Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the code given below the Lists: List-I (Fold Mountain) A. Ural B. Appalachians C. Drakensberg D. Andes List-II (Country/Continent) 1. South America 2. South Africa 3. Russia 4. North America

Correct — B, A-3 B-4 C-2 D-1. The Urals run north to south across Russia and form the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia, so A goes to 3. The Appalachians run down the eastern side of the United States and Canada, giving B to 4, North America. The Drakensberg is the great escarpment along the eastern rim of southern Africa, rising highest in Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal, so C goes to 2, South Africa. The Andes run the length of the western edge of the continent from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego, so D goes to 1, South America. Only one option assigns Russia to the Urals and North America to the Appalachians together, and once those two are fixed the rest follows.

• (a)A-3 B-2 C-4 D-1 — Places the Appalachians in South Africa and the Drakensberg in North America. The Urals and the Andes are right, which is what makes it the closest of the wrong options.
• (c)A-1 B-4 C-2 D-3 — Swaps the two ends of the list — the Urals into South America and the Andes into Russia — while getting the middle pair right.
• (d)A-1 B-2 C-4 D-3 — Every pairing is wrong. It is the mirror image of the correct answer, built by reversing both halves of the list.

Fold mountains form where converging plates crumple sedimentary rock upward, and they are dated by the orogeny that raised them. The Caledonian orogeny, about 400 million years ago, produced the older Appalachians and the Scottish Highlands. The Hercynian or Variscan orogeny that followed raised the Urals and parts of the Appalachians. The Alpine orogeny, still under way, has raised the young ranges — the Himalaya, the Alps, the Rockies and the Andes.

Age shows in the profile. Old fold mountains have been worn down for hundreds of millions of years and are rounded and low, which is why the Appalachians top out near 2,000 metres while the Andes exceed 6,900 at Aconcagua. The Drakensberg is the item worth a caveat: it is the eroded eastern escarpment of the southern African plateau, capped by basalt flows, so it is not a folded range in the strict sense even though examiners list it among mountain ranges. The pairing asked for here is with the continent, and on that count South Africa is correct.

• The Urals lie in Russia and mark the traditional divide between Europe and Asia.
• The Appalachians run along eastern North America and are among the world's oldest fold mountains.
• The Drakensberg forms the eastern escarpment of southern Africa, with its highest ground in Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal.
• The Andes are the world's longest continental mountain range, running about 7,000 km down western South America.
• Caledonian and Hercynian ranges are old and low; Alpine-orogeny ranges such as the Andes and the Himalaya are young and high.

• Placing the Drakensberg outside Africa because the name sounds European; it is Afrikaans, from the Dutch for dragon mountains.
• Treating the Appalachians as young because they are long; they are among the oldest ranges on the planet.
• Answering a matching item pair by pair instead of using the two you are sure of to eliminate codes.

A four-pair matching item. Two confident pairings are enough to reach a unique code.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following mountain ranges separates Europe from Asia?

  • (a)Alps
  • (b)Ural
  • (c)Caucasus
  • (d)Carpathians

  Answer(b) Ural — the conventional boundary between the two continents.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The longest continental mountain range in the world is the

  • (a)Himalaya
  • (b)Rockies
  • (c)Andes
  • (d)Great Dividing Range

  Answer(c) Andes — running about 7,000 km down western South America.