World Geography — PPSC previous year questions

The Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the 'Gift of the Nile'. The river's annual flood laid fertile silt on otherwise desert land. That made settled agriculture and the ancient Egyptian civilisation possible. Sudan lies upstream on the Nile, but the phrase is used only for Egypt. Libya and Iraq are not Nile countries.

China's 'nine-dash line' claim is in the South China Sea. It overlaps the claims of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. These cover the Spratly and Paracel islands and waters. In July 2016 an arbitral tribunal at The Hague ruled against China's claim. The Philippines brought the case. China's East China Sea dispute is with Japan, over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. The Timor and Sargasso Seas are unrelated.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system, lies in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland, Australia, stretching over about 2,300 km. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1981). Tasmania is itself an Australian state to the south, while Fiji and New Zealand have their own smaller reef systems.

The Sirocco is a hot, dry, dusty wind. It starts in the Sahara and blows north across the Mediterranean towards southern Europe. It often picks up moisture over the sea. Its red dust causes 'blood rain' in Italy. The Mistral (Rhone valley, France), Tramontana (northern Mediterranean) and Bora (Adriatic coast) are all cold winds, not hot desert winds. Local names of the Sirocco include Khamsin (Egypt) and Gibli (Libya).

The Mariana Trench lies in the western Pacific. It is the deepest known part of the oceans — Challenger Deep, about 11,000 m. It is the classic example of an ocean deep, or trench. Such trenches form where one plate subducts beneath another. The continental shelf and slope are the shallow margins of the continents. Deep-sea plains are the flat abyssal floor.

Mount Merapi is on Java in Indonesia (3), Taal is a lake volcano in the Philippines (2), Kilauea is in Hawaii, USA (4), and Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano, in Antarctica (1). Code: 3, 2, 4, 1.

The Pampas are the fertile temperate grasslands of Argentina (extending into Uruguay and southern Brazil), famous for cattle ranching and wheat. The corresponding temperate grasslands are the Prairies in the USA, the Downs in Australia and the Steppes in Russia.

Mediterranean agriculture (wheat, olives, grapes, citrus fruits) is practised wherever the climate has hot dry summers and mild wet winters. Besides the lands around the Mediterranean Sea like Turkey, this climate is found in central California, central Chile, south-western and southern Australia, and the Cape region of South Africa, so all five are correct.

An archipelago is a group or chain of islands. The British Isles — Great Britain, Ireland and thousands of smaller islands such as the Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands — form one. Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Tasmania are each single large islands.

Balkh is the ancient Bactra. It lies in Balkh province of northern Afghanistan, near Mazar-i-Sharif. Bukhara was the Samanid and Silk Road capital. It is in Uzbekistan. The proverb: 'Jo sukh Chajju de chubare, oh Balkh na Bukhare'. Chajju's rooftop comfort is not found even in Balkh or Bukhara. It refers to Chajju Bhagat's chaubara in Lahore. It means there is no place like home.