KIDS MAP WAY TO WIN GEOGRAPHY BEE CHALLENGES MOST.Byline: Erik N. Nelson Staff Writer What mountain chain is home to the world's highest active volcanoes? If you know the answer and are still in middle school, you could have been the winner of California's National Geographic Bee The National Geographic Bee (previously called the National Geography Bee) is an annual geography contest sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The Bee, held every year since 1989, is open to students in the fourth through eighth grade in participating American . For most competitors from the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. region, it might as well have been the Santa Susana Mountains The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west separating the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley on its south from Santa Clara River Valley to the north and , since they didn't make it past the semifinal rounds, and most were eliminated in the preliminary rounds. But home-schooled eighth-grader Georgia Broughton of Valencia managed to finish in seventh place, making her the only area resident in the top 10 finishers. ``I'm thrilled. I just think it's wonderful,'' said Carolyn Forte, principal of the Excellence in Education home-schooling center in Monrovia where Broughton is registered. ``She's a very good student and very intelligent and a very sweet girl. It's quite a feat.'' All of the other top 10 competitors were from north of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , from Lebec just over the Grapevine to Quincy in Plumas County, which the geographically challenged may not know is in the American Valley at the top of Feather River Canyon. The winner of the competition was eighth-grader Fedor Manin from the Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School is a middle school in Palo Alto, California. Currently in attendance are approximately 900 students from grades 6 through 8. The school is named after Jane Lathrop Stanford (abbreviated JLS), who was the wife of Leland Stanford. in Palo Alto, who correctly identified the range with the lofty volcanoes as the Andes in South America. He will advance to the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., on May 22-23. He and second-place finisher Benjamin Farkas, a seventh-grader at Pacific Collegiate School Pacific Collegiate School is a grades 7-12 charter school located on the westside of Santa Cruz, California. Currently, the number of students hovers around 400. The school mascot is the Puma, and the school colors are "officially" black and silver; however, most of the in Santa Cruz, went toe-to-toe on three questions in the championship round. Farkas got the volcanoes question wrong, and both got this second question wrong: ``Coober Pedy, one of the world's leading opal mining centers, lies in the Stuart Range in which Australian state?'' No, it's not Queensland. It's South Australia. The final question was, ``In September 2000, leaders from OPEC OPEC: see Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC in full Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Multinational organization established in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum production and export policies of its held a summit to discuss oil prices in the capital city of OPEC's only member country in South America. Name that city.'' If you guessed Caracas and are enrolled in the sixth grade, you were right. There's always next year. RANGE OF DIFFICULTY The following questions were used in the school, state or national levels of the 2000 National Geographic Bee and reflect the range of difficulty and subject matter that can be expected in new questions (answers below): 1. Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural arch in the world, is located near Lake Powell in which state? 2. Much of which state is covered by mountains - Wyoming or Iowa? 3. Which European country returned the territory of Macau to China in December 1999? 4. What term is used for the broad, flat area in a river valley that is subject to flooding? 5. Name the smallest country on the mainland of Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea? 6. During which month does Cape Town, South Africa, experience the day of the year with the longest period of daylight? 7. The Europoort is a major industrial harbor complex about 20 miles west of which major Dutch city? 8. Which country in the Caucasus region shares its name with a U.S. state? 9. What term is used for a circular coral reef island that encloses a lagoon? 10. What landlocked country is named for the revolutionary leader who helped free much of northern South America Northern South America is a region in the continent South America. This region has a rich range of natural resources exploited to European explorers over the past couple of centuries. Most of the most populous cities, such as Bogotá, are located temperate conditions of the Andes. from Spanish rule? ANSWERS: 1) Utah; 2) Wyoming; 3) Portugal; 4) floodplain floodplain, level land along the course of a river formed by the deposition of sediment during periodic floods. Floodplains contain such features as levees, backswamps, delta plains, and oxbow lakes. ; 5) Tunisia; 6) December; 7) Rotterdam; 8) Georgia; 9) atoll atoll: see coral reefs. atoll Coral reef enclosing a lagoon. Atolls consist of ribbons of reef that may not be circular but that are closed shapes, sometimes miles across, around a lagoon that may be 160 ft (50 m) deep or more. ; 10) Bolivia. CAPTION(S): box Box: RANGE OF DIFFICULTY (See text) |
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