PMS GK 2020 MCQs with Answers & Explanations

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The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 but entered into force on 16 February 2005, after enough countries ratified it.

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Under the Government of India Act 1935, Sindh was separated from the Bombay Presidency and became a separate province on 1 April 1936.

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France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States; it was dedicated in New York in 1886 as a symbol of friendship and liberty.

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Nanga Parbat (8,126 m), the ninth-highest mountain in the world, lies at the western end of the Himalayas in Gilgit-Baltistan.

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Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who reached India by sea in 1498, opening the sea route from Europe to Asia.

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SAARC has 8 members: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

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The Objectives Resolution was passed by Pakistan's Constituent Assembly on 12 March 1949, under Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.

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Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, such as Freon) release chlorine in the upper atmosphere, which breaks down ozone molecules.

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Nurul Amin was Pakistan's first and only Vice President, serving briefly in December 1971.

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The Kabul River joins the Indus near Attock in Punjab.

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Tarbela Dam on the Indus River in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the largest earth-filled dam in the world by volume of fill.

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Ram Nath Kovind was President of India from July 2017 to July 2022, so he was in office in August 2020. Droupadi Murmu succeeded him in 2022.

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The UN has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

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Under the 1973 Constitution, a person must be at least 30 years old to be elected to the Senate (25 for the National Assembly).

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Natural gas was discovered at Sui in Balochistan in 1952; commercial supply began in 1955.

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Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea is about 1,046 km long, shared by Sindh and Balochistan (CIA World Factbook).

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Jabir bin Hayyan (8th century) is known as the father of chemistry for his early experimental work in alchemy and chemistry.

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The Lowari Pass in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa connects Dir with Chitral.

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World Water Day is observed every year on 22 March, as declared by the UN General Assembly.

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A web page address is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), for example https://www.example.com.

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Sarojini Naidu called Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah the 'Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity', especially after the Lucknow Pact of 1916.

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Scientists estimate the age of the Earth at about 4.5 billion years (around 4.54 billion), based on radiometric dating.

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Oceans cover about 71% of the Earth's surface.

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Under the Constitution of Pakistan, the Chief Election Commissioner holds office for a term of 5 years.

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In 2015 the UN accepted Pakistan's claim to extend its continental shelf up to 350 nautical miles from the coast.

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The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip of Afghan territory lying to the north of Pakistan, separating it from Tajikistan.

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Ecology is the study of how living organisms relate to one another and to their environment.

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The study of possible life in outer space is called astrobiology, also known as exobiology.

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Zarb-e-Azb means 'sharp strike'; Azb was the name of a sword of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The operation was launched in North Waziristan in 2014.

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After the United States, the United Kingdom has the largest number of Nobel laureates.

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In statistics, variance is the square of the standard deviation.

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Segregation means separating groups apart; its antonym is integration, which means bringing them together.

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Boys passed: 50% of 1100 = 550; girls passed: 40% of 900 = 360. Total passed = 910 of 2000 (45.5%), so 54.5% failed.

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The differences increase by 2 (5, 7, 9): 6 + 5 = 11, 11 + 7 = 18, 18 + 9 = 27. So the missing number is 18.

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A+B = 60, B+C = 64 and C+A = 68, so A+B+C = 96. C = 96 - 60 = 36 years.

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In spreadsheets, a function is a pre-defined formula (such as SUM or AVERAGE) that calculates values in a specific order.

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Content can be shared between applications by embedding (a copy is stored in the file) or linking (the file stays connected to the source).

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French mathematician Blaise Pascal built one of the first mechanical calculators, the Pascaline, in the 1640s.

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Tim Berners-Lee combined the internet with hypertext to create the World Wide Web in 1989-1991.

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DVD+RW (rewritable) discs can be erased and rewritten many times; a plain DVD cannot.

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Aluminium can be recycled again and again without losing its quality.

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Large-scale deforestation is seen in the Amazon rainforest, mainly due to cattle ranching, farming and logging.

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Fossils are found mainly in sedimentary rocks, which form from layers of sediment that can preserve remains of organisms.

