Expedition Earth: My Passport to the World
Quiz Time! Africa
Answer Key
1) The first successful heart transplant was preformed in South Africa.
2) “Thundering Smoke” can be seen at Victoria Falls in Zambia.
3) Ethiopia sometimes has thirteen months.
4) The Kingdom of Congo flourished in Angola during the 1400s.
5) Africa's largest country is Sudan.
6) Wedding guests in Gabon might wear masks to the wedding.
7) The Slave Coast was in Togo.
8) Malawi was once called Nyasaland.
9) In the Libyan Desert, it rains about every seven years.
10) Lake Victoria is famous because it is the source of the White Nile, which joins the Blue Nile to
form the famous Nile River.
11) Diamonds are mined in the Central African Republic.
12) The Bodélé Depression in Chad sometimes sends dust all the way to the Americas.
13) Zimbabwe recently gave up its currency in favor of foreign currency.
14) Africa's lowest elevation is Lac Assal in Djibouti.
15) In 1986 at Lake Nyos, a huge volume of poisonous gas was released from the lake along with a
fountain of water 300 feet high. Almost 2,000 people were killed by the gas.
16) The Fon often live in houses made of mud with iron roofs, and many Fon were taken to North
America as slaves during the eighteenth century. The Aja established a kingdom in Benin in the 1100s,
and the kingdom was divided between three brothers in the 1600s. The Yoruba have the highest rate of
twin births among any people of the world.
17) The Comoran language is written in both Arabic and Latin letters.
18) Intore dancers of Rwanda can jump 13 feet into the air.
19) Egypt's history stretches back more than 6,000 years.
20) Dodo birds lived in Mauritius before going extinct.
21) Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was named for the American president James Monroe.*
22) The music of Botswana is usually vocal or accompanied by stringed instruments, unlike the drum
music of most African countries.
23) The Congolese population is primarily made up of Bantu people known as the Bakongo, who have
lived in the region for more than 2,000 years.
24) You can hear talking drums in Côte d'Ivoire.
25) The Kano Chronicle tells the story of the Hausa people of Niger.
26) Settlers were attracted to the town of Adrar because it is built near a group of oases that provide
water in the desert..
27) A haboob is a storm that carries sand and dust for miles, making it difficult for people and animals
to breathe or see.
28) The nations of Zanzibar and Tanganyika united to form Tanzania.
29) A karyenda is a Burundian drum made from a hollowed-out log with one side covered by a
stretched animal skin.
30) Guelb er Richat in Mauritania is used as a landmark by orbiting astronauts.
31) Burkina Faso means “Land of Honest People.”
32) Gambia's borders follow a river by the same name.
33) Lake Volta in Ghana is the world's largest man-made lake.
34) The Banyarwanda are the three major social groups living in Rwanda: the Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas.
35) Namibia's northern coast is called the Skeleton Coast because of the many wrecked ships, whale
bones, and seal bones that have littered its beach for centuries.
36) Griots of Senegal and other West African countries tell stories of West Africa's long history.
37) Africa's smallest country is Seychelles.**
38) Masai Mara is a wildlife preserve in Kenya.
39) The Shona people built the Great Zimbabwe.
40) Greek leaders sometimes got war elephants from Eritrea.
41) Queen Elissa founded the city of Carthage in Tunisia.
42) People drink green tea flavored with mint in Morocco.
43) Captured Mende people from Sierra Leone took over the slave ship Amistad in the early nineteenth
century.
44) Mansa Musa I, king of the Mali Empire, appears in the 1375 Catalan Atlas.
45) Chã das Caldeiras is a village built in a caldera on top of the active volcano Pico do Fogo in Cape
Verde.
46) Elephant birds lived on Madagascar before going extinct.
47) Nigeria has Africa's highest population.
48) The Katanga Cross was once used as money in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
49) A cabasa or calabash is an instrument made from a dried gourd and beaded strings.
50) The figures of the spears, shield, and staff on the Swazi flag represent protection from outside
enemies.
