Buenos Aires and Montevideo are situated across the banks of
- (a)River Plate
- (b)Orinoco River
- (c)Purus River
- (d)Madeira River
Correct — A, River Plate. River Plate is the English name for the Río de la Plata, the great funnel of water formed where the Paraná and the Uruguay meet at Punta Gorda and widen towards the South Atlantic. Buenos Aires stands on its south-western, Argentine bank and Montevideo on its north-eastern, Uruguayan bank, which is exactly the arrangement the question describes. Geographers argue over whether to call it a river, an estuary, a gulf or a marginal sea; if it is counted as a river it is the widest in the world, reaching about 220 kilometres across. The English name comes from an old use of plate to mean silver, which is also where Argentina takes its name.
- (b)Orinoco River — Far to the north, draining Venezuela and part of Colombia into the Atlantic near Trinidad. Neither capital is anywhere near it.
- (c)Purus River — A tributary of the Amazon rising in Peru and flowing through Brazil, thousands of kilometres inside the continent from either city.
- (d)Madeira River — The Amazon's largest tributary, formed in Bolivia and flowing through Brazil. Like the Purus it belongs to the Amazon basin, not to the Plate.
South America has three great drainage systems: the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Plate. The Plate basin gathers the Paraná, the Paraguay and the Uruguay, drains parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, and delivers the second-largest volume of water on the continent. Its estuary carries the ports of two national capitals, which is unusual anywhere in the world.
The item rewards recognising the English name. Candidates who know Río de la Plata but read past River Plate lose an easy mark, so store both. The elimination is then quick: two of the three wrong options are Amazon tributaries and the third is the Orinoco, and no Amazon or Orinoco water reaches either capital. A useful cross-fact is that Itaipu, one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams, sits upstream on the Paraná on the Brazil-Paraguay border, in the same basin.
- The Río de la Plata is formed by the confluence of the Paraná and the Uruguay rivers at Punta Gorda.
- Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, and Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, stand on opposite banks.
- Counted as a river it is the widest in the world, up to about 220 kilometres across.
- River Plate is simply the English form of the name, from an archaic sense of plate meaning silver.
- The Purus and the Madeira are Amazon tributaries; the Orinoco drains Venezuela and Colombia.
- Not recognising River Plate as the English name of the Río de la Plata.
- Placing Montevideo in Argentina; the two capitals face each other across an international boundary in the estuary.
- Treating the Plate as a tributary of the Amazon — the two basins are separate.
As a city-on-river pick, as a river-to-country match, or as part of a South American drainage question.
Itaipu Dam built on the River Parana is one of the largest dams in the world. Which one of the following two countries have this as a joint project?
- (a) Brazil and Peru
- (b) Paraguay and Ecuador
- (c) Brazil and Paraguay
- (d) Colombia and Paraguay
Answer(c) Brazil and Paraguay
Upstream on the same water. The Paraná that powers Itaipu on the Brazil-Paraguay border is one of the two rivers that join to make the estuary Buenos Aires and Montevideo sit on.
Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the code given below the Lists : List I (River) A. Danube B. Rhine C. Rhone D. Loire List II (Mouth of the river) 1. North sea 2. Black sea 3. Bay of Biscay 4. Mediterranean sea Code : A B C D
- (a) 2 1 4 3
- (b) 3 4 1 2
- (c) 2 4 1 3
- (d) 3 1 4 2
Answer(a) 2 1 4 3
The same skill on a different continent — knowing where a named river ends. Danube to the Black Sea, Rhine to the North Sea, Rhone to the Mediterranean, Loire to the Bay of Biscay.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Río de la Plata is formed by the confluence of which two rivers?
- (a)Paraná and Uruguay
- (b)Paraguay and Pilcomayo
- (c)Orinoco and Negro
- (d)Madeira and Purus
Answer(a) Paraná and Uruguay — they meet at Punta Gorda and widen into the estuary on which Buenos Aires and Montevideo stand.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Montevideo is the capital of which one of the following countries?
- (a)Paraguay
- (b)Uruguay
- (c)Chile
- (d)Bolivia
Answer(b) Uruguay — it faces Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata.