NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 09, 2012

Q: Jamaica's new prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, said she intends to make the island a republic, removing Britain's Queen Elizabeth as the head of state. Where is Jamaica?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, a sovereign state that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. Which of these former British colonies is NOT a Commonwealth realm?

A. Australia

B. India

C. Canada

D. New Zealand


B. With 1.2 billion people, India is the most populous member of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations, but it is not one of the 14 member nations that recognize Elizabeth II as their queen. All but two members of the Commonwealth of Nations – Mozambique and Rwanda - were once part of the British Empire.


Q: Most Jamaicans are descended from which group?

A. African slaves

B. English colonists

C. Chinese merchants

D. Native Americans


A. The island was settled by the Spanish early in the 16th century. The native Taino Indians, who had inhabited Jamaica for centuries, gradually died off and were replaced by African slaves. England seized the island in 1655 and kept importing slaves. By the time England freed its slaves in 1838, black Jamaicans outnumbered whites by a ratio of 20 to 1.


Q: Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea. What is the largest?

A. Puerto Rico

B. Hispaniola

C. Cuba

D. Sicily


C. Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico are the four largest islands in the Caribbean. All the islands were visited by Christopher Columbus, who established the first European colony in the New World on Hispaniola, which now contains the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.


Q: Jamaica's biggest export is bauxite. What is it used to make?

A. Aluminum

B. Bakelite

C. Steel

D. Rum


A. Bauxite rock is the principal ore used to produce aluminum. Jamaica's largest crop is sugarcane, which is used to make sugar and rum. During its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became one of the world's leading sugar-exporting, slave-dependent territories.