51) Paintings made before 3000 B.C. can be seen in the caves of Laas Gaal in northern Somalia.
52) Seychelles was once called “Island of Abundance.”
53) The Gaza Empire developed in southern Mozambique.
54) In Lesotho, a group of people are called Basotho.
55 – 57) Answers will vary.
*The book incorrectly refers to this president as John Monroe.
**Both Gambia on page 21 and São Tomé and Príncipe on page 40 are incorrectly identified in the
book as Africa's smallest country. The smallest country is actually Seychelles with only 174 square
miles.
Expedition Earth: My Passport to the World
Quiz Time! Asia
Answer Key
1) Three emperors of Rome came from Syria.
2) In Israel today, people can visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where Solomon's Temple stood, the
Temple's Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary's hill, the Garden of Gethsemane,
and a chapel where Elijah is believed to have hidden from Ahab and Jezebel.
3) Alexander the Great married the daughter of an Uzbek chief.
4) The Ginger Garden is in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
5) Windmills were invented in Iran.
6) The Sabaean Kingdom was in present-day Yemen.
7) The Kingdom of Siam is now called Thailand.
8) Islam originated in Saudi Arabia.
9) The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in India.
10) The capital of the Khmer Empire was at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
11) The lowest point on the entire earth is the Dead Sea in Jordan.
12) Somapura Mahavihara is Bangladesh's most famous monastery.
13) A khanjar is a traditional curved dagger used in Oman.
14) Huge stone jars can be found in Laos in the Plain of Jars.
15) The records of Maldives were kept on copper plates.
16) A samurai warrior fought with a sword called a katana, a two-handed club, a spear, a longbow, and
knives.
17) The burning gas crater, located in the Black Sand Desert of Turkmenistan, is a huge hole that was
filled with natural gas and set on fire (to burn away the gas) in the 1970s. The gas-filled crater
continues to burn today.
18) The Tiger's Nest is in Bhutan.
19) The name Sri Lanka comes from the Sanskrit language and means “Venerable Island.”
20) Mount Everest is located on the borders of China and Nepal.
21) A legend says that Timor-Leste was once a crocodile.
22) In Kazakhstan, people plays games such as Kiss the Girl and Horse Wrestling.
23) Bhutan means “Land of the Thunder Dragon.”
24) Mesopotamia in Iraq is often called the Cradle of Civilization.
25) Halo-halo, a dessert from the Philippines, combines yam jam, bananas, sweet potatoes, and beans.
26) The Koguryo Kingdom thrived in North Korea.
27) A natural pearl industry thrived in the United Arab Emirates before 1916.
28) Thailand was never colonized by Europeans.
29) Failaka Island is Kuwait's only inhabited island.
30) Pakistan means “Land of the Pure” in Urdu.
31) Emeralds, gold, and silver are found in Afghanistan.
32) Kyrgyzstan's flag includes an image symbolizing the top of a yurt.
33) Most of the world's cashews come from Vietnam.
34) The Ottoman Empire thrived in Turkey for more than 600 years.
35) In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, an elevator goes 40 miles per hour.
36) Wayang Kulit performances are held in Indonesia.
37) People sit on the floor to eat meals in Tajikistan.
38) Formosa, the former name of Taiwan, means “beautiful island” in Portuguese.
39) Ulaan-baatar is the capital of Mongolia.
40) The Phoenician culture developed in Lebanon.
41) Malaysia's flag is sometimes called Stripes of Glory.
42) Brunei is located on the north coast of the island of Borneo.
43) Both China and India have more than a billion people.
44) Myanmar used to be called Burma.
45) Taekwondo originated in South Korea.
46) The Ural Mountains, located in western Russia, divide Asia from Europe.
47) The people of Saudi Arabia enjoy drinking coffee seasoned with cardamom and saffron.
48 – 49) Answers will vary.
Expedition Earth: My Passport to the World
Quiz Time! Europe
Answer Key
1) Luxembourg is ruled by a Grand Duke.