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Coniferous forests have lower biodiversity than tropical rainforests, which are the most species-rich land ecosystems.

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Vitamin B12 occurs naturally in animal foods such as meat, fish, eggs and milk, but not in fruits and vegetables.

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In high-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization, milk is heated to 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds.

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Fats give about 9 kcal per gram while carbohydrates and proteins give about 4 kcal per gram, so fats give about 2.25 times more energy.

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Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) slows the enzymatic browning of cut fruits, which is why lemon juice is used to keep apples from browning.

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About 85% of the body's phosphorus is in the bones and teeth, where it combines with calcium to make them strong.

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Cirrhosis is a disease in which healthy liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue, often due to hepatitis or alcohol.

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The brain judges the intensity of a stimulus by the frequency of nerve impulses, that is, the number of action potentials per second.

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The Calvin cycle (light-independent reactions of photosynthesis) takes place in the stroma of the chloroplast, where CO2 is fixed into sugar.

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Only about 1-2% of the human genome codes for proteins; the rest is non-coding DNA.

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The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China has the world's largest hydroelectric power station by installed capacity.

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Bamako is the capital of Mali in West Africa.

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The Arab Spring began in Tunisia in December 2010, after a street vendor's self-immolation sparked protests.

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Syria borders Turkiye, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. It does not share a border with Iran.

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The Arabian Desert is the second-largest hot desert in the world after the Sahara.

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The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) in Jerusalem.

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Venus is the brightest planet in the night sky because it is close to Earth and its thick clouds reflect most sunlight.

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SAPTA (SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement) was signed by SAARC countries in 1993 to reduce tariffs among members.

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The UN Security Council has 15 members: 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members elected for two years.

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India has around 70% or more of South Asia's population, making it by far the largest country in the region.

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Dr. Muhammad Raziuddin Siddiqui, a Pakistani physicist and mathematician, worked with Albert Einstein during his studies in Europe.

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Mirza Abol Hassan (M.A.H.) Ispahani was Pakistan's first ambassador to the United States (1947-1952).

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Angela Merkel was sworn in as German Chancellor for the fourth time in March 2018.

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Jahangir Khan won the British Open squash championship a record 10 times in a row (1982-1991).

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The Bolshevik Revolution, led by Lenin, took place in Russia in 1917 (October Revolution).

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Hugo Chavez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013.

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'Kapas ka Phool' is a collection of Urdu short stories by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi.

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The 9th Amendment bill (1985) proposed making the Quran and Sunnah the supreme law of Pakistan, but it was never enacted.

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The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP), Pakistan's first nuclear power plant, was built with Canada's help and began operating in 1972.

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Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto signed the Pakistan-China boundary agreement with Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi on 2 March 1963.

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The Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991, and the Russian Federation became its successor state.

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Ho Chi Minh founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in 1945 and led its independence struggle.

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'Rex' is the Latin word for 'king'.

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India has the longest written constitution of any country in the world.

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President Donald Trump's 'Deal of the Century' (2020) was a US peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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A 'shadow cabinet' is a team of senior opposition members who each watch and criticise a government minister in Parliament.

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China claims most of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls South Tibet.

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The IMF was created at the Bretton Woods Conference held in the United States in July 1944.

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The Treaty of Versailles (1919) formally ended the First World War between Germany and the Allies, settling peace in Europe.

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SDG 3 is 'Good Health and Well-being', which aims to ensure healthy lives for people of all ages.

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The Watergate scandal involved a break-in and spying on the Democratic Party headquarters in 1972. It led to US President Nixon's resignation in 1974.

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Scottish economist Adam Smith wrote 'The Wealth of Nations' in 1776.

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Quaid-e-Azam resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council in 1919 in protest against the Rowlatt Act.

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Textiles and garments, Pakistan's largest export sector, benefited most from GSP Plus duty-free access to the EU from 2014.

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The UN General Assembly declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

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Dr. Ruth Pfau, a German-born doctor and nