PPSC Forest / Wildlife Officer (BS-17) Geography World Geography — Set 3

PPSC Forest / Wildlife Officer (BS-17) Geography World Geography — Set 3

1. Question 1

   Q1. Amazon rainforest headwater tributary guides warn slash-burn maize gangs that flashy green regrowth hides dangerously shallow rooting bases. Compared with temperate wheat belts near Danube deltas, rainforest Oxisols MOST signal which nutrient-handling caveat for careless croppers?

   • A) Organic mats metres thick stock humus endlessly without fire
   • B) Mollisol black loops flush phosphate endlessly downslope
   • C) Histosols blanket river stonefields without peat decay
   • D) Bases recycle fast in shallow biotic layers while deep horizons stay leached and poor

   Answer: Bases recycle fast in shallow biotic layers while deep horizons stay leached and poor

   Explanation: Tropical Oxisols are heavily weathered with bases leached deep below the root zone; nutrients cycle rapidly through a thin organic surface layer, so burning or removing that layer exposes infertile subsoil.

2. Question 2

   Q2. Mature temperate grasslands bordering Rock of Gibraltar pastures grow thin rendzinas hugging Dover-facing chalk rims students sketch before Paris transfers. Rendzinas MOST resemble which shallow soil storyline riding dissolving carbonate platforms?

   • A) Deep peat domes insulating granite shields uniformly
   • B) Palsa ice pressing basalt domes nightly without karst rims
   • C) A shallow mineral mantle developing atop dissolving limestone bedrock collars
   • D) Tropical laterite plating Labrador fjords without dissolution

   Answer: A shallow mineral mantle developing atop dissolving limestone bedrock collars

   Explanation: Rendzinas are shallow, humus-rich soils that develop directly over dissolving chalk or limestone parent material, forming a thin mineral mantle that cannot deepen significantly before hitting bedrock.

3. Question 3

   Q3. If a rank-size pattern holds and the largest city has six million people, about how large should the third city be?

   • A) Six million people
   • B) Two million people
   • C) Three million people
   • D) One million people

   Answer: Two million people

   Explanation: The rank-size rule states that the nth-largest city has 1/n the population of the largest city; the third city would therefore have one-third of six million, equaling two million people.

4. Question 4

   Q4. Total fertility rate is at long-run replacement and net migration is zero. What happens to population over several decades if age structure is still young?

   • A) Population must fall instantly
   • B) Population can keep rising for years due to population momentum
   • C) Cities must shrink every decade
   • D) Arithmetic density becomes undefined

   Answer: Population can keep rising for years due to population momentum

   Explanation: When a population with a young age structure reaches replacement-level fertility, population momentum means that large cohorts of young people continue to enter reproductive ages, so total population keeps rising for decades before stabilising.

5. Question 5

   Q5. Doubling time in years is roughly 70 divided by a constant annual growth rate in percent. At 1.4 percent growth, about how many years to double?

   • A) 100 years
   • B) 50 years
   • C) 70 years
   • D) 5 years

   Answer: 50 years

   Explanation: Using the Rule of 70: doubling time ≈ 70 ÷ growth rate (%) = 70 ÷ 1.4 = 50 years.

6. Question 6

   Q6. Net migration for a district is calculated as?

   • A) Births minus deaths
   • B) In-migrants minus out-migrants over the period
   • C) Urban share minus rural share
   • D) Physiological density minus arithmetic density

   Answer: In-migrants minus out-migrants over the period

   Explanation: Net migration is calculated by subtracting the number of people who left (out-migrants) from the number who arrived (in-migrants) during a given period for a defined area.

7. Question 7

   Q7. The permanently inhabited portions of Earth’s land surface are often termed the?

   • A) Lithosphere only
   • B) Hydrosphere rim
   • C) Ecumene
   • D) Stratosphere belt

   Answer: Ecumene

   Explanation: The ecumene refers to the permanently inhabited and cultivated portions of Earth's surface, contrasted with the anecumene - areas too cold, dry, or rugged for sustained human settlement.

8. Question 8

   Q8. Rate of natural increase equals?

   • A) Immigrants minus emigrants
   • B) Urban population divided by rural population
   • C) Crude birth rate minus crude death rate expressed per thousand
   • D) Population divided by road length

   Answer: Crude birth rate minus crude death rate expressed per thousand

   Explanation: The rate of natural increase (RNI) is calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate, expressed per 1,000 people, and does not include the effects of migration.

9. Question 9

   Q9. A dense Nile floodplain contrasts with empty Western Desert. What geographic principle does this contrast show?

   • A) Uniform population everywhere
   • B) Water and soils anchor population clusters
   • C) Deserts always host megacities
   • D) Rivers never influence settlement

   Answer: Water and soils anchor population clusters

   Explanation: The dense settlement along the Nile floodplain versus the empty Western Desert illustrates that water availability and fertile soils are the primary anchors of population distribution.

