Geography Quiz 1. What is the only U.S. state capital that has no letters in common with its state? 2. What two cities are the most populous in their states and have the same name? 3. Which state ends with its own two-letter postal abbreviation? 4. The sovereign nations with the world’s highest and lowest population densities (i.e., having the most and fewest per square mile) are adjacent to one another in an alphabetical list of nations. What are these two countries? 5. The state capitals DENVER and DOVER begin with the same letter of the alphabet and end with the same letter of the alphabet. Can you think of three other pairs of U.S. state capitals that also have matching first letters and matching last letters? 6. What do the names, “Great Basin,” “Mojave,” “Chihuahuan,” and “Sonoran” all describe? 7. Can you think of four countries whose capitals’ names consist of the country name followed by “City”? 8. In what U.S. state can you find Angola, Brazil, Lebanon, Morocco, and Peru? Hint: IN the same state, you can also find Athens, Dublin, and Warsaw, not to mention Albany, Austin, Boston, Frankfort, Galveston, Madison, Memphis, Montgomery, New Haven, New London, Princeton, and Richmond. 9. The United States Postal Service has assigned a two-letter abbreviation to each of the 50 states. These abbreviations appear embedded in the names of some of the states themselves. For example, HI (Hawaii) appears in MicHIgan, GA (Georgia) appears in MichiGAn, and MI (Michigan) also appears in Michigan. A. Which state abbreviation appears most often in the names of the states? B. Which two states contain no abbreviations at all? C. Which three states contain four abbreviations each? 10. The name of which U.S. state consists of two antonyms separated by a vowel? 11. In an alphabetical listing of the 50 United States, two states appearing consecutively also happen to share a border. In fact, there are two such pairs. What are they? 12. The names of two large North American cities share this distinction: Their first two letters are the same as their last two letters (and are in the same order). Can you name them? 13. What major U.S. city shares its name with three U.S. mountains - an active volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, the tallest peak in Montana’s Glacier National Park, and a mountain in Vermont? 14. If one s is removed from the name of this country, the remaining letters - without being rearranged — spell the name of another country. What are the two countries? 15. A well-known American city contains, as sets of consecutive letters, four female names reading from left to right and also four female names reading from right to left. What is it? 16. What is the only U.S. state name that contains all the letters of two other state names? 17. Five states in the U.S. have high points that are lower than 1000 feet above sea level. Can you name them? 18. Five states in the U.S. have low points that are higher than 1000 feet above sea level. Can you name them? 19. Which state’s name is a geographical misnomer? 20. What two U.S. state capitals have no vowels in common but yet they rhyme? 21. Twenty-one states contain their two-letter Postal Abbreviations. Nineteen of them occur at the beginning of the name. What two states contain their abbreviations in the middle or at the end of their name? 22. Which two state capitals start with the name of a month? 23. A certain vowel, a certain consonant, or both appear in the names of 47 of the 50 U.S. states. Can you identify the vowel, the consonant, and the three state names in which neither appear? 24. What U.S. city has the largest area in square miles? 25. What states have boundaries that consist only of straight lines? 26. Which state has boundaries that consist of no straight lines? 27. With one exception, every state in the union whose name starts with an A ends in an A. And with one exception, every country in the world whose name begins with an A ends in an A, too. What state and what country are the exceptions? 28. What world capitals are anagrams of these words? a. MORE b. ANIMAL c. HASTEN d. LOUSE e. MAIL f. EARTHEN 29. Two six-letter North American countries, and the six-letter capital of another North American country, are spelled with alternating As. Fill in the blanks to name them: _A_A_A _A_A_A AAA Answers: 1. Pierre, South Dakota 2. Portland (Oregon and Maine) 3. Kentucky (KY) 4. Monaco (highest 43,830 people per square mile) and Mongolia (4 people per square mile) - 2009 5. Atlanta and Augusta, Baton Rouge and Boise, Pierre and Providence 6. All are deserts - specifically, the four major deserts of North America 7. Guatemala, Kuwait, Mexico, and Panama. Another possible answer is Luxembourg, although Luxembourg City is often just called Luxembourg. 8. Indiana (all the names are cities in that state) 9. A. IN (Indiana) appears 11 times, in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. B. Kansas and Texas C. California contains CA, AL, OR, and IA. Florida contains FL, OR, RI, and IA. South Carolina contains UT, CA, AR, and IN. 10. Connect 111 cut 11. Florida and Georgia and Illinois and Indiana 12. Miami and Toronto 13. Cleveland 14. If “one s” is removed from Indonesia, the remaining letters spell India. 15. SAVANNAH ANA, VANNA, ANN, ANNA from left to right HANNA, ANN, ANNA, AVA from right to left 16. South Carolina (OHIO and UTAH) 17. Florida (345’), Delaware (448’), Louisiana (535’), Mississippi (806’), and Rhode Island (812’) 18. Colorado (3350’), Wyoming (3099’), New Mexico (2842’), Utah (2000’), and Montana (1800’). 19. Rhode Island (Not an island) 20. Austin and Boston 21. KentucKY and ConneCTicut 22. Augusta, Juneau 23. The vowel is A, the consonant is N, and the three states are Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. 24. Jacksonville, Florida is the largest with 827 square miles, an area twice the size Los Angeles' 458.2 square miles. 25. Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming 26. Hawaii 27. Arkansas and Afghanistan 28. Rome, Manila, Athens, Seoul, Lima, Teheran 29. Canada, Panama, Havana