NewsTracker Answers for week of July 21, 2008

Q: Spain says a feasibility study for an undersea tunnel to connect Spain and Morocco is in the final stages. Find Spain or Morocco on the map.

Circle the area on this map

Q: The train tunnel would stretch 40 kilometers - about 25 miles. Under which body of water would the trains pass?

A. Moroccan Sea

B. Spanish Sea

C. Mediterranean Sea

D. Atlantic Ocean

C. The Mediterranean separates Europe and Africa.

Q: The undersea link would unite North Africa and Europe for the first time since the continents separated more than 200 million years ago. Geologists say all of the Earth's continents were once part of a supercontinent they call ...

A. Gaia

B. Euramerica

C. Tectonica

D. Pangaea

D. Scientists say Pangaea existed about 250 million years ago before each of the continents drifted apart because of the constant shifting of Earth's tectonic plates.

Q: Muslims from North Africa, including what is now Morocco, once conquered and ruled Spain. What were those conquerers called?

A. Conquistadors

B. Moors

C. Basques

D. Ottomans

B. The Moors conquered Spain between 711 and 718. After more than 700 years of conflict, Christian forces defeated the last of the Moors in 1492.

Q: Under the Treaty of Fez, Spain ruled part of Morocco from 1912 to 1956. What country ruled the rest of the Morocco during that time?

A. France

B. Italy

C. Great Britain

D. Germany

A. France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence in 1956, but Spain and Morocco still dispute ownership of the cities of Ceuta and Melilla on islands off the coast of Morocco. Spain has controlled the cities since the 16th and 15th centuries.