10. Question 10

    Q10. A primate city pattern exists when?

    • A) Two cities are exactly equal
    • B) The second city is always larger than the first
    • C) The largest city is disproportionately big compared with the next ranks
    • D) No city exceeds one million

    Answer: The largest city is disproportionately big compared with the next ranks

    Explanation: A primate city pattern exists when a country's largest city is many times bigger than the second city - typically at least twice as large - dominating political, economic, and cultural life disproportionately.

11. Question 11

    Q11. Which condition can produce negative population growth for a country?

    • A) High crude birth rate with low death rate
    • B) Strong net in-migration with high fertility
    • C) Replacement fertility with young age structure
    • D) Deaths and net out-migration together exceeding births for years

    Answer: Deaths and net out-migration together exceeding births for years

    Explanation: A country's population declines when the combined losses from deaths and net out-migration exceed total births over a sustained period - as seen in several Eastern European nations today.

12. Question 12

    Q12. Zero population growth in the long run requires which broad balance?

    • A) Births far above deaths forever
    • B) Permanent net in-migration above five percent yearly
    • C) Total fertility above four children
    • D) Births roughly balancing deaths with migration not continually adding people

    Answer: Births roughly balancing deaths with migration not continually adding people

    Explanation: Zero population growth is achieved when the number of births equals the number of deaths (replacement fertility ≈ 2.1 children per woman) and net migration does not persistently add to the population.

13. Question 13

    Q13. Which ocean is the largest in the world, covering approximately 165 million square kilometres?

    • A) Atlantic Ocean
    • B) Indian Ocean
    • C) Pacific Ocean
    • D) Southern Ocean

    Answer: Pacific Ocean

    Explanation: The Pacific Ocean covers about 165 million km², more than the combined land area of all continents, making it by far the world's largest ocean.

14. Question 14

    Q14. What is the approximate length of the Suez Canal?

    • A) 77 km
    • B) 150 km
    • C) 193 km
    • D) 250 km

    Answer: 193 km

    Explanation: The Suez Canal stretches approximately 193 km from Port Said on the Mediterranean to Port Tewfik at Suez, providing a direct shipping route between Europe and Asia.

15. Question 15

    Q15. The Caspian Sea is the world's largest what?

    • A) Ocean
    • B) Gulf
    • C) Strait
    • D) Lake

    Answer: Lake

    Explanation: The Caspian Sea, bordered by Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan, covers about 371,000 km² and is the world's largest landlocked body of water, classified as a lake.

16. Question 16

    Q16. What is the approximate area of the Pacific Ocean?

    • A) 106 million km²
    • B) 82 million km²
    • C) 165 million km²
    • D) 180 million km²

    Answer: 165 million km²

    Explanation: The Pacific Ocean covers approximately 165 million km², making it larger than all of Earth's landmasses combined and accounting for about 46% of the world's total ocean surface area.

17. Question 17

    Q17. Which ocean was officially recognized as the fifth ocean in the year 2000?

    • A) Arctic Ocean
    • B) Indian Ocean
    • C) Southern Ocean
    • D) Pacific Ocean

    Answer: Southern Ocean

    Explanation: The Southern Ocean was officially designated as Earth's fifth ocean by the International Hydrographic Organization in the year 2000, encircling Antarctica at latitudes south of 60°S.

18. Question 18

    Q18. Which ocean is known as the "S-shaped" ocean due to its distinctive outline?

    • A) Indian Ocean
    • B) Atlantic Ocean
    • C) Pacific Ocean
    • D) Southern Ocean

    Answer: Atlantic Ocean

    Explanation: The Atlantic Ocean has a distinctive S-shaped outline visible on world maps, formed by the roughly parallel S-curves of the African and American coastlines flanking it.

19. Question 19

    Q19. Which ocean is the second largest in the world by surface area?

    • A) Indian Ocean
    • B) Pacific Ocean
    • C) Southern Ocean
    • D) Atlantic Ocean

    Answer: Atlantic Ocean

    Explanation: The Atlantic Ocean covers approximately 106 million km², making it the second largest ocean after the Pacific, and is bounded by the Americas to the west and Europe and Africa to the east.

20. Question 20

    Q20. World geography anchoring Peru coastal fisheries what ocean condition commonly worsens nutrient upwelling during strong El Niño episodes off western South America?

    • A) Warmer surface waters damp favorable upwelling
    • B) Ice shelves expand blocking ports
    • C) Salinity rises eliminate all fish instantly
    • D) Deep ocean overturn stops globally forever

    Answer: Warmer surface waters damp favorable upwelling

    Explanation: During strong El Niño events, anomalously warm surface waters off Peru suppress cold upwelling by deepening the thermocline, reducing nutrient supply to surface waters and causing collapse of fish populations.