| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| This ethnic group’s beliefs were profiled in a work by Anne Fadiman that describes a girl in Modesto, California failing to receive treatment for epilepsy due to her doctors’ lack of cultural competence. During the so-called “Secret War,” the CIA trained people of this ethnic group to be pro-American guerrillas, forcing hundreds of thousands of them to flee Communist persecution in the 1970s. Many refugees of this ethnic group ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down details the beliefs of, for the point, what ethnic group from the uplands of Southeast Asia? | Hmong people (prompt on Miao, Vietnamese, or Laotian people) |
| This city is the site of a solar-powered bridge that lights up into green, blue, and red each night, the Rainbow Bridge. This city’s western sector predominantly serves as “bed towns” and is known as the Tama area. On alternating days, the colors iki blue and miyabi purple illuminate this city’s Skytree, the second tallest building in the world. Chiyoda is one of the 23 special wards of For the point, what host of the 2020 Summer Olympics and seat of the Japanese government? | Tokyo |
| When a person forgets to pass this food clockwise at a British meal, he or she is traditionally asked “Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?” [nor-itch] Boats called rabelos historically carried this food downriver to the port of Vila Nova de Gaia, where it was stored in rooms called “caves.” After the War of Spanish Succession cut off trade with France, Britain signed the Methuen Treaty to import a variety of this food from the Douro River Valley instead. English wool and this beverage are cited in David Ricardo’s original example of comparative advantage. For the point, the Portuguese city of Oporto is a major producer of the “port” variety of what alcoholic beverage? | port wine (prompt on “alcohol” or “[wine] grapes”) |
| A river in this state was dammed by the Tellico Dam, which was the subject of a 1978 Supreme Court case and a specific exemption out of the Endangered Species Act due to the presence of snail darter fish. Arthur Morgan and David Lilienthal were among the heads of an engineering project in this state. The X-10 Graphite Reactor was built in this state at what became Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For the point, name this state, the home of a New Deal-era program that built hydroelectric power plants in its namesake river valley, the TVA. | Tennessee (accept Little Tennessee River; accept Tennessee Valley Authority) |
| This river’s left bank was ceded to a European power in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun. In the 1640s, the short-lived fort of Albazin was founded along this river’s northern loop by Cossacks. This river lies south of the Stanovoy Mountains, which became a longstanding border following the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk. Also known as the “Black Dragon River,” its tributaries include the Ussuri, where a border dispute over Zhenbao Island prompted a brief 1969 border conflict between the Soviet Union and China. For the point, name this river on the border between Russian and Chinese Manchuria. | Amur River US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| During the 1820s, this historical region was marketed by the con artist Gregor MacGregor as the fictitious territory of Poyais. In the 17th century, the Providence Island Company failed to colonize the islands off this region. The Dutch pirate Abraham Blauvelt probably names its city of Bluefields. In 1834, Britain established a protectorate over this region’s namesake indigenous kingdom, which was annexed six decades later by President Jose Zelaya. For the point, name this historic “coast” of eastern Nicaragua. | Mosquito Coast (prompt on Nicaragua before mentioned) |
| This mountain range contains several planned towns designed by Ernst May, who had previously built “zig-zag” public housing in Frankfurt. One city in this mountain range was originally built as a copy of a U.S. Steel mill in Gary, Indiana. Beginning in the 1930s, the steel mills in this range were supplied by coal from the Kuznetsk Basin, one thousand miles to the east. During the Cold War, tractors, tanks, and ballistic missiles were produced in its many “closed cities,” including Magnitogorsk and Perm. For the point, name this mountain range where many Soviet factories were relocated during World War II. | Ural Mountains (or Urals) |
| In the 17th century, an itinerant group of this ethnicity founded the Aro cult, which established an extensive slave-trading network and propagated the word of Chukwu, the supreme being in their traditional religious system of Odinani. Up to a million people of this ethnicity died in a famine during a late 1960s war that saw the capture of Calabar and Port Harcourt. This majority-Christian ethnicity, which occupies the Bight of Bonny and the vast Niger Delta, unsuccessfully formed the independent state of Biafra. For the point, name this Nigerian ethnicity that lives alongside the Hausa and Yoruba. | Igbo people (accept Ibo people) |
| This state’s Bailey Yard is the world’s largest railroad classification yard, featuring 200 separate tracks. The book Once Upon a Town recounts how a local canteen fed over six million servicemen passing through this state during World War II. This state is crossed by a slow, muddy, braided river that was described as “a mile wide” and “six inches deep” by early pioneers. The arid Sandhills region covers the center of this Midwestern state, whose spire-like Chimney Rock was a prominent landmark on the Oregon Trail. For the point, name this state where the Platte River flows through Omaha. | Nebraska |
