Tropical Africa Quiz. Geography crossword Test questions on Africa

Quiz on the topic: Africa

Compiled by geography teacher: Chernikova Natalia Valerievna

Municipal educational institution secondary school in the village of Baigul

Question No. 1. African long-eared fox.

(answer - Fenech)

Question No. 2. Animals that eat sick and dead animals are called orderlies, as they prevent the spread of diseases. Name the desert orderly? (Answer - Hyena)

Question No. 3. A large African animal that has keen charm and hearing, but poor eyesight. Despite his massive size, does he run fast?

(answer - Rhinoceros)

Question No. 4. A rare animal, discovered only at the beginning of the 20th century. Lives in tropical forests of the river basin. Congo, a relative of the giraffe?

(answer: Okapi)

Question No. 5. A wild animal that lives only in Africa in dry thickets near water. On his massive head with fangs, warts protrude, which are especially visible under the eyes. What kind of animal is that?

(answer - Warthog)

Question No. 6. The most dangerous insects of African forests. Their bite is similar to the prick of a hot needle. Does the stung area burn mercilessly for several hours?

(answer - Red termites)

Question No. 7 There is a great variety of birds on the hottest continent in the world. The smallest bird is the sunbird. Name the largest flightless bird in Africa, whose height reaches 2.8 m, weight 90 kg, living in deserts and savannas? (answer - Ostrich).

Question #8: Sweet potatoes? (answer - Sweet Potato)

Question No. 9. Savannah herbivore? (answer - Giraffe)

Question No. 10. An area of ​​desert with abundant moisture and rich vegetation? (answer - Oasis)

Question No. 11. A climbing plant that makes the forest thicket impenetrable?

(answer - liana)

Question No. 12. The fruit of a tropical plant? (answer - Banana)

Question No. 13. A plant with thick, fleshy leaves, widely used as a medicinal plant? (answer - Aloe)

Question No. 14. An evergreen shrub whose roots are rich in starch?

(answer - Cassava)

Question No. 15. African wild horse? (answer - Zebra)

Question No. 16. Small equatorial giraffe? (answer: Okapi)

Question No. 17. A natural area with very little rainfall and sparse vegetation? (answer - desert)

Question No. 18. A natural area dominated by grasses, rare trees and shrubs? (answer - Savannah)

Question No. 19. A tropical plant from the baobab family?

(answer - Ceiba)

Question No. 20 Marine polyps living at shallow depths in hot climate zones?

(answer - Corals)

Question No. 21. An evergreen plant of equatorial forests with large leaves, grown in Europe as an indoor plant?

(answer - Ficus)

Question No. 22. Is the bird a nurse? (answer - Marabou)

Question number 23. The greatest desert on earth, located in the north of the continent?

(answer-Sahara)

Question No. 25. Longest lake? (answer - Tanganyika)

Question No. 26. Hottest place? (answer: Tripoli +58 °C).

Question No. 27. The darkest and tallest?

(answer: nilots)

Question No. 28. The saltiest sea? (answer - Red 42%).

Question No. 29. Longest strait? (the answer is Mozambican?)

Question No. 31. . Africa's largest lake? (answer: Victoria)

Question No. 32. The smallest freshwater lake? (answer: Chad)

Question No. 34. The most populous state?

(answer: Nigeria 135 million people).

Question No. 35. What is the largest state by area?

(answer - Sudan 2506 thousand km2)

Question No. 36. The largest swamp in the world? (answer - Saad in Sudan)

Question No. 37. What is the largest waterfall? (answer - Augrabis of the Orange River - 146m).

Question No. 38. The most developed country in Africa? (answer: South Africa)

Question No. 39. . What is the largest animal living on the mainland? (answer: elephant?) Tallest animal? (answer - giraffe)

Question No. 40. The most famous pyramids? (answer - Egyptian)

Question No. 41. The most fabulous mountains? (answer - Draconians?)

Question No. 42. The sharpest point? (answer - Needle)

Is it true that Africans eat bananas, why are twins and albinos considered sorcerers, what were the mistakes of the first Europeans who came to the continent, the secret of local languages ​​and other things you need to know about Africa...

1. Is it true that human history began in Africa?

Modern science believes that the biological species Homo sapiens originates from East Africa. It was here, in the central part of the rift valley, in the territory of Southern Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania, that many millennia ago the first man was born, whose genetic and physical structure generally corresponded to the modern one.

Genetic studies prove that all people on Earth descend from him (or rather, from them - after all, there were clearly two first people). This cute couple is believed to have lived in the tall grasses of the East African savannah approximately 200 thousand years ago.

Both of our first ancestors were black: according to Gloger's rule, the level of pigmentation of a person's skin depends on the heat and humidity of the surrounding climate, so the first people who lived in Africa should have had dark skin, like today's Africans.

At the same time, Mongoloid and Caucasian people with light skin lost their pigment during thousands of years spent away from the bright sun in temperate latitudes. But this happened much later than the era of the first people: only one hundred thousand years after the genetic Adam and Eve, their descendants left Africa to set off on their great journey around the planet.

2. Has the Sahara always been a great desert?

Once upon a time the Sahara was even larger than it is today. But the end of the last ice age, marked in temperate latitudes by the extinction of mammoths and other large herbivores, in Africa was expressed in an increase in humidity levels and the growth of lands suitable for human settlement.

Sahara Desert

Just a couple of millennia (not a long time for an ancient man) after the start of this wet period, the Sahara truly blossomed: rare oases turned into fertile valleys, wide, deep rivers flowed through them, and the largest lake in Central Africa - Chad - increased in size almost eight times. All this allowed the Neolithic inhabitants of Africa to quickly populate the Sahara.

When approximately 7-9 thousand years ago in the region of the Fertile Crescent, including Western Asia and the Nile Valley, people found ways to cultivate the first grain crops (wheat, barley, millet) and domesticated livestock, these new technologies of that time were quite quickly spread across Africa north of the equator.

Subsequently, the Sahara began to dry out again and gradually returned to its original desert state. But every cloud has a silver lining: having moved to the Nile Valley, people from it created the first civilization on Earth - the ancient Egyptian one.

3. How long have Africans been eating bananas?

The stereotypical belief that Africans lived solely by harvesting bananas and mangoes that fell from the sky is not true. Neither bananas nor mangoes, surprisingly, are local crops and were introduced to Africa relatively recently. Bananas, for example, arrived with immigrants from the islands of Indonesia.

But the Africans came up with their own crops: in West Africa they domesticated yams (still a very common food there), wild rice (not the same as in Asia, but also very tasty), various types of millet and oil palm.

It is very likely that a special type of wild ungulates was domesticated in Africa - the ancestors of today's long-horned cows of the African savannah.

4. Was there really no state in Tropical Africa before the arrival of the first Europeans?

Only the first Europeans themselves thought so. When the gigantic ruins of Great Zimbabwe were discovered in southern Africa in 1871, the scientists, travelers and missionaries who came to inspect them decided that Zimbabwe could in no way have been built by Africans.

In European geographical societies they said that the Egyptians, Romans, Phoenicians, and Arabs should be considered the builders of such a large-scale stone city; that the granite tower is the acropolis of the ancient Greeks, and the oval temple is the ruin of the legendary “mines of King Solomon.”

Ruins of Great Zimbabwe

Only the later work of historians, archaeologists and ethnographers carried out here proved: Greater Zimbabwe was the capital of a powerful South African state created by the Shona people in the 12th-14th centuries.

Since ancient times, in West Africa there have been states that were more powerful than the European kingdoms of that time. For example, Ghana, about which Arab travelers wrote that “gold grows there like carrots and is harvested at sunrise.”

Or the Empire of Mali, whose ruler Kankan Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, taking with him no less than thirteen tons of gold to distribute to residents of the Middle Eastern cities. After his visit, prices for the yellow metal in Egypt and the Middle East fell for at least a decade.

And finally, the largest of the West African empires was the Songhai, which was slightly larger in size than all of Western Europe.

