Around the World in Eight Minutes Quiz

Answer: Italy

Italy's capital city is Rome. The two independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are situated in Italy as is Mount Etna, the highest volcano in Europe. The country is shaped like a boot with the toe of the boot appearing to kick Sicily.

The approximate area of Italy is 116,310 square miles. Interestingly, about three thousand Euros are tossed into the Trevi Fountain each day. Some inventions that were born in Italy include the piano, violin and cello. Seas that surround Italy include the Adriatic Sea, Ionian Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Ligurian Sea, Sea of Sardinia and Strait of Sicily.

Answer: Greece

Athens is the capital city of Greece. The area of Greece is 50,949 square miles making it about the same size as the state of Alabama. Mountains cover just about eighty percent of the country. Mount Olympus is the highest in the country at 9,570 feet.

There are many islands that make up Greece with nearly two hundred and thirty of them being inhabited. The largest island is Crete, followed by Euboea, Rhodes and Lesbos. The climate is mostly mild with wet winters and summers that are hot and dry.

Answer: Turkey

The country of Turkey is located on Anatolia in Western Asia as well as on East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. The capital city is Ankara and the largest city is Istanbul. Eight countries border Turkey and they include Armenia, Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Iraq and Syria. To the south lies the Mediterranean Sea, to the west is the Aegean Sea and to the north is the Black Sea.

The seven churches of revelation that are spoken of in the Bible are all found in Turkey.

Answer: Germany

The capital city of Germany is Berlin. Germany is bordered by Denmark in the north, both Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south. France and Luxembourg are to the southwest of Germany and both Belgium and the Netherlands are to the northwest. Germany's area is 137,847 square miles.

The highest mountain is Zugspitze, in the Alps. It is 9,718 feet high. Some natural resources include iron ore, potash, timber, natural gas and nickel to name a few. Germany is a country of beer and sausages. An interesting tidbit is that there are more than one thousand beer breweries in Germany and these breweries make about five thousand different kinds of beer.

Answer: Spain

Spain's capital city is Madrid. Spain is approximately 18,000 square miles and borders Portugal, Gibraltar, France, Andorra and Morocco. Spain has several islands including the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

The mainland of Spain is mountainous and includes the Pyrenees, Sierra Morena, Sierra Nevada and more. The highest point in Spain is the Teide, an active volcano in the Canary Islands. It reaches a height of 12,198 feet. In Spain there is no such thing as a "tooth fairy".

Instead there is a tooth mouse and its name is Ratoncito Perez. The mop was invented by a Spaniard and so was the beret.

Answer: China

China's capital city is Beijing and the largest city is Shanghai. The area of China is 3, 747,879 square miles and has a population well over one billion. China has the Himalaya Mountains and it has high plateaus as well. There are also sandy deserts and dense forests. In fact the tallest mountain in our world, Mount Everest, is on the border of China and Nepal. The main rivers are the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers. The giant panda lives in the mountains in southwest China. They don't live anywhere else in the world. A lot of Chinese beliefs and also their philosophies are based on the teachings of Kongfuzi (Confucius). When the Chinese packed a soft milk and rice combination in the snow this was the invention of ice cream.

The Chinese calendar is represented by twelve animals which Buddha apparently named after the animals which visited him before he left our earth. It is believed that people have some characteristics of the animals that represent them. There are over 40,000 characters written in Chinese. Each is learned by memorization and by the time children leave college they are expected to know from four to five thousand of these characters.

Answer: Mexico

Estados Unidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States) is actually the official name of Mexico. The capital city is Mexico City. Mexico has high mountains as well as deep canyons. Two of the ranges include the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental. Jutting out into the Gulf of Mexico at the southeastern tip of Mexico is the Yucatan Peninsula.

This was home to the Maya civilization once upon a time. In the north there are deserts, and in the south as well as the east there are rain forests.

The rainforests house elusive animals such as the jaguar and the quetzals. Mexico is situated in the "Ring of Fire". Here some of the worst volcanoes and earthquakes happen.

Answer: Brazil

The largest country in South America is Brazil. The area of Brazil is 3,287,357 square miles. The capital city is Brasilia. No other country in South America has Portuguese as its language. In 2012 the population of Brazil exceeded 190 million people.

The second longest river in the world, the Amazon River, flows through Brazil. Approximately sixty percent of the Amazon Rainforest is located in the country of Brazil. The statue of Christ sits on top of Corcovado Mountain which is 2,316 feet high.

This mountain is in the center of Rio de Janeiro. Corcovado is Portuguese word meaning "hunchback".

Answer: New Zealand

New Zealand is located in the region known as Oceania. Its area covers 103,738 square miles. The longest river is the Waikato River and the largest lake is Lake Taupo. Due to the amazingly dramatic landscape, New Zealand has become a very popular place for filming such great films as "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. New Zealand is made up of many islands such as Antipodes, Auckland, Bounty, Campbell, Chatham a Kermadec Islands as well as its North and South main islands. Mount Cook, in the Southern Alps on the South Island is the highest peak reaching 12,316 feet.

In New Zealand there is the flightless bird known as the kiwi which is their national bird. The word kiwi also is a slang term used to describe people from New Zealand and it is also used to describe the kiwifruit (Chinese Gooseberries). Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest was from New Zealand. Sheep outnumber humans in New Zealand. There are well over thirty million sheep in New Zealand and about four and a half million people. Bats are the only native land animals in New Zealand with two surviving species. The two species of bat are the short-tailed and the long-tailed bats.

Answer: United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The country borders the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. UAE is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the west and south and by Oman to the east. Qatar borders UAE on the northwest but this border is in constant dispute. The area of UAE is around 32,278 square miles; however there are many disputes over claims to many islands in the Persian Gulf so exact size is not easily determined. The climate here is hot and dry especially in the months of July and August. Due to altitude it is somewhat cooler in the Al Hajar al Gharbi Mountains. UAE gets hit with many dust storms with some of them being quite violent.

In 2012 statistics showed Dubai to be the most populous city with nearly two million inhabitants. In the city of Dubai there are luxurious malls. The man-made structure called the Burj Dubai (also known as the Burj Khalifa)is in Dubai and is over 2,700 feet tall. Ski Dubai is an indoor resort that is part of the Mall of the Emirates. There are five ski slopes inside this building and people can enjoy skiing and snowboarding here. There is also a Snow Park for sled and toboggans and even body sliding.