| This island contains thousands of pura temples, which often feature distinctive multi-tiered wooden shrines called “Meru towers.” Many of this island’s temples also serve as “water temples” within the local subak system of cooperative rice irrigation, which was built in the 9th century to epitomize this island’s philosophy of Tri Hita Karana. This island’s cities of Kuta and Denpasar are known for their popular beaches. Hundreds of tourists were killed on this island during Islamist bombings in 2002 and 2005. For the point, name this island, a popular tourist destination home to most of Indonesia’s Hindu minority. | Bali US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| According to myth, this mountain was the tallest of four brothers sitting upon an overturned canoe. This mountain, which can often be seen in the mirror view of Lake Matheson to the northwest, looms over the Hooker Valley. Glacial streams around this mountain feed into the brilliant blue Lake Pukaki to the south. It is the highest mountain overlooking a rainy region called the “West Coast,” which is the site of the Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier. The Tasman Glacier lies below this highest peak in the Southern Alps. For the point, name this highest peak in New Zealand. | Mount Cook (or Aoraki) |
| A lake in this country contains more than 20 island monasteries, including ones on Dek Island and Daga Island. This country’s Church of Saint George, which is shaped like a cross from the top, is one of 11 monolithic churches cut from single pieces of rock in a holy city. After the 1187 capture of Jerusalem, this country’s city of Lalibela was built as a symbolic “New Jerusalem” by a ruler of its Zagwe Dynasty. This country claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant within a church in its town of Axum. For the point, name this East African country, an early adopter of Christianity. | Ethiopia |
| In this city, the rising popularity of the traditionally working-class “chopped cheese” sandwich has led to accusations of culinary gentrification. Rice, street meat, salad, white sauce, and red sauce are served together in a shallow foil dish at hundreds of “halal carts” in this city, including the ubiquitous Halal Guys cart. Traditional street carts in this city sell “dirty water” hot dogs. In this city, pastrami and corned beef sandwiches are served at Katz’s Delicatessen, which was featured in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... For the point, name this city, whose characteristic thin-crust pizza is sold all over Brooklyn. | New York City (or NYC) [Editor’s note: as originally written, the tossup called NY-style pizza “excellent” in the giveaway; your Illinois-based editor made the appropriate fix.] |
| In this province’s rugged Selkirk Mountains, the town of Nelson went from a silver-mining town to a popular destination for hippies and draft dodgers. The British convinced Spain to give up claims to this modern province’s territory after the 1789 Nootka Sound Crisis. A wagon road was built across this modern province to its boom town of Barkerville during its 1861 Cariboo Gold Rush, which followed its Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. It became a province in 1871 after John Macdonald’s government agreed to make it the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. For the point, name this Canadian province, home to Vancouver. | British Columbia (prompt on BC) |
| This building’s four main columns were modeled to resemble branching tree trunks and feature gemstone-like portraits of the Four Evangelists. One of this building’s facades features a 4x4 magic square. The surfaces between this building’s vaults, roofing, and columns are connected by paraboloids, while hyperboloids shape its windows and vaults. Tortoises lie at the base of the columns in this building’s naturalistic and extremely elaborate Nativity Facade. Ten of this church’s 18 planned towers are still under construction, even though construction began in 1883. For the point, name this masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi, a giant church in Barcelona. | Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| In August 2016, this country witnessed the opening of IMG Worlds of Adventure, the world’s largest indoor theme park. Since 2009, this country’s man-made Yas Island has been the site of a Grand Prix. The world’s fastest rollercoaster is currently located within this country’s Ferrari World, a theme park that is entirely covered by a giant red aluminum roof. A gigantic shopping mall in this country contains a 280-foot indoor ski slope. Two artificial archipelagos known as “The World” and the “Palm Islands” lie off its coast. For the point, name this country that contains Abu Dhabi and Dubai. | United Arab Emirates (or UAE) |
| In 1989 FBI agents raided this state’s Rocky Flats Plant, a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility that had been contaminating surrounding soil with plutonium. A military chapel in this state consists of a row of seventeen aluminum tetrahedral spires. This state’s Peterson Air Force Base lies near a mountain complex with a nuclear bunker built under 2000 feet of granite. This state is the site of ADX Florence, the only supermax prison in the U.S., while NORAD and the U.S. Air Force Academy are both based in this state’s “Springs.” For the point, name this Rocky Mountain state whose capital is Denver. | Colorado |
| People of this ethnic group introduced the realist “Standing Buddhas” of Gandhara, the first-ever anthropomorphic depictions of Buddha. In the 2nd century BC, rulers of this ethnicity established Buddhist kingdoms in Sagala and Taxila, while the Yuezi and Kushans overthrew rulers of this ethnicity in the Bactrian Kingdom. An army led by people of this ethnicity left Punjab after their victory at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. For the point, name this European ethnicity that brought its culture to Central Asia and India after the conquests of Alexander the Great. | (Ancient) Greeks (accept Macedonians, Hellenic or Hellenistic people, Greco-Bactrians or Indo-Greeks; prompt on Bactrians alone) |
