NewsTracker Answers for week of Apr 04, 2022

Q: Sri Lanka's cabinet ministers have resigned en masse after widespread protests over the government's handling of an economic crisis, which caused daily power outages and shortages of food, medicines and fuel. Where is Sri Lanka, an island nation near the tip of India?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Sri Lanka has no fossil fuel resources, and its economic crisis left it short of money to import fuel. The 25,332-square-mile nation is just slightly larger than which U.S. state that is rich with fossil fuel?

A. Alaska

B. Maine

C. New Jersey

D. West Virginia

D. West Virginia’s economy was largely built on extracting coal from its 24,230 square miles, a dependence recently threatened by climate change. Alaska is rich in oil, another fossil fuel, but our largest state is about 26 times the size of Sri Lanka. Fuel shortages have led to electricity blackouts as long as 13 hours in the island nation.

Q: Angry protesters took to the streets in Sri Lanka’s capital Sunday in defiance of a curfew and an emergency declared by the country’s president. What is the capital and largest city of Sri Lanka?

A. Colombo

B. Dhaka

C. Kathmandu

D. New Delhi

A. The Colombo metropolitan area is home to 5.6 million of Sri Lanka’s 23 million people. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency after violent protests outside his home last Thursday. While 26 government ministers resigned, Rajapaksa and his brother, the prime minister, remained in office. Many blame the Rajapaksa family for the nation’s woes.

Q: While Sri Lanka is suffering a severe economic crisis, it has a much larger gross domestic product (GDP) per person than many of its neighbors in South Asia. Which of these nations has the lowest GDP per person?

A. Bangladesh

B. India

C. Nepal

D. Pakistan

C. When Nepal’s GDP is divided among its 30 million residents, it works out to $3,800 per person. It is about $4,600 in Pakistan; $4,800 in Bangladesh; $6,100 in India; and $12,500 in Sri Lanka. By comparison, the United States has a GDP per person of $60,200.

Q: Buddhism is Sri Lanka’s official and largest religion, followed by Hinduism, Islam and then Christianity. Which of the world’s four largest religions is the oldest?

A. Buddhism

B. Christianity

C. Hinduism

D. Islam

C. Hinduism’s Veda texts date back to between the 15th and 5th centuries BCE on the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism arose in India between the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. Christianity came along about 500 years later in the Mideast, and Islam arrived about 600 years after that. Christianity has 2.4 billion followers; Islam has 1.9 billion, Hinduism has 1.2 billion; and Buddhism has 500 million.