2) The city of Butrint in Albania has been abandoned since the seventeenth century.
3) Spain and Portugal lie on the Iberian Peninsula.
4) The Matterhorn is located in Switzerland.
5) The Netherlands relies on water pumps and dikes to keep its lowlands from flooding.
6) French fries originated in Belgium.
7) Henry Dunant of Switzerland founded the Red Cross.
8) Most people in Ireland cannot speak the national language, Irish.
9) Bosnia and Herzegovina has just 16 miles of coastline.
10) Great Moravia thrived in Slovakia.
11) Iceland's Great Geysir erupts sometimes every 30 minutes after an earthquake but normally goes
several years between eruptions.
12) Poland escaped the Black Death in the fourteenth century.
13) The Roman emperor Diocletian was born in Croatia.
14) Pena Palace is in Portugal.
15) The Gagauz people live in Moldova, speak a Turkic language, and follow the Christian faith. They
are unique for being the only Christian Turks in the world.
16) Bohemia and Moravia are in the Czech Republic.
17) The statue of Zeus and the Colossus of Rhodes both existed in Greece.
18) The New Sun of Liberty is on Macedonia's flag.
19) Most Karabakh horses live in Azerbaijan.
20) The Gauls were the people who lived in France during the time of the Roman Empire. They called
themselves Celts.
21) Brown bears, wolves, lynxes, and chamois live in the Carpathian Mountains.
22) About 15 percent of Sweden is within the Arctic Circle.
23) Both Nicolaus Copernicus and Marie Curie were born in modern-day Poland.
24) European beavers were taken from Norway to repopulate Sweden and Finland.
25) Estonia's Great Famine was caused by cold and rainy summers and extremely cold, lengthy
winters.
26) Liechtenstein's own rulers didn't visit it for 120 years.
27) Hans Christian Anderson of Denmark wrote children's stories including The Little Mermaid, The
Princess and the Pea, The Emperor's New Clothes, Thumbelina, and The Ugly Duckling.
28) In Latvia, an apple tree represents being an orphan.
29) The Cypriot Mouflon and the Cypriot Mouse are both endemic to Cyprus.
30) The Eyes of the Mountain are lakes in the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria.
31) Cakes called sakotis are baked in Lithuania.
32) Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City are all less than 100 square miles.
33) San Marino is governed by the world's oldest continuously-used constitution.
34) Ukraine is the largest country that lies entirely within Europe.
35) In Belarus, people give bread and salt as a symbol of welcome.
36) In Finland, some people fled from regions that were ceded to the Soviet Union at the end of the
Winter War.
37) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven both lived in Austria during the eighteenth
century.
38) In Armenia, musicians play the duduk.
39) A pysanky is a colorful egg traditionally created in Ukraine.
40) Venice, Italy, is built upon 117 islands.
41) The Berlin Wall divided East Berlin from the rest of Germany for 28 years.
42) The Serbian monarchs were once crowned in the Church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul.
43) The Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on Malta.
44) A gusle is a single-stringed instrument played in Montenegro.
45) According to Greek mythology, Jason found the Golden Fleece in Colchis, Georgia.
46) Warm sulphur lakes are found throughout Hungary.
47) The first cave in Europe to offer commercial tours was Slovenia's Vilenica Cave.
48) The countries of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales now make up the United
Kingdom.
49) Twenty-three countries use the Euro as their currency. They are Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco,
Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Vatican City.
50) Answers will vary.
Expedition Earth: My Passport to the World
Quiz Time! North America
Answer Key
1) The Domincan Republic and Haiti are located on the island of Hispaniola.
2) The Crop Over festival is held in Barbados.
3) The Miskito Coast is in Nicaragua.
4) A pirate's treasure is said to be buried on Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica.
5) Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World in The Bahamas.
6) Hawaii's Mauna Kea is taller than Mount Everest.
7) Antigua and Barbuda mean “ancient” and “bearded” in Spanish.
