General Knowledge Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 8)

The joint India-US intelligence mission aimed to place a nuclear-powered surveillance device on Nanda Devi, to monitor Chinese nuclear and missile activity.

Nine climbers reached the summit, across four separate teams, between 20 and 29 May 1965.

Santosh Yadav’s 1993 climb, 28 years after Gombu’s, made her the first woman to summit Everest twice — a different, separate record from Gombu’s.

Tenzing Norgay was HMI’s first Director of Field Training. Gombu took the same role in May 1976 and later became an honorary adviser. Hillary, Whittaker and Hunt were expedition figures, rather than predecessors in that HMI post.

Review Nawang Gombu: Everest ascents and HMI teaching.

Gombu became the first person to climb Everest twice. His summits were in 1963 and 1965. He climbed with Cheema in 1965, so the ascent was not solo. The record concerns repeat ascents, rather than youth or American nationality.

Review Nawang Gombu: Everest ascents and HMI teaching.

He was Tenzing Norgay’s nephew, and was the youngest Sherpa on Tenzing’s own 1953 Everest expedition.

They agreed to keep it secret so the achievement would be shared, not ranked. Hillary only confirmed he was first, by about ten feet, after Norgay’s death in 1986.

Tenzing became HMI’s first Director of Field Training in 1954. He led practical mountain training at the institute in Darjeeling. Chairman, Chief Patron and Honorary President do not identify that field-training role.

Review Tenzing Norgay: Everest and HMI.

Colonel John Hunt led the ninth expedition to attempt Everest. Eric Shipton had instead led the 1935 reconnaissance trip where Norgay first joined an Everest expedition, as a porter.

It set world records for the largest team (18) to summit Everest together, and the largest group of women (7) from a single country to do so.

Bachendri Pal led the 1993 Indo-Nepalese Women’s Everest Expedition. Yadav made her second ascent within that expedition. Hillary and Tenzing are associated with 1953. Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Everest in 1975.

Review Santosh Yadav: Everest records and teamwork.

The climber was Mohan Singh. Yadav gave him oxygen intermittently during their descent in 1992. The other names do not identify the climber rescued with her oxygen. Hillary and Tenzing belong to the first Everest ascent in 1953.

Review Santosh Yadav: Everest records and teamwork.

She summited via the difficult Kangshung Face, the first woman to do so, at age 20.

Santosh Yadav is the first woman in the world to have summited Mount Everest twice, first in May 1992 and again in May 1993.

Her 1993 Everest team, 1994 Ganga rafting voyage, and 1997 trans-Himalayan trek all followed the same pattern — leading all-women teams on major expeditions.

The avalanche struck Camp III at 24,000 feet on the night of 15–16 May 1984. Pal survived and continued the expedition. The summit date was 23 May. The other altitude-and-date pairs do not describe this accident.

Review Bachendri Pal: the climb and later leadership.

Pal became the fifth woman worldwide to climb Everest in 1984. She was the first Indian woman to do so. A national first is different from a world ranking. Third, fourth and seventh do not match her recorded place.

Review Bachendri Pal: the climb and later leadership.

She reached the summit on 23 May 1984, at 1:07pm, a day before her 30th birthday.

A House for Mr Biswas appeared in 1961 and centres on Trinidad’s Indian community. Its main character draws partly on Naipaul’s father. The African setting belongs to other writing. The novel is not a study of Oxford students or London’s immigrant community.

Review V.S. Naipaul: life and writing.

The Nobel award recognised storytelling joined with close study of histories that had been pushed aside. It did not cite Hindi translation or Caribbean political campaigning. The award covered his writing, rather than the invention of a single new form.

Review V.S. Naipaul: books and awards.

‘An Area of Darkness’ (1964) was the first of his three nonfiction books on India.

Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad, and grew up there. His Hindu family had Indian roots. He moved to England for study in 1950. India, Guyana and South Africa are not his birthplace.

Review V.S. Naipaul: life and writing.

His 1971 Booker win for ‘In a Free State’ made him the first person of Indian origin to win the prize.

The Jungle Book appeared in 1894. Kim is a later novel, published in 1901. The question asks for the story collection, not another Kipling title. The book’s Indian setting should be separated from its composition in Vermont.

Review Rudyard Kipling: life, books and remembrance.

Kipling accepted the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. He declined the knighthood, Poet Laureateship and Order of Merit. The options therefore test selective acceptance, rather than rejection of every honour.

Review Rudyard Kipling: life, books and remembrance.