Answer: B

Exp: 

Delos, one of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient Greek and Roman world, is at danger to be sunk into the Aegean Sea due to climate change.

 Aegean Sea:

• It an arm of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek peninsula on the west and Asia Minor on the east. 
• The Aegean Sea is between the Greek and Anatolian Peninsulas between Turkey and Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. Hence, option (b) is correct.
• The Aegean is connected through the straits of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus to the Black Sea, while the island of Crete can be taken as marking its boundary on the south.

Ans: D

Exp:

Chad has become the first country in 2024 and the 51st globally to eliminate a neglected tropical disease (NTD) — the gambiense form of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT).

• • Statement 1 is incorrect: HAT is caused by protozoan parasites that spread via infected tsetse flies. 
    • The illness is typically fatal if left untreated, according to the WHO. If not treated, the disease progresses slowly, causing fatigue, headaches and, in severe cases, coma.

• There are two forms of HAT, determined by the subspecies of the parasite involved: Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which accounts for 92 per cent of reported cases and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, responsible for the remaining 8 per cent.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: In a landmark achievement, Chad has become the first country in 2024 and the 51st globally to eliminate a neglected tropical disease (NTD) — the gambiense form of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness. 
  • This announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) marks a significant victory in the ongoing fight against these debilitating diseases that primarily affect low-income populations.

Ans: D

Exp:

A new study has raised concerns about the effectiveness of nature-based carbon removal projects, specifically those focused on forestation.

• Row 1 Contains Correct Information: Type of carbon sink: Land: Forests, grasslands & soils.

• • • How they store carbon: Tree and other plants take up carbon through photosynthesis, storing it in their biomass.
      • Once plants die, this carbon is stored in soil via decompisition.
      • Carbon can also be stored long-term in timber used for building.
    • Permanence range: Decades – centures. 10s-100s of years.

• Row 2 Contains Correct Information: Types of carbon sink: Oceans.

• • • How they store carbon: Phytoplankton and other forms of marine life take up carbon via photosynthesis, similarly to plants.
      • When they die, this carbon sinks to the ocean floor, where it is stored for the long term in seabed sediments.
    • Permanence range: Centuries – millenia. 100s-1000s of years.

• Row 3 Contains Correct Information: Types of carbon sink: Geological formations.

• • How they store carbon: Geological formations like volcanic rocks and underground saline formations are also key carbon storage sites.
    • Engineered carbon removal methods are able to pressurise CO2 into liquid form, which can then be injected into basins of porous rock deep underground.
  • Permanence range: Millenia – epochs. More than 10,000 years.

Ans: A

Exp:

In the pampas, Argentina’s vast and fertile grasslands outside Buenos Aires, grain silos overflow with this year’s harvest.

• Pair 1 is incorrectly matched: The campo rupestre (“rupestrian grassland”) is a discontinuous montane subtropical ecoregion occurring in Brazil, South America.
• Pair 2 is correctly matched: The Pampas are fertile South American low grasslands that include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires. 
• Pair 3 is incorrectly matched: Veld is a type of wide open rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana. 
• Pair 4 is incorrectly matched: Downs is pastoral and agricultural region in Australia. It extends westward from the Great Dividing Range and southward to the Dumaresq and Macintyre rivers, generally occupying the basin of the Condamine River. 

Answer: B

Exp:

Anthropic, OpenAI’s biggest rival, has launched its latest AI model called Claude 3.5 Sonnet — the company’s first release in the upcoming Claude 3.5 AI model series.

What is Claude 3.5 Sonnet?

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet is a large language model (LLM), and is part of the family of LLMs which is being developed by Anthropic. 
• These models are known as generative pre-trained transformers, which means they have been pre-trained to predict the next word in large amounts of text. 

Large Language Models:

• Large Language Models (LLMs) are advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to understand and generate human language. 
• These models are trained on vast amounts of text data and use sophisticated algorithms to predict and generate coherent and contextually relevant language.