RAS question
The Gobi Desert is located in which countries?
Correct answer: (C) Mongolia and China.
The Gobi Desert spans southern Mongolia and northern China, so it is located in Mongolia and China.
Explanation
The Gobi Desert is correctly matched with Mongolia and China because it lies across southern Mongolia and northern China, and Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the Gobi as a great desert and semidesert region of Central Asia stretching across huge portions of both Mongolia and China. This also explains why the option is a country-pair question rather than a single-country question: the desert crosses an international boundary. It is Asia's largest desert and the fifth largest in the world, and it is a cold desert with severe temperature extremes, from about -40°C in winter to 45°C in summer. For RAS geography, the key point is the Mongolia-China location, not a West Asian or South Asian desert association.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Iran and Afghanistan are associated here with Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut, whereas the Gobi is placed in Mongolia and China.
- (B) Saudi Arabia and Iraq point to the Arabian Desert region, not to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and China.
- (D) Pakistan and India are linked with the Thar Desert, while the Gobi lies across Mongolia and China.
Concept
This tests world geography through the location of major deserts and their country associations. Such questions recur in RAS because deserts, plateaus and mountain systems are standard map-based facts used to check basic regional geography.