River Danube does not flow through which one of the following capital cities in Europe?

Correct — C, Prague. The Danube rises at Donaueschingen in the Black Forest of Germany, where the Brigach and the Breg meet, runs about 2,850 kilometres south-east across central and eastern Europe and empties into the Black Sea through the delta shared by Romania and Ukraine. Along the way it passes four national capitals — Vienna in Austria, Bratislava in Slovakia, Budapest in Hungary and Belgrade in Serbia — which is more than any other river in the world. Three of those four are in the options and are therefore true statements. Prague is the exception: the Czech capital stands on the Vltava, which joins the Elbe and drains north-west to the North Sea. The Danube does not touch Czech territory at all in any meaningful stretch, so it certainly does not flow through Prague.

• (a)Belgrade — The Serbian capital does stand on the Danube, at the point where the Sava joins it — the confluence that gave the city its fortress site. A true statement, so not the answer to a 'does not' stem.
• (b)Budapest — The Danube runs straight through the Hungarian capital and is what divides Buda from Pest. Again true, so not the exception being asked for.
• (d)Vienna — The Austrian capital lies on the Danube, and the pairing Vienna-Danube has been used as a correctly matched city-river pair in earlier civil services papers.

The Danube is Europe's second longest river after the Volga and the continent's most international, touching ten countries — Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine — before reaching the Black Sea. It has been a trade and boundary line since Roman times, when it marked the northern frontier of the empire over long stretches, and it is now linked to the Rhine, and so to the North Sea, by the Main-Danube Canal.

City-and-river items are best handled by drainage basin rather than by list. Europe's rivers sort into three broad outlets: the North Sea and the Baltic in the north-west, the Mediterranean in the south, and the Black Sea in the south-east. The Danube belongs to the Black Sea group; Prague's Vltava-Elbe system belongs to the North Sea group. Once a capital is placed in the wrong basin the question is settled without needing to recall the individual city. The same reasoning disposes of the classic trap pair Berlin and the Rhine — Berlin is on the Spree, in the Elbe basin.

• The Danube is about 2,850 km long, rises at Donaueschingen in Germany's Black Forest at the confluence of the Brigach and the Breg, and drains to the Black Sea through the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
• It flows through or touches the borders of ten countries, more than any other river in the world.
• It passes four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.
• Prague stands on the Vltava, which flows into the Elbe and reaches the North Sea — a different basin from the Danube's.
• The Main-Danube Canal connects the Danube to the Rhine, giving an inland waterway from the North Sea to the Black Sea.

• Assuming any large central European capital must be on the Danube; Prague, Warsaw and Berlin are all in other basins.
• Overlooking Bratislava, which is on the Danube and is often the fourth capital candidates cannot name.
• Confusing the Vltava with the Danube because both are associated with Czech and Austrian scenery — the Vltava joins the Elbe and flows to the North Sea.

As a 'which one does not' item on cities along a named river, or as a city-and-river match list in which one pair is deliberately wrong.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Danube empties into which one of the following seas?

  • (a)The North Sea
  • (b)The Baltic Sea
  • (c)The Black Sea
  • (d)The Adriatic Sea

  Answer(c) The Black Sea — the river reaches it through the Danube Delta shared by Romania and Ukraine.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one among the following pairs of capital city and river is NOT correctly matched?

  • (a)Vienna — Danube
  • (b)Prague — Vltava
  • (c)Belgrade — Danube
  • (d)Berlin — Rhine

  Answer(d) Berlin — Rhine; Berlin stands on the Spree, in the Elbe basin, not on the Rhine.