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Islands
Land Surrounded by Water
How islands form and which ones people misplace.
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What is the largest island in the world?
Island Nations of the World
Roughly one country in four is an island or an archipelago. These ten are the ones worth knowing, and a few of them are far stranger than their tourist brochures suggest.
About this topic
An island nation has one thing in common with every other island nation: the sea decides a great deal for it. Trade, defence, language and even the calendar get shaped by water in a way that landlocked neighbours never have to think about. This quiz runs from Cape Verde in the Atlantic to Kiribati on the date line, taking in a country that sits entirely inside another one's coastline and a capital city still divided by a buffer zone. Nothing here needs specialist knowledge, but a couple of the answers are not the country most people name first.
Questions & answers
Island Nations of the World: all 10 questions and answers
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
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1Which island nation lies roughly 800 kilometres east of Madagascar and was the only home of the dodo?
- A Maldives
- B Mauritius Correct
- C Seychelles
- D Comoros
Answer: B. Mauritius
Why: The dodo lived nowhere else and was gone within about a century of the first Dutch landings. Mauritius is volcanic in origin and rises steeply from the floor of the Indian Ocean.
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2Japan's four main islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and which other?
- A Shikoku Correct
- B Okinawa
- C Sado
- D Awaji
Answer: A. Shikoku
Why: Shikoku is the smallest of the four and is best known for a pilgrimage circuit linking 88 temples. Okinawa sits far to the south in a separate chain, the Ryukyus.
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3The Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis uses which formal name for the island of Saint Kitts?
- A Saint Martin
- B Saint Vincent
- C Saint Lucia
- D Saint Christopher Correct
Answer: D. Saint Christopher
Why: Saint Christopher is the official name, shortened to Saint Kitts in everyday speech and on most maps. The two islands together form the smallest sovereign state in the Americas by area.
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4Which Pacific island country straddles the equator and once moved the International Date Line to suit itself?
- A Nauru
- B Palau
- C Kiribati Correct
- D Tuvalu
Answer: C. Kiribati
Why: Kiribati spreads across three island groups and both hemispheres. In 1995 it shifted the date line east so that the whole country would share a single calendar day.
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5Which island country in the Indian Ocean was called Ceylon until 1972?
- A Mauritius
- B Sri Lanka Correct
- C Maldives
- D Madagascar
Answer: B. Sri Lanka
Why: The colonial name was dropped when the country became a republic. Ceylon survives on tea packaging, where the trade name stuck.
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6Which sovereign state lies entirely on the island of Borneo?
- A Brunei Correct
- B Singapore
- C East Timor
- D Papua New Guinea
Answer: A. Brunei
Why: Brunei occupies two small pockets on Borneo's northern coast, both surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Malaysia and Indonesia hold the rest of the island between them.
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7Which nation off the coast of West Africa is made up of ten volcanic islands?
- A São Tomé and Príncipe
- B Comoros
- C Seychelles
- D Cape Verde Correct
Answer: D. Cape Verde
Why: The islands sit roughly 600 kilometres out from Senegal and were uninhabited until Portuguese settlement in the 1400s. One of them, Fogo, still has an active volcano.
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8Which Southeast Asian country is spread over more than seven thousand islands?
- A Vietnam
- B Thailand
- C Philippines Correct
- D Malaysia
Answer: C. Philippines
Why: Only a few hundred of the Philippine islands are inhabited, and Luzon and Mindanao between them hold most of the land area. The rest range from small settled islands down to bare rocks.
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9Which strait separates New Zealand's North and South Islands?
- A Foveaux Strait
- B Cook Strait Correct
- C Bass Strait
- D Torres Strait
Answer: B. Cook Strait
Why: Cook Strait narrows to about 22 kilometres and carries the ferries between Wellington and Picton. Bass Strait is the wider crossing between mainland Australia and Tasmania.
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10Which island country has Nicosia as its capital?
- A Cyprus Correct
- B Malta
- C Iceland
- D Ireland
Answer: A. Cyprus
Why: Nicosia has been split since 1974 between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-controlled north. A United Nations buffer zone still runs through the middle of the old city.
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