Geography and Nature

Geography And Nature

174 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

All 174 questions

  1. Complete the sentence about Mapungubwe with the correct year: Following unknown events and shifting trade routes north around ______, Mapungubwe's population migrated elsewhere.
  2. Complete the sentence about Mapungubwe with the correct year: Despite locals having knowledge of the sacred site, Mapungubwe was only rediscovered by the scientific community and colonial government i…
  3. Complete the sentence about Voortrekker Monument with the correct year: On 8 July ______, the Voortrekker Monument was declared a National Heritage Site by the South African Heritage Resource Agency.
  4. Complete the sentence about Voortrekker Monument with the correct year: On 16 December ______ the cornerstone was laid by three descendants of some of the Voortrekker leaders: Mrs.
  5. Complete the sentence about Voortrekker Monument with the correct year: The monument was inaugurated on 16 December ______ by Prime Minister D.
  6. Complete the sentence about Constitution Hill, Johannesburg with the correct year: The Old Fort prison was later extended to include "native" cells, called Section 4 and Section 5, and, in ______, a w…
  7. Complete the sentence about Cullinan Diamond with the correct year: In April ______, it was put on sale in London, but despite considerable interest, it was still unsold after two years.
  8. Complete the sentence about Cullinan Diamond with the correct year: In ______, the Transvaal Colony government bought the Cullinan and Prime Minister Louis Botha presented it to Edward VII.
  9. Complete the sentence about Cullinan Diamond with the correct year: Newspapers called it the "Cullinan Diamond", a reference to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who opened the mine in ______.
  10. Complete the sentence about Cullinan Diamond with the correct year: In April ______, the rough gem was deposited with Premier Mining Co.'s London sales agent, S.
  11. Complete the sentence about Cullinan Diamond with the correct year: In August ______, a vote was held in the Legislative Council on the Cullinan's fate, and a motion authorising the purchase was carri…
  12. Complete the sentence about Cullinan Diamond with the correct year: Abraham Asscher collected it from the Colonial Office in London on 23 January ______.
  13. Complete the sentence about Big Hole with the correct year: The ensuing scramble for claims led to the place being called New Rush, later renamed Alyrick land in ______.
  14. Complete the sentence about Big Hole with the correct year: Burials for paupers occurred in Glastone cemetery from 1 March ______.
  15. Complete the sentence about Eastern Cape with the correct year: In ______ this area, which was known as the Xhosa Kingdom, began to be settled by Europeans who originally came from Great Britain and I…
  16. Complete the sentence about Eastern Cape with the correct year: Eastern Cape is the only province in South Africa where the number of Black Africans declined from 86.6% to 85.7% since Apartheid ended…
  17. Complete the sentence about Eastern Cape with the correct year: From the early 1800s until the formation of the Union of South Africa in ______, the Eastern Cape saw colonisation by British migrants.
  18. Complete the sentence about KwaZulu-Natal with the correct year: South Africa signed the ______ Ramsar Convention to try to conserve and protect important wetlands because of their importance to habit…
  19. Complete the sentence about Limpopo with the correct year: The Limpopo province was established as one of nine provinces after the ______ South African general election.
  20. Complete the sentence about Limpopo with the correct year: The province's name was first Northern Transvaal, and was changed to Northern Province on 28 June ______, with two other provinces.
  21. Complete the sentence about Limpopo with the correct year: The province was named after the Limpopo River by decision of the provincial assembly in ______, and at the same time most of the cities on i…
  22. Complete the sentence about North West with the correct year: The premier of North West Province as of 14 June ______ is Lazzy Mokgosi of the African National Congress.
  23. Complete the sentence about Free State with the correct year: The current borders of the province date from ______ when the Bantustans were abolished and reincorporated into South Africa.
  24. Complete the sentence about Northern Cape with the correct year: The Northern Cape was one of three provinces made out of the Cape Province in ______, the others being Western Cape to the south and Ea…
  25. Complete the sentence about Provinces of South Africa with the correct year: The Union of South Africa was established in ______ by combining four British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaa…
  26. Complete the sentence about Provinces of South Africa with the correct year: On 11 July ______, the 11th amendment to the fifth constitution renamed the Northern Province to Limpopo.
  27. Complete the sentence about Climate of South Africa with the correct year: Above the global average, South Africa had 9.5 tons of CO2 emissions per capita in ______.
  28. Complete the sentence about Springbok with the correct year: The sole living member of the genus Antidorcas, this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmerma…
  29. Complete the sentence about Springbok with the correct year: In ______, Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall placed the springbok as the sole living member of the genus Antidorcas.
  30. Complete the sentence about African bush elephant with the correct year: Since ______, the African bush elephant has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
  31. Complete the sentence about Cape buffalo with the correct year: First described in ______ by Swedish naturalist Anders Sparrman, it is the only extant species of the genus Syncerus.
  32. Complete the sentence about Cape buffalo with the correct year: The African buffalo was first described by Anders Sparrman in ______.
  33. Complete the sentence about African leopard with the correct year: Felis pardus was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in ______.
  34. Complete the sentence about African leopard with the correct year: In ______, leopard DNA was detected in the Hoggar Mountains of southern Algeria, in the central Sahara.
  35. Complete the sentence about African leopard with the correct year: In ______, a leopard was killed in the Elba Protected Area in southeastern Egypt.
  36. Complete the sentence about Lion with the correct year: Felis leo was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in ______, who described the lion in his work Systema Naturae.