8) The Rainbow Bridge offers a view of Niagara Falls on the border of Canada and the United States.
9) Jazz, salsa, the mambo, and rumba are popular in Cuba.
10) Boiling Lake in Dominica is the world's second largest hot spring.
11) The Rain of Fish occurs in Honduras each year.
12) Anansy is a spider character Grenadian stories.
13) The Kriols of Belize use a donkey's jawbone as a musical instrument.
14) Mexico has more species of reptile than any other country.
15) Haiti's flag says “Union Makes Strength.”
16) El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean but not the Caribbean Sea.
17) The name Jamaica comes from a word that means “Land of Springs and Water.”
18) Canada gets its name from the Iroquois word for “village.”
19) Saint Kitts and Nevis are said to look like a baseball bat and ball.*
20) The Bahamas was completed emptied of people due to slavery and wasn't inhabited again for over
100 years.
21) The Great Blue Hole lies off the coast of Belize.
22) The Mayan civilization flourished in Guatemala.
23) Steelpans were created in Trinidad and Tobago after drums were outlawed by British rulers.
24) The Aztec Empire developed in Mexico.
25) Cotton candy was invented in the United States of America.
26) “Painted rooster” is Nicaragua's national dish, made from rice and beans.
27) Children's Day is widely celebrated in Honduras.
28) A trip across the Panama Canal costs anywhere from $1,300 to $331,200 – depending on the size of
your craft.
29) Slaves successfully rebelled against their owners in Haiti and established an independent country.
30) Grenada's flag shows a nutmeg.
31) The Caribs called Saint Vincent “The Land of the Blessed.”
32-33) Answers will vary.
*The question should read, “Which two islands are said to look like a baseball bat and ball?” since the
two are one country.
Expedition Earth: My Passport to the World
Quiz Time! Oceania
Answer Key
1) Kiribati lies in the Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Hemispheres.
2) Futsal is played in the Solomon Islands.
3) Stone money is used as currency on the island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia.
4) A didgeridoo is an instrument used in Australia.
5) Kiribati and Tuvalu are both at risk of disappearing beneath the ocean.
6) A moa was a large, flightless bird that lived in New Zealand but is now extinct.
7) Oceania's smallest nation is Nauru at 8.1 square miles.
8) Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa all show the Southern Cross constellation
on their flags.
9) Slit drums are played in Vanuatu.
10) Tonga was never colonized.
11) Palau's flag shows a yellow circle that represents the moon.
12) The Lapita people lived in Fiji.
13) The Navigator Islands are now called Samoa.
14) The Federation Star is on Australia's flag.
15) Tuvalu's highest point is just 16 feet above sea level.
16) The world's only shark sanctuary is in the oceans around Palau.
17) The United States tested nuclear weapons on some of the Marshall Islands.
18) The bird of paradise lives only in New Guinea.
19-20) Answers will vary.
Expedition Earth: My Passport to the World
Quiz Time! South America
Answer Key
1) Venezuela is named after Venice, Italy.
2) Maoi are statues found on Chile's Easter Island.
3) Ecuador, Guyana, and Suriname all use currency called dollar.
4) A Peruvian instrument called a charango is made from an armadillo shell.
5) Uruguay is called the Oriental Republic of Uruguay because the word “orient” comes from the Latin
word for “east” and Uruguay lies to the east of the Uruguay River.
6) The world's largest salt flat is Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.
7) Ecuador includes the Galápagos Islands.
8) Angel Falls is on the Kerep River in Venezuela.
9) Argentina's flag has the Sun of May on it.
10) The Jopara language is spoken in Paraguay.
11) Colombians set out lanterns and go caroling on the Day of the Little Candles.
12) Brazil has mandatory voting for every citizen ages 18 to 70.
13) In Uruguay, people drink yerba mate through a metal straw.
14) The Inca civilization flourished in Peru.
15) Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains is the world's highest lake at 12,484 feet above sea level.
16-17) Answers will vary.