RAS question
The Ural Mountains separate:
Correct answer: (A) Europe from Asia.
The Ural Mountains separate Europe from Asia by forming the major part of their traditional physiographic boundary.
Explanation
The Ural Mountains are treated in geography as the traditional boundary line between Europe and Asia. Britannica describes them as a mountain range in west-central Russia forming the major part of that traditional physiographic boundary. For exam use, the range runs for about 2,500 km, from the Arctic side towards Kazakhstan, with Mount Narodnaya as its highest peak at 1,895 metres. This is why the question is asking for a continental boundary, not merely a mountain location. The Urals are also remembered because of their age, mineral wealth, nearby industrial cities such as Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk, and the Ural River, which also forms part of the Europe-Asia boundary.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) North America and South America are not separated by the Ural Mountains; Panama is the link between them.
- (C) Africa and Asia are not separated by the Urals; the Suez Canal and the Red Sea are the separating features.
- (D) Australia and Antarctica are not divided by a mountain range in Eurasia; the Southern Ocean is the separating feature.
Concept
This tests the world-geography concept of conventional continental boundaries. It recurs in RAS because such boundary questions connect physical geography with map-based elimination.