14 Middle School Questions That Can Puzzle Anyone

Do you remember the times when we were invited to the blackboard in school and asked to show where Guadeloupe or the Limpopo River were located? Now we’re grown up and we help our kids do homework and some distant knowledge about trade winds and monsoons keeps coming back to our memory. Perhaps not all of us were A-students in school and we won’t be able to name the exact amount of oceans and continents right away. However, love for geography returns to everyone who sits by the window on a plane and tries to find out which city or country they are flying over.

We at Bright Side dusted off our school textbooks to try to answer the following tricky questions about our planet.

1. Which country’s flag doesn’t have red, white, or blue on it?

2. Which sea doesn’t have shores?

3. Name a country in Western Europe that has no capital.

4. Which European country (pictured) doesn’t have permanent rivers and lakes?

5. What is the tallest mountain in the world relative to the center of the Earth?

6. In which European country will you not be bitten by mosquitoes?

7. Name the largest island on Earth.

8. Which country has the most time zones?

9. What is Titicaca?

10. Name the country that produces the most olive oil in Europe.

11. What are the indigenous people of Monaco called?

12. The capital of which state has the longest name?

13. What national flag of a European country is the flag of Indonesia most often confused with?

14. Is the air in cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere circulating clockwise or counterclockwise?

Answers

1. Today, the flag of Jamaica is the only national flag in the world that doesn’t contain shades of red, white, or blue.

2. The borders of the Sargasso Sea are defined by 4 currents that circulate in the Atlantic Ocean, which means it has no solid shores.

3. Of all the countries in Europe, it’s only Switzerland that doesn’t have an officially recognized capital.

4. Malta is the pictured country that doesn’t have permanent rivers and natural lakes.

5. If you measure the height of the mountain from the center of the Earth, the Ecuadorian volcano Chimborazo will be 1.2 miles farther from the Earth’s center than Mount Everest.

6. There is not a single mosquito in Iceland due to its fast-changing and harsh climate.

7. Greenland is the largest island in the world, with an area of 836,330 sq mi.

8. France is a kind of record holder compared to other countries and has 12 time zones if you take into account all of its overseas departments and other territories.

9. Titicaca is the biggest freshwater lake in South America.

10. More than 60% of the olive oil for European residents is produced in Spain.

11. The indigenous people of Monaco are called Monegasques.

12. Bangkok made it into the Guinness Book of Records for the longest city name in the world (the official name of the capital of Thailand consists of 168 letters).

13. The state flags of Indonesia and Monaco are almost identical, the only difference between them is that the flag of Indonesia is slightly wider than the flag of Monaco.

14. Air in cyclones circulates clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.

Tell us, honestly, what grade you got in geography, and did you like this subject back then?