East Africa saw the glory and power of Ethiopia, the wealth of the city-states of Zanzibar and Kilwa. In the south, the states of Congo and Monomo-tapa flourished. By the time the division of Africa by Europeans began in 1870, there were at least 40 fully formed states on the continent—almost as many as today.

5. How many slaves were taken from Africa?

A commonly cited figure is 10-12 million people sold into slavery from West, South and East Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries. Exact figures can hardly be established, especially since at least 10-15% of slaves died on the way across the ocean. But the unfortunate people were taken not only to American plantations.

In the Indian Ocean, the long tradition of the slave trade received additional impetus, and in the 15th-18th centuries there was a constant increase in the volume of export of slaves from the east coast of Africa to Persia, Arabia and India.

The export of slaves across the Sahara to Egypt and the Middle East also continued unabated: almost 90% of the eunuchs valued at the courts of the Middle Eastern sultans and emirs were exported in exchange for weapons from the Kanem-Bornu empire, located along the shores of Lake Chad. A good eunuch in the Middle East was valued ten times higher than the most beautiful slaves.

Human trafficking lay equally on the conscience of both the seller and the buyer. European powers rarely captured slaves on their own - there was no need for this, because they were willingly put up for sale by the leaders of coastal principalities and tribes, who understood perfectly well that they were sending their neighbors to eternal hard labor or death. We do not know how many of them experienced pangs of conscience.

In Africa, selling into slavery was not considered a crime at all; this tradition existed here for thousands of years and was stopped only after, in the middle of the 19th century, trade and ownership of people were outlawed in European countries - England and France, and then in USA.

The last country where slavery was legally prohibited was the one that remained outside European control - Ethiopia. Slavery was abolished there only in 1942. But even today, in some areas of the continent, where the central government is still weak, domestic slavery continues to exist.

6. How many peoples and languages ​​are there in Africa?

Modern science counts at least 2,000 independent languages ​​on the continent, despite the fact that the line between language and dialect is very blurred, and many of them have not yet been properly studied.

Often a language is distributed over no more than five or six villages, and some countries of rather modest size, such as Cameroon, are inhabited by peoples who speak several hundred languages. And there may be twice or three times as many peoples (or ethnic groups, as they can be more accurately called) in Africa.

It is not surprising, therefore, that most Africans have been fluent in several languages ​​since childhood: their own, a couple of neighboring languages, the prestigious language of the entire region, as well as colonial English, French or Portuguese, which is taught in schools and broadcast on television.

Scientists, however, believe that all this linguistic diversity comes from just four great ancestral languages ​​and, thus, can be united into four large families: Afroasiatic (mainly in North and East Africa), Niger-Congo (in Western and Southern Africa), Nilo-Saharan (in East and Central Africa) and Khoisan - the most mysterious family of languages.

7. What is the mystery of the “clicking” language of the Bushmen?

The smallest - only 30 languages ​​- but also the most unusual linguistic community in Africa is the Khoisan, the languages ​​of which are spoken by Hottentot pastoralists living in the southern part of the continent (they call themselves Khoi) and semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers - the Bushmen (San).

The Khoisan people represent one of the most interesting mysteries in Africa, not only in the field of language, but also in origin. According to research by geneticists, the structure of the Khoisan genome is sharply opposed to the genome of all other people on Earth. This may indicate that the ancestors of the Bushmen and Hotten Tots were the first branch to separate from the family tree of all mankind.

Bushmen light a fire

The Khoisan languages ​​are famous for their famous “click” consonants. These sounds are truly unique. The clicking of the tongue “tsk-tsk-tsk”, which we heard from our grandmother as a reprimand for eating jam ahead of schedule, or the click of the tongue on the back teeth, with which a rider urges his steed who has fallen into thought, we do not consider as sounds of the Russian language and not we use them in words.

In Khoisan languages, these and other clicks (linguists call them clicks, from the English clicks - “clicks”), produced with the help of the lips, tongue, palate and teeth, can form entire words and are even more frequent than ordinary consonant sounds .

Clixes can be labial (similar to the sound of a dry kiss), dental (exactly that same grandmotherly sound with an unambiguous “don’t play around”), palatal (the back of the tongue is in contact with the palate), alveolar (the tip of the tongue touches the alveoli above the upper teeth) and lateral (the tongue, back teeth and cheek are involved, this is the sound of a jockey).

