NewsTracker Answers for week of
May 12, 2008
Q: Aid agencies estimate that 100,000 have died in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis and warn that this figure could rise to 1.5 million without provision of clean water and sanitation. Where is Myanmar?
Circle the area on this map
Q: Emergency aid has been severely delayed and restricted by the nation's military government, which seized power in 1988 and changed the name of the country. What was the previous name?
A. Rangoon
B. Mandalay
C. Burma
D. Siam
C. The United Kingdom still calls its former colony Burma because: “Burma's democracy movement prefers the form 'Burma' because they do not accept the legitimacy of the unelected military regime to change the official name of the country.”
Q: The storm that devastated Myanmar was a cyclone. What another name for this type of storm?
A. Tornado
B. Hurricane
C. Monsoon
D. Squall
B. Hurricane is most often used for cyclones occurring in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. The storms are known as typhoons in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Q: Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar's coast after forming over which body of water?
A. Indian Ocean
B. Burma Ocean
C. Pacific Ocean
D. Atlantic Ocean
A. The storm was born in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean.
Q: Storm relief efforts are being hampered by the nation extremely poor health care and infrastructure. Myanmar is one of the poorest nations in South Asia, but it ranks second in the world in which crop?
A. Rice
B. Wheat
C. Opium
D. Cotton
C. Myanmar produced an estimated 380 metric tons of illicit opium in 2005, up 13 percent from 2004.