NewsTracker Answers for week of Nov. 17, 2025

Q: Two species of spiders – never known to live together or in groups – built “world’s largest spider web” in a cave on the Albanian-Greek border. A researcher said the estimated are 110,000 spiders are “constantly having a party there,” feeding on huge swarms of midge flies. Where are Greece and Albania?

Circle the area on this map

Q: The giant 1,140-square-foot spider’s web is in the pitch-black Sulfur Cave, which has an entrance in Greece and extends into Albania. Which country hosts the spiders’ party?

A. Albania

B. Greece

B. After Albania asked where the web was located, scientists determined it was on a cave wall on the Greek side of the border.

Q: Outside the cave, most “spiders in close vicinity will fight and end up eating each other,” another scientist said. Albania and Greece are on which European peninsula, which has been plagued by ethnic conflicts?

A. Balkan

B. Crimean

C. Iberian

D. Kanin

A. The Balkan Peninsula borders the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Turkish straits. These nations occupy the peninsula either exclusively or partially: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey

Q: Which empire once ruled most of the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East, North Africa, and the shores of the Black and Red Seas?

A. Austria-Hungary

B. British

C. Ottoman

D. Russian

C. In the 16th century, the Ottoman or Turkish Empire spanned approximately 877,888 square miles over three continents. It lost territory to the rising empires of Austria-Hungary, Britain, and Russia. World War I led to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian empires.

Q: After World War I, what new nation was created on the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe?

A. Albania

B. Bulgaria

C. Czechoslovakia

D. Yugoslavia

D. Yugoslavia, “Land of the South Slavs,” existed from 1918 until 1992. The breakup of the country triggered a decade of bloody ethnic fighting. Yugoslavia split into the nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.