The five cliques listed are called “bases,” but in most Khoisan languages ​​they are also supplemented by articulations involving the vocal cords—and sometimes the number of these articulations (or “outcomes”) almost reaches two dozen. So, for example, in the Khoong language of the Bushmen there are at least 70 clicking sounds.

There are various hypotheses about the origin of the klixs: it is very likely that these sounds were common in the language of primitive man, and subsequently disappeared everywhere except Africa. But no less surprising than the clicking sounds is the set of vowels in the Khoisan languages.

In the same khong, according to some estimates, there are 88 vowel sounds (in Russian there are only six). They can be long, short, nasal, pronounced with laryngeal and back-lingual articulation. A special series consists of the so-called whisper vowels, which require noticeably less participation of the vocal cords during pronunciation.

Linguists are lost in search of an answer to the question of what role such a number of vowel sounds plays for the functioning of the language and why it was impossible to get by with fewer of them. Perhaps these mysteries are a consequence of the extreme antiquity of the Khoisan language, which some scientists are inclined to consider a remnant of the very first language of mankind.

8. What do Africans believe?

Despite the fact that today's Africa is almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims, neither of them has ever lost their ancient traditions. The inhabitants of Tropical Africa have long been not particularly devoted to one religious system and were not accustomed to the harsh totalitarian dogmas of religion, so beloved by Europeans or residents of the Middle East.

Even medieval Arab chronicles bitterly stated that even the rulers of the Islamic states of Africa, having formally accepted the new faith, continued to participate in traditional ceremonies and did not restrain themselves in food during the holy month of Ramadan.

They disdained the need for five daily prayers and did not understand why limit themselves to four wives when they could have one hundred and forty-four.

In the 14th century, the Muslim Ibn Battuta wrote with indignation about how the daughters of African Muslim rulers danced in the streets of the city, not only without covering their faces, but even completely naked. The peasants for the most part continued to adhere to the religion of their ancestors, and even if they went to the mosque, they were in no hurry to abandon their previous beliefs.

Even today, the veneration of ancestors, nature spirits (stones, trees and groves, rivers and lakes), sacred totemic animals goes well with visiting a church or mosque. Many Africans believe that Christ fulfills requests free of charge, but not always and not immediately, while the local spirit of Zangbeto is more punctual and prompt, but takes too much in return.

In Ghana, many traditional priests use in their ceremonies not only crushed monkey skulls, amulets and incense, but also the Holy Scriptures. For a 100% effect, just in case, the Koran can be added to them.

In modern society, faith and religion are very different things. So, someone may not go to church at all and not really know a single Orthodox holiday except Easter, but at the same time believe in God, as well as in the black cat, horoscopes and esoteric living knowledge.

In addition, the sphere of action of supernatural forces is constantly narrowing: most of us no longer consider lightning to be a divine hand, and only the most desperate enthusiasts believe in conspiracies, divination and dream books.

In traditional African society everything is different. The African consciousness does not at all imply a division of the world into the natural and the supernatural. For him, these concepts simply do not exist: the world of gods, spirits, people and animals is one.

Yes, some of the creatures in it are invisible to the eye, but, as a resident of Uganda said, “the bug is also invisible, but no one thinks of talking about its supernatural nature.” Moreover, he added after long reflection, spirits can appear to a person in any guise if they want, but bedbugs never do this.

9. Africa has always been famous for its witchcraft. How common is it on the continent today?

Almost any misfortune that happens to a person, family, city or even state in Africa is still attributed to witchcraft. The death of livestock, lack of rain, unexpected death from illness, the death of a newborn child or the grain harvest eaten by birds due to the oversight of a fallen watchman - all this has only one reason: one of the ill-wishers used black magic against the inhabitants.

This simple explanation, oddly enough, really helps not only to understand the world, but also to cope with difficulties. If a person gets sick, it just means that a sorcerer flew into his house at night on the wing of a bat and inserted a malicious fetish into his body.

