Britain and US clash (online) over geographic knowledge

If you sail (or flounder) through 10 country-location questions before the time expires, you can answer questions such as, "Greenland is a self-governed territory of which country?" by locating and clicking on the correct country (Denmark). At the end of the two minutes, your score is tallied, boosting or dragging down your team's overall score.

Registered participants can compete up to three times daily for team points and an unlimited number of times on their own. Because of the difference in country population, the scores are determined by a percentage. The winning team will be awarded a globe-shaped trophy, to be gloated over by that country's top scorer – until next year's Cup.

The competition is close and new users are logging on every day. "It's been [about] a 1 percent difference between the two countries ever since the competition started," says Andreson.

One father at a recent parent-teacher meeting in Reading, a city west of London, was so irked to learn that Britain was losing to America that he vowed to go home and play that night. "Americans' knowledge of geography is a running joke here in the UK," says Raven-Ellison.

Indeed, a 2002 National Geographic magazine survey placed geography skills for 18- to 24-year-olds in the US as second to last for developed countries. On the other hand, National Geographic released another survey this fall reporting that 1 in 5 British schoolchildren could not locate Britain on a map of the world.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: The Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in western Africa is the world's largest producer of cocoa beans.

Here is a sample list of questions from the Geography Cup. To score points in the online version of the quiz, you not only have to know the right answer, but you also must locate the country on an unlabeled world map. The competition ends Dec. 31.

1. Which country recently created the largest sunken-ship artificial reef?

2. Made up of 33 atolls, which country straddles both the equator and the international date line?

3. Which country has the UN described as "virtually the sole provider" of the world's supply of opium?

4. Montserrat is a territory of which country?

5. Which country offered to send 1,500 medical doctors with 37 tons of medical supplies to New Orleans in the United States following hurricane Katrina?

6. Which country is predicted to have the largest economy in the world by 2050?

7. The world's largest coral reef is off the coast of which country?

Answers: (1) The US (The USS Oriskany was scuttled 24 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., on May 17, 2006); (2) Kiribati (pronounced "kir-uh-BAHSS"), in the West Central Pacific Ocean; (3) Afghanistan; (4) United Kingdom. Montserrat is in the Caribbean; (5) Cuba (the offer was rebuffed); (6) China, according to a 2003 report by Goldman Sachs; (7) Australia; (The Great Barrier Reef).

Source: www.geographycup.com

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