| Thousands of small-scale miners operate in this country’s chaotic Marange diamond field, which is now the largest single diamond producing site in the world. “The early rain which washes away the chaff,” or Gukurahundi, was the codename for a period of state terrorism in this country that saw the suppression of its Matabele minority, who live in its western city of Bulawayo. This county is named after an Iron Age stone city built by its Shona people in the 11th century. For the point, name this country that was known, until 1980, as Rhodesia. | Zimbabwe (do not accept or prompt on Rhodesia; accept Great Zimbabwe only after “Iron Age” is read) |
| This body of water is home to the so-called Loop Current. A sizeable shrimp trawler fleet operates in this body of water, where millions of gallons of oil were spilled in the 1979 Ixtoc I disaster. A bay in this gulf is the site of a seasonal phenomenon called a jubilee, in which scores of fish and shellfish swarm in its shallow coastal waters. Red tides often occur along the coast of this gulf, which receives agricultural runoff from rivers such as the Atchafalaya. For the point, name this gulf afflicted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. | Gulf of Mexico (accept Bay of Campeche) US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| This landmark was largely designed by the unemployed Charles Ellis, although much of the credit was taken by chief engineer Joseph Strauss instead. After several workers fell off this landmark into an innovative safety net, they formed the “Half Way to Hell Club.” The filmmaker Eric Steel was inspired by the New Yorker article “Jumpers” to film this landmark for a year, during which he recorded 23 suicides for his 2006 documentary The Bridge. This most popular suicide spot in the U.S. was the world’s longest suspension bridge when it was completed in 1937. For the point, name this iconic San Francisco bridge. | Golden Gate Bridge |
| Natives living around this body of water were studied by Nancy Wexler due to their extremely high incidence rate of Huntington’s Disease. While traveling through the northern part of this lake in 1964, an Esso oil tanker crashed into the very long General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge. Lightning storms occur up to 160 days a year over the area where the Catatumbo River empties into this lake. In 1499, Amerigo Vespucci was supposedly reminded of Venice when he saw the stilt houses built along its shores, inspiring the modern name of its country. For the point, name this large brackish “lake” in northern Venezuela. | Lake Maracaibo |
| Thiscity’siconic“GreatSouthernGate”haditswoodenpagodaroofseverelydamagedina2008case of arson. This city is overlooked by a communications tower atop nearby Namsan Mountain. Hundreds of traditional houses known as hanok, which feature an underfloor heating system called ondol, stand near this city’s Gyeongbok royal palace, which was largely torn down during a period of Japanese occupation. This city on the Han River was the capital for the Joseon Dynasty. For the point, name this capital of South Korea. | Seoul |
| This city once maintained a trading port on Isla Cerritos, where merchants exchanged salt from the pink lagoons of Las Coloradas for gold and obsidian. Due to the unusual architecture of its Temple of the Warriors, archaeologists draw connections between this city and the Toltec city of Tula. Gold, jade, pottery, and human remains could be found within this city’s Sacred Cenote, one of several sinkholes that served as year-round wells. A hidden temple chamber houses a red jaguar throne within its El Castillo pyramid. This city of the Late Classic Era was largely abandoned following an 11th-century drought. For the point, name this Mayan city in the northern Yucatan. | Chichen Itza |
| This country’s cuisine includes halaszle [hoh-LAHS-lee], a spicy red “Fisherman’s soup” made from carp. Its town of Eger is known for a red wine called “Bull’s Blood.” This country and its northern neighbor produce sweet wines made from fungus-infected grapes in the famed Tokaj [toh-koy] wine region. Its city of Szeged [seh-gehd] is a major production center for paprika, an important component of a stew from this country consisting of carrots, onions, and slow-cooked beef. For the point, name this Central European country that invented goulash. | Hungary US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| Due to a lack of recreational areas in its major cities, this country has seen an influx of “dancing grannies” occupying its public squares. The “Moments” feature of this country’s most popular messaging app allows people to post and share content within specific friend circles; that app has a green icon with two white chat bubbles. Some women in this country wear “face-kinis,” swimsuits covering their entire body and face, when they go to the beach. Teenagers in this country often visit “hotpot” restaurants. For the point, name this country home to online services such as QQ, WeChat, and Alibaba. | People’s Republic of China |
| The Kerguelen Islands and this archipelago are the only habitats of the unusually small Commerson’s dolphin. Since the 1940s, this archipelago’s forests have been devastated by invasive North American beavers. Its native Yaghan people were virtually exterminated during a gold rush in the 1860s. It’s not the Galapagos, but this rainy archipelago is covered by Magellanic subpolar forests due to its location on the southern end of the Humboldt Current. For the point, name this archipelago on the southern tip of South America. | Tierra del Fuego |