Death will be inevitable, unless the healer (the same sorcerer, only very kind) can get him. The healer, however, usually succeeds in this: after a number of ceremonies and manipulations with the body of a sick person, he deftly sucks a bunch of grass, bird feathers or stones from the sorcerer’s victim.

Such treatment has a strong psychotherapeutic effect on the patient: feeling bewitched, people often die simply from fear, but after the procedure of “cure” from witchcraft, the patient will certainly believe in recovery. Well, if the disease does finish him off, his loved ones will know: the witchcraft spells were too strong, it was necessary to pay the healer more money.

Even the 21st century cannot cope with witchcraft. The laws of a number of countries officially prohibit witchcraft; in the Seychelles, gris-gris sorcerers are outlawed and are wanted as real criminals.

The governments of African states create special “witch camps”, to which they bring from all over the country witches and sorceresses expelled from their homes by their relatives. Sorcerers are often found among crippled, lame, deaf people, they will almost inevitably be considered albinos, and often the fear of witchcraft extends to twin children, who in many parts of Africa are considered harbingers of misfortune for the community.

There are cases when, under the influence of anti-witchcraft hysteria, under the pressure of which Africans constantly live, a person himself begins to feel like a sorcerer or a witch. But after a certain ritual is performed on him, the spell dissipates, and yesterday’s witch will consider herself cured all her life.

10. Is it true that Africa is filled with many diseases unknown to science?

Until recently, before the Ebola fever, other diseases of Africa receded into the background in public opinion, but the most serious illnesses on the continent continue to be malaria, yellow fever, typhus, sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis), amoebiasis, schistomatosis and, of course, AIDS, In terms of the breadth of its distribution, Africa is the leader among the continents.

Most diseases can be easily prevented by vaccination: these are, first of all, typhoid fever and yellow fever. But, for example, there are no vaccinations against malaria. This disease has existed in tropical regions of Africa for tens of thousands of years, and between one and a half to three million people die from malaria every year - 15 times more than from AIDS and 500 times more than from Ebola.

According to some estimates, a child dies of malaria in Africa every 30 seconds. Until the end of the 19th century, malaria killed thousands of European settlers in Africa, until the discovery of quinine made defeating the disease possible.

Trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is transmitted by the same tsetse fly that all Russian children know and fear. In fact, the tsetse preys mainly on cows and is the cause of the largest epidemics for savannah pastoralists. But its bite is also terrible for humans.

Even if trypanosomiasis is not treated, death occurs only after a few years, but modern medicine is armed with a powerful arsenal of means that can destroy the disease at almost any stage. In addition, the tsetse fly can be easily repelled not only by repellents, but also simply by wearing loose white clothing.

Another famous African disease is amebiasis, or amoebic dysentery. Its causative agent, dysentery amoeba, can be easily swallowed along with raw water.

That is why in Africa you should be careful with water - drink it only from factory-sealed bottles or boil it, and if this is not possible, dilute it generously with chlorine tablets. This gives the water a persistent disgusting taste, but it preserves life and health. Well, the disease is successfully treated with antimicrobial drugs.

Dubbed the “plague of the 20th century,” HIV is believed to have originated in monkeys in the Congo and been transmitted to humans in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Today there are about 34 million people living with HIV in the world, two thirds of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fortunately, the disease has already passed its peak and the number of people infected with HIV is gradually decreasing. However, up to 26% of the population of Swaziland, up to 23% of the population of Botswana and 17% of residents of South Africa are still carriers of the virus.

We are all very familiar with these lines by Korney Chukovsky: “And in Africa, and in Africa, on the black Limpopo...” But really, what is there in Africa? What is the smartest animal? And who can go without water for a long time, who is the tallest, and who has the strongest horns? We will find out all this by answering the quiz questions.

The Animals of Africa quiz contains 14 questions. All questions have answers.

Quiz creator: Iris Review

1. What animals live in Africa?
Answer: zebra, cheetah, leopard, python, chameleon, flamingo, hippopotamus, crocodile, gorilla, giraffe...

