Match the following plateaus with their continents :
(a) Columbia plateau
(b) Bolivia plateau
(c) Central Massif plateau
(d) Yunan plateau
(i) Asia
(ii) Europe
(iii) South America
(iv) North America

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (3), which reads (a) - (iv), (b) - (iii), (c) - (ii), (d) - (i). Every pair here is decided by location alone. The Columbia plateau at (a) is in the north-western United States, spread across Washington, Oregon and Idaho between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains and cut through by the Columbia river; it is the flood-basalt plateau of the Columbia River Basalt Group, and it takes North America at (iv). The Bolivia plateau at (b) is the Altiplano of west-central South America, the high basin between the eastern and western cordilleras of the Andes; it lies mostly in Bolivia with parts in Peru, Chile and Argentina, averages about 3,750 m above sea level, carries Lake Titicaca and is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside Tibet. It takes South America at (iii). The Central Massif plateau at (c) is the Massif Central, the highland of mountains and plateaus in south-central France that covers about fifteen per cent of mainland France, is studded with some 450 extinct volcanoes and rises to the Puy de Sancy at 1,886 m; France is in Europe, so it takes (ii). The Yunan plateau at (d) is the Yunnan plateau of southern China, part of the Yunnan-Guizhou highland, and China is in Asia, so it takes (i). That gives (a) - (iv), (b) - (iii), (c) - (ii), (d) - (i), which is option (3). The one thing that can go wrong is a spelling: the English column prints this plateau as 'Columbia plateau' here and, on the page carrying an earlier question, as 'Colombia Plateau' for the same feature — the Marathi writes कोलंबिया in both. Colombia with an o is a country of South America and Columbia with a u is the river and plateau of the American north-west, and the second column offers South America as a live choice.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This row keeps Columbia with North America, which is right, and then scrambles the other three: it sends the Bolivia plateau to Europe, the Central Massif to Asia and the Yunan plateau to South America. Each of the three is wrong on the plainest grounds. The Bolivia plateau is named for the South American country it mostly occupies, the Altiplano of the central Andes. The Massif Central is in south-central France and therefore Europe — the word 'Central' in its name refers to central France, not to any central position in a continent. The Yunan plateau is in southern China, so it can only be Asian. This is the row built for a candidate who checks the first pair, finds it sound and accepts the rest, which is why a matching row should always be verified to its last cell.  (b) This row sends the Columbia plateau to Europe, the Bolivia plateau to South America, the Central Massif to North America and the Yunan plateau to Asia. Two of its four pairs are right and two are wrong, and the two that are wrong exchange the Columbia plateau with the Massif Central across the Atlantic. There is no European plateau called Columbia; the name belongs to the Columbia river of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and the plateau is the basalt sheet the river has cut through. The Massif Central, conversely, is French. A row that gets half its pairs right is the most expensive kind to accept, because the candidate's confidence comes from the half they checked.  (d) This row is the second column read straight down against the first — Columbia to Asia, Bolivia to Europe, Central Massif to South America, Yunan to North America — so it pairs by printed position rather than by geography, and every pair fails. It is the row that a candidate produces when they treat two side-by-side lists as though the printing had already matched them. This question prints no column headers at all, unlike the other matching questions around it, so the temptation to read the lists as a grid is stronger here than elsewhere. Adjacency on the page is layout and asserts no pairing whatsoever; each row of a matching question has to be built by the reader from what they know.

Concept: The world's major plateaus are worth holding by continent, because that is the frame in which they are usually examined. Asia carries Tibet, the highest and largest of all at about 4,500 m between the Himalaya and the Kunlun, along with the Deccan and Chota Nagpur in India, the Anatolian and Iranian plateaus in the west and the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau in southern China. South America carries the Altiplano or Bolivian plateau of the central Andes — about 3,750 m on average, holding Lake Titicaca, the most extensive high plateau outside Tibet — together with the Brazilian highlands and the Patagonian plateau. Europe carries the Massif Central of France, about fifteen per cent of the country, an old crystalline block with some 450 extinct volcanoes rising to the Puy de Sancy at 1,886 m, along with the Meseta of Iberia. North America carries the Columbia plateau of the Pacific north-west, a flood-basalt surface built by the Columbia River Basalt Group, the Colorado plateau of the Four Corners into which the Grand Canyon is cut, and the Mexican plateau. Africa is in effect a continent of plateaus, from the Ethiopian highlands to the East African plateau and the Katanga and Drakensberg country of the south, and Australia carries the Western Plateau across the bulk of the continent.

State PCS 2021 Q26 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q26 — Geography PYQ with Answer