| In a valley within this mountain range, high-end cooking oil is produced from endemic Argan trees, which are frequently climbed by goats. This mountain range is the only habit of Cuvier’s gazelle, also known as the edmi. The two main agricultural regions within this arid mountain range are the Ourika Valley and the Draa Valley. It lies north of Grand Erg Occidental and Grand Erg Oriental, two large regions of sand dunes. Its extensive cork forests are a habitat of the Barbary macaque. For the point, name this mountain range in northwest Africa. | Atlas Mountains |
| This city’s first art museum houses a set of 8,000 shampoo bottle caps arranged in a mosaic of its most iconic leader titled No More Tears. At its Marina Bay Sands casino resort, a roof terrace connects three towers designed to resemble decks of cards by Moshe Safdie. In 2016, two “hawker stalls” in this city became the first street food vendors to earn a Michelin Star. Chinese immigrants introduced this city to its “national dish” of Hainanese chicken rice. Its government infamously banned the sale of chewing gum. For the point, name this island city-state on the tip of the Malay Peninsula. | Singapore |
| The Wenham Lake variety of this commodity was reputedly the favorite of Queen Victoria. The Boston businessman Frederic Tudor, who became known as this commodity’s “King,” shipped it to the Caribbean for the first time in 1806. During the 19th century, this commodity was processed along the Kennebec River before being packed in sawdust. Henry David Thoreau recounted how laborers harvested this commodity from Walden Pond during the winter to transport to southern locales such as Charleston and New Orleans. For the point, name this good used to cool beverages. | ice (or equivalents like frozen water; do not prompt on water or snow) US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| Like the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., a newly-opened art museum in this city currently exhibits a room lined with mirrors and filled with hundreds of LED lights, named the Infinity Mirrored Room by its creator Yayoi Kusama. That museum in this city is encapsulated within a rectangular prism, whose white walls are tessellated with holes. Chris Burden’s Urban Light sculpture features 202 antique streetlights lined in a square on this city’s Wilshire Boulevard. Its wealthy western suburbs are the site of the Getty Villa and Getty Center museums. For the point, name this city where the aforementioned Broad [BRODE] Museum sits across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. | Los Angeles (or LA) |
| The world’s northernmost tournament for this activity is periodically held at the village of Unstad in Norway’s mountainous Lofoten archipelago. During equinoxes, people take advantage of the Pororoca to partake in this activity at the mouth of the Amazon. In 2016, the ninth Eddie Aikau Memorial, a tournament for this sport, was held at Waimea Bay. The Banzai Pipeline along the north shore of Oahu is a popular site for, for the point, what watersport that involves riding waves? | surfing |
| This city lies northwest of the iconic calanques [kal-ankh], a series of steep, narrow limestone coastal inlets that separate this city from Cassis. After World War II, the CIA tacitly allowed the Mafia to export heroin from this port as part of the so-called “French Connection.” The Chateau d’If, which lies off this city’s coast, is where Edmund Dantes is imprisoned in The Count of Monte Cristo. This capital of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur lies west of the city of Nice, along the French Riviera. For the point, name this Mediterranean port city, the namesake of the French national anthem. | Marseilles [mar-sigh] (do not accept La Marseillaise) |
| This lake, which features a maximum depth of just 13 feet, had its water outflow stymied by the construction of the Tamiami Trail. Marjory Stoneman Douglas described how water flowed out of this lake’s southern end into a “river of grass.” On this lake, the Herbert Hoover Dike was built after a 1928 hurricane created a 20-foot-high storm surge that drowned over 2000 people. Billy Bowlegs positioned his troops in the sawgrass along this lake while fighting against Zachary Taylor in an 1837 battle. For the point, name this large lake in southern Florida that feeds into the Everglades. | Lake Okeechobee |
| This location once featured popular re-enactments of natural disasters such as the Galveston Flood, house fires, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and the San Francisco earthquake. For more than a decade, a doctor maintained a incubator sideshow at this location to provide free prenatal care to babies from impoverished backgrounds. In this location, Steeplechase Park and Dreamland once competed with Luna Park, where Topsy the Elephant was electrocuted as a publicity stunt in 1903. Nathan’s Famous hosts an annual hot dog-eating contest at, for the point, what Brooklyn “island” that was the site of many amusement parks? | Coney Island (prompt on “Brooklyn” or “New York (City)”) US Varsity and JV National - International Geography Bee 2016-2017 Bee Round 3 |
| This city was the site of the Provisional Priamurye Government. The Czechoslovak Legion was granted safe passage to this city during a civil war so they could be transferred to France, though they ended up being attacked en route to this city. During the Russo-Japanese War, a fleet was ambushed at Tsushima Straits while headed to this city, the largest Russian port on the Pacific. For the point, name this city, the eastern terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. | Vladivostok |