Consider the following deserts and arrange them in increasing order of their size (from smallest to largest) - (I) Great Sandy desert (II) Arabian desert (III) Sahara desert (IV) Gobi desert Select the correct answer using the code given below -
- (a)I, IV, II, III
- (b)II, I, III, IV
- (c)II, I, IV, III
- (d)I, II, IV, III
Correct — A, "I, IV, II, III". Ranked by area from smallest to largest the sequence is: Great Sandy Desert of Australia (~267,000 km²) < Gobi Desert of Mongolia and China (~1,295,000 km²) < Arabian Desert (~2,330,000 km²) < Sahara (~9,200,000 km², the world's largest hot desert). So smallest to largest = I (Great Sandy), IV (Gobi), II (Arabian), III (Sahara), which is option (a).
- (b)II, I, III, IV — It makes the Arabian Desert the smallest, but the Arabian (~2.33 million km²) is actually the second-largest of the four. It also ends with the Gobi as the largest, whereas the Gobi (~1.3 million km²) is in fact the second-smallest — two positions are inverted.
- (c)II, I, IV, III — Again wrongly places the Arabian Desert first (smallest). The Arabian is far larger than both the Great Sandy and the Gobi, so it cannot begin an increasing-size sequence, even though the tail (Gobi then Sahara) is otherwise fine.
- (d)I, II, IV, III — Correctly identifies the Great Sandy as smallest and the Sahara as largest, but swaps the middle two: it puts the Arabian (II) before the Gobi (IV). The Gobi (~1.3 million km²) is smaller than the Arabian (~2.33 million km²), so the Gobi must come first.
These are four of the world's major deserts. The Sahara is the largest hot desert on Earth (~9.2 million km², roughly the size of the United States); the Arabian Desert (~2.33 million km²) is the largest in south-west Asia; the Gobi (~1.3 million km²) is a cold, rain-shadow desert across southern Mongolia and northern China; and the Great Sandy Desert (~267,000 km²) is Australia's second-largest desert.
The trap is equating fame or harshness with size — many candidates assume the household-name Arabian Desert must be bigger than the 'Great Sandy'. Anchor a rough size ladder instead. A quick shortcut: the Sahara being the largest is near-universal knowledge, so any sequence that does NOT end in III (Sahara) can be eliminated at once — that alone rules out option (b).
- Sahara ~9.2 million km² — the world's largest hot desert (about the size of the USA or China).
- Arabian Desert ~2.33 million km² — the largest desert of the Arabian Peninsula / south-west Asia.
- Gobi Desert ~1.295 million km² — a cold rain-shadow desert of southern Mongolia and northern China.
- Great Sandy Desert ~267,000 km² — Australia's second-largest desert, after the Great Victoria Desert.
- Equating a desert's fame or harshness with its area.
- Assuming the Arabian Desert is larger than the Sahara, or that the Gobi is larger than the Arabian.
UPPSC and UPSC pose deserts as 'arrange in increasing/decreasing order of size' or as match-the-desert-to-its-country — so learn both the size rank and the location of each major desert.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is the largest desert in the world by total area?
- (a)Sahara Desert
- (b)Arabian Desert
- (c)Antarctic Polar Desert
- (d)Gobi Desert
Answer(c) Antarctic Polar Desert — at ~14 million km² it is the largest desert overall; the Sahara is only the largest HOT desert.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Gobi Desert lies mainly across which two countries?
- (a)India and Pakistan
- (b)Mongolia and China
- (c)Iran and Afghanistan
- (d)Chile and Argentina
Answer(b) Mongolia and China — the Gobi is a cold, rain-shadow desert of Central and East Asia.