NewsTracker Answers for week of Oct. 11, 2010

Q: Hungary's prime minister has played down the threat of widespread water pollution after the spill of a large amount of toxic red sludge from an industrial plant killed seven people and injured many more. Where is Hungary?

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Q: Up to 35 million cubic feet of the sludge burst from a reservoir at an aluminium plant, destroying homes and pouring into rivers that feed Europe's second largest river. What is the name of that eastern European river which runs through Hungary and nine other nations?

A. Tiber

B. Thames

C. Seine

D. Danube

D. The River Danube originates in Germany's Black Forest and flows southeastward for a distance of some 1,771 miles. Only Russia's Volga River is longer in Europe.

Q: The red ooze, which can cause severe chemical burns, has reached the Danube upstream from Hungary's capital of . . .

A. Bucharest

B. Budapest

C. Belgrade

D. Bratislava

B. Budapest is Hungary's capital and largest city with a population of about 2.5 million people. Regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest is formed from two earlier cities, Buda and Pest, on opposite sides of the Danube.

Q: What body of water does the Danube empty into through its delta in Romania and the Ukraine?

A. Aegean Sea

B. Black Sea

C. Caspian Sea

D. Dardanelles

B. The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.

Q: The greatest portion of the world's land drains into which ocean?

A. Atlantic

B. Pacific

C. Indian

D. Arctic

A. About 47 percent of all land in the world drains to the Atlantic Ocean. Just over 13 percent of the land in the world drains to the much larger Pacific. Ultimately, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern are all part of the World Ocean which covers 71 percent of the Earth's surface.