2. Why does a giraffe have a long neck?
Answer: this allows the giraffe to reach and pluck leaves from the tallest trees

3. Is the elephant smart?
Answer: yes, the elephant is smart and has a good memory

4. How long can camels go without water?
Answer: about two weeks

5. Can African ostriches fly?
Answer: no, they move only on foot all their lives

6. Which animal is the tallest on the planet?
Answer: giraffe

7. Which animal has the longest horns?
Answer: The African antelope, the greater kudu, has the longest horns.

8. Who makes the biggest strides among mammals?
Answer: African giraffe. He walks 4-5 meters at once

9. Which animal has the widest and strongest horns?
Answer: African and Asian buffaloes

10. Do you think a camel drinks a lot when it gets to the water?
Answer: yes, a lot, in 15 minutes he drinks about 100 liters

11. Which crocodile is the largest?
Answer: rowing or sea

12. Do rhinos have good eyesight?
Answer: bad. Therefore, they often attack any creature that happens to be nearby.

13. What is the largest land mammal?
Answer: African elephant

14. With the help of what organ do elephants perceive smells?
Answer: using the trunk

Geography crossword

African countries

1. A country located in the northeast Africa. Has many historical attractions. Among them are famous pyramids at giza, Sphinx.

2. A country in northeast Africa. In recent years, cases have become more frequent pirate attacks from this country to ships passing along its shores.

3. A country located in northeast Africa. It is the highest mountainous state in Africa.

4. Horizontally. Country in southeast Africa. From west to east, the country is crossed by the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. Vertically. A country located on the island of the same name in the Indian Ocean. There are many endemics in the country, for example, the “Traveler’s Tree” and the giant bird – Epyornis.

5. The country is located on the coast Mediterranean Sea north Africa. Second in area only to Sudan. Most of the country's territory is occupied by the Sahara.

6. A country located at the southern tip of the continent. It is washed by two oceans - the Atlantic and Indian.

7. North African country. Known for the famous city of Carthage.

8. West African country. Cape Almadi, located in this country, is the westernmost tip of Africa. The capital, Dakar, is the end point of the famous Paris-Dakar rally.

9. A large country in eastern Africa. Its territory is the watershed for the largest African rivers, the Nile, Zambezi and Congo.

10. A large state in the southwestern part of the continent.

11. Old name of the country now called Congo. Located in the center of the mainland, it has access to the Atlantic Ocean.

Africa is a continent that many scientists believe is the place where the first people appeared. Currently, this region is not rich, and the standard of living in African countries leaves much to be desired, but here in some places the primitive way of life one on one with nature is still preserved. Africa has still not been fully explored, and who knows when we will know everything about this majestic continent?

1. The borders of African states were drawn not along mountains and rivers, as usual, but directly on the map, using a ruler. Actually, this is still clearly visible on any political map of the world.
2. The Sahara is the largest of the hot deserts. Among the hot ones, there are also non-hot deserts, the largest of which is the Antarctic (see).
3. Ethiopia is the only African country that has never been under the rule of European colonialists (see).
4. Hippos once lived throughout Africa, but today they are found only in sub-Saharan Africa. The reason for this is extermination.
5. One of the main natural attractions of Africa is Victoria Falls, the only waterfall in the world that is over a hundred meters high and more than a kilometer wide.
6. The lowest life expectancy in the world is recorded in central and southern Africa. This is due more to the low standard of living and insufficiently accessible medicine than to the hot climate.
7. The most common language in Africa is Arabic, although more than two thousand different languages ​​are spoken in African countries.
8. The island of Madagascar is usually classified as Africa, although it is still just an island (see).
9. More than half of the world's gold production comes from Africa.
10. The most populous African city is Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
11. In the African country of Togo, you should be careful when complimenting local women - according to Togolese custom, a man in this case is obliged to marry the lady to whom he complimented (see).
12. Some African tribes, living traditional lives as thousands of years ago, do not even know in which countries they live. Moreover, not all of them know how to make fire, let alone read and write.
13. The world's first successful heart transplant was performed in Africa (more precisely, in South Africa).
14. Dunes in the Sahara can exceed the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
15. On a hot afternoon, the temperature of sand in African deserts can reach eighty degrees.