war with which country that was originally carved out of Ethiopia’s territory?

  8. Permanent sea ice connects part of Canada’s Ellesmere Island with what large island to the east?

  9. The only glaciers in the tropics of Asia are in the mountains of Indonesia’s easternmost province. Those glaciers are on what island?

  10. Until the mid-1970s East Timor was a colony of which European country?

Answers:

The answers: 1. New Mexico. 2. Acid rain. 3. United Kingdom. 4. Africa. 5. Kremlin. 6. France. 7. Eritrea 8. Greenland. 9. New Guinea. 10. Portugal.

I got all but 10 right. Damn, that’s better than I did at nationals in 96. They’re either making the questions easier or I actually gained geography knowledge (highly unlikely) since then.

I forgot to mention, I missed one (#9). But I would have probably missed at least half of those at ten years old. Of course, some of those questions didn’t have answers when I was ten years old.

Ooh, also got all 10. Although 9 made me think just a wee bit till I remembered which country it shares that island with. And 4 was just a guess but what else could it be?

But I like maps, no I love maps. I love to look at them, thumb through them. I should hope I know at least the geography questions pretty well.