Consider the following pairs of industrial regions and their associated products: 1. Wolfsburg (Germany) — Automobiles 2. Osaka-Kobe (Japan) — Chemicals and Machinery 3. Ruhr Valley (Germany) — Software and IT services 4. Donbas (Ukraine) — Coal and Steel How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?

Explanation

Three pairs are correctly matched. Wolfsburg is tied to automobiles because it is home to Volkswagen's global headquarters. Osaka-Kobe is correctly linked with chemicals and machinery: the Hanshin industrial zone is treated as Japan's second major industrial belt and is known for chemicals, machinery, textiles, and shipbuilding. Donbas is also correctly matched, since the Donetsk Basin has been Ukraine's historic industrial heartland, built around coal and steel. The wrong pair is Ruhr Valley-software and IT services. Britannica identifies the Ruhr as a major German industrial region whose coalfield produced the bulk of Germany's bituminous coal, with steel production and chemical manufacturing among its basic industries; that supports coal and steel, not software or IT.

Why the other options are wrong

• (A) Only one is too low because pairs 1, 2, and 4 are all correctly matched; only the Ruhr-IT services pair fails.
• (B) Only two misses one correct match, since Wolfsburg-automobiles, Osaka-Kobe-chemicals and machinery, and Donbas-coal and steel all stand.
• (D) All four cannot be accepted because Ruhr Valley is the classic coal-and-steel industrial region, not a software or IT-services hub.

Concept

This tests the World Geography theme of major industrial regions and their sectoral specialisation. RAS repeats such pairs because they link location, raw materials, and industrial output in a compact map-based format.

Source

• Encyclopaedia Britannica - Ruhr
• https://www.wolfsburg.de/en-us/wirtschaft/wirtschaften-und-investieren/volkswagen-aktiengesellschaft
• https://www.pref.osaka.lg.jp/documents/7190/eng_osakapamph2025.pdf
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Donbas

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