General Awareness: Explorers Quiz

1. What Genoese explorer sailed off Spain on 3 August 1492 across the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America?    

a) Vasco da Gama
b) Amerigo Vespucci
c) Christopher Columbus

The correct answer is c) Christopher Columbus

2. This British captain explored the Pacific Ocean and was the first to reach New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii.    

a) James Cook
b) Mulford B. Foster
c) Henry Hudson

The correct answer is a) James Cook

3. This Venetian explorer, who lived in the 13th-14th century, traveled across Asia and wrote an account of his travels known as 'Il Milione'.    

a) Marco Polo
b) Juan Ponce de Leon
c) Pedro Alvares Cabral
d) Bartolomeu Dias

The correct answer is a) Marco Polo

4. What is the name of the first astronaut to walk on the surface of the moon?    

a) Michael Collins
b) Neil Armstrong
c) Yuri Gagarin
d) Buzz Aldrin

The correct answer is b) Neil Armstrong

5. What Scottish missionary and explorer of central Africa was the first European to see the Victoria Falls and name them in honor of Queen Victoria?    

a) John Rae
b) Henry Morton Stanley
c) David Livingstone
d) Richard Francis Burton

The correct answer is c) David Livingstone

6. What Portuguese explorer was the first to reach the Cape of Good Hope by sailing from Portugal?    

a) Hernando de Soto
b) Bartolomeu Dias---
c) Giovanni da Verrazzano
d) Vasco da Gama

The correct answer is b) Bartolomeu Dias

7. Who was the first English explorer to sail around the world and return alive in England in 1580?    

a) James Cook
b) Francis Drake
c) Henry Hudson
d) John Cabot

The correct answer is b) Francis Drake

8. What is the name of the Spanish explorer who conquered the Inca Empire?    

a) Vasco da Gama
b) Amerigo Vespucci
c) Ferdinand Magellan
d) Francisco Pizarro

The correct answer is d) Francisco Pizarro

9. Who was the first explorer to reach the South Pole, and also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles?    

a) Ernest Shackleton
b) Robert Falcon Scott
c) Douglas Mawson
d) Roald Amundsen

The correct answer is d) Roald Amundsen

10. This Portuguese explorer became the first European to successfully reach India from Europe around the Cape of Good Hope.    

a) Vasco da Gama
b) Bartolomeu Dias
c) Vasco Nunez de Balboa
d) Christopher Columbus

The correct answer is a) Vasco da Gama