  37. Complete the sentence about Cape fur seal with the correct year: Brown fur seals often gather into colonies on rookeries in numbers ranging from 500 to ______, at least for the Australian subspecies.
  38. Complete the sentence about African penguin with the correct year: The African penguin is now placed with the banded penguins in the genus Spheniscus that was introduced in ______ by the French zoolog…
  39. Complete the sentence about Southern right whale with the correct year: International protection was established in ______, though illegal whaling by the Soviet Union continued into the 1970s.
  40. Complete the sentence about Southern right whale with the correct year: The southern right whale was initially described as Balaena australis by Desmoulins in ______.
  41. Complete the sentence about Southern right whale with the correct year: Eventually, it was recognised that bowheads and right whales were different, and John Edward Gray proposed the genus Eubalaena f…
  42. Complete the sentence about Rooibos with the correct year: Bergh harvested a large amount of rooibos in ______ on his farm Kleinvlei, in the Pakhuis Mountains.
  43. Complete the sentence about Rooibos with the correct year: In ______, Nortier began conducting experiments with the commercial cultivation of the rooibos plant.
  44. Complete the sentence about O. R. Tambo International Airport with the correct year: The airport was founded in ______ as Jan Smuts International Airport, two years after Smuts's death.
  45. Complete the sentence about O. R. Tambo International Airport with the correct year: Situated near the town of Kempton Park on the East Rand, it replaced Palmietfontein International Airport, which ha…
  46. Complete the sentence about Gautrain with the correct year: In February ______, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced the allocation of R 7.1 billion from the National Fiscus for Gautrain.
  47. Complete the sentence about Sishen with the correct year: The state-owned mining company Iscor started developing the township, originally named Sishen, in ______ to accommodate the local miners.
  48. Complete the sentence about Sishen with the correct year: On 23 June ______ the town's name was changed from Sishen to Dingleton.
  49. Which place completes this sentence about Cape Town? Cape Town is the capital and largest city of the Western Cape, and the country's second-most populous city, after ______.
  50. Which place completes this sentence about Port Elizabeth? Located on the western portion of Algoa Bay along the southeastern coast of South Africa, the city lies 770 km east of ______.
  51. Which place completes this sentence about Gqeberha? Gqeberha was founded in 1820 as ______ by Sir Rufane Donkin, who was the governor of the Cape at the time.
  52. Which place completes this sentence about Bloemfontein? A railway line was built in 1890 connecting Bloemfontein to ______.
  53. Which place completes this sentence about Pietermaritzburg? Fort Napier, named after the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir ______ Thomas Napier, was built to house a garrison.
  54. Which place completes this sentence about Pietermaritzburg? On 1 June 1893, while the young Mahatma Gandhi was on his way to ______, a white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a first-class carriage…
  55. Which place completes this sentence about Nelspruit? In October 2009, the South African government renamed the city "______", the name of the local municipality.
  56. Which place completes this sentence about Soweto? Formerly a separate municipality, it was incorporated in the City of ______ Metropolitan Municipality in 2002.
  57. Which place completes this sentence about Soweto? Within a decade of the discovery of gold in ______, 100,000 people flocked to this part of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek in search of riches.
  58. Which place completes this sentence about Soweto? Soweto became the largest Black city in South Africa, but until 1976, its population could have status only as temporary residents, serving as a workf…
  59. Which place completes this sentence about Knysna? Knysna is situated 60 kilometres east of the city of ______, and 33 kilometres west of Plettenberg Bay, on the N2 freeway.
  60. Which place completes this sentence about Knysna? In April 1817, the transport brig Emu, belonging to the ______ Dockyard, was the first European vessel to enter the Knysna Heads.
  61. Which place completes this sentence about Upington? In the first half of the 20th century, there was a passenger train service from ______ to Upington.
  62. Which place completes this sentence about Richards Bay? On 1 April 1976, the new deep water harbour was opened with a railway and an oil/gas pipeline linking the port to ______.
  63. Which place completes this sentence about Soweto? William Carr, chair of non-European affairs, initiated the naming of ______ in 1949.
  64. Which place completes this sentence about Soweto? The name ______ was first used in 1963 and within a short period of time, following the 1976 uprising of students in the township, the name became int…
  65. Which place completes the sentence? Malan of ______ as chairman, which resulted in the establishment of the game law of 1891.
  66. Which place completes this sentence about Pilanesberg National Park? The Pilanesberg National Park is located north of ______ in the North West Province of South Africa.
  67. Which place completes this sentence about Union Buildings? The imposing buildings are located in ______, atop Meintjeskop at the northern end of Arcadia, close to historic Church Square.
  68. Which place completes this sentence about Union Buildings? Though not in the centre of ______, the Union Buildings occupy the highest point of Pretoria, and constitute a South African national heritag…
  69. Which place completes this sentence about Voortrekker Monument? The Voortrekker Monument is located just south of ______ in South Africa.
  70. Which place completes this sentence about Mpumalanga? Evidence from a site near ______ shows evidence of agricultural societies from between the 6th to 17th century.
  71. Which place completes this sentence about Limpopo? The capital and largest city in the province is ______, while the provincial legislature is situated in Lebowakgomo.
  72. Which place completes this sentence about Free State? The capital, ______, experiences hot, moist summers and cold, dry winters frequented by severe frost.
  73. Which place completes this sentence about Port of Durban? The Port of ______, commonly called Durban Harbour, is the largest and busiest shipping terminal in sub-Saharan Africa.
  74. Which place completes this sentence about Port of Durban? The 2022 World Bank Container Port Performance Index ranked ______ 341st out of the 348 ports surveyed.

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