Geography entrance exam, 2016 E.C. (2024)

Nitisols are deep, red, well drained tropical soils with a clay rich but crumbly subsoil. Plant litter rots and mixes right through them, so they hold a lot of humus and are among the most fertile soils of the Ethiopian and African highlands.

Ferralsols are the tempting choice because they are tropical and red as well, but they are so heavily weathered and leached that little organic matter or nutrient is left in them.

Africa is the world's second most populous continent after Asia, with about 1.4 billion people, roughly 17 percent of humanity. That is more than twice the population of North America, so the statement in option A is the true one.

Option B, the letter recorded on this paper, calls Africa the third most populous continent. Grade 10 says plainly that the continent is second, next to Asia, so that option cannot stand.

Textbook: Geography Grade 10, Unit 4 Population of Africa, section 4.1 Overview of world population growth and size (page 84).

Southern Africa carries the heaviest mortality of the African regions. Grade 10 gives crude death rates running from 6 per 1000 in Northern Africa up to 11 per 1000 in Southern Africa, the mark of HIV and AIDS together with an older age structure.

That same high mortality, added to birth rates that are the lowest on the continent, leaves Southern Africa with the smallest natural increase rather than the largest, so option B fails. Life expectancy there is also higher than in Western and Central Africa, which rules out option A.

Textbook: Geography Grade 10, Unit 4, section 4.2 Africa's major demographic trends (page 97).

About 105 boys are born for every 100 girls everywhere, but women live longer, so the sex ratio of a whole population is decided by mortality. In sub Saharan Africa women slightly outnumber men, which puts the ratio below the world mean of about 101 males per 100 females.

Option C states the exact opposite of option A, so the two cannot both be true, and option D can be dropped because male births exceed female births in every country, Guinea included.

Textbook: Geography Grade 10, Unit 4, section 4.3 Population structure.

What a receiving country gains most from migration is workers. Migrants take jobs that the local workforce cannot fill, in farming, construction, care work and health services, so labour shortage eases and those sectors keep running.

Ethnic tension is something migration can bring with it, but it is a problem rather than an advantage, so option C cannot answer a question about benefits.

Economic development is judged by how people live: income, health, schooling, housing, work and how fairly all of it is shared. Producing more is only growth, and development is growth that reaches daily life.

Options A and C describe rises in output. Output can climb while most people stay poor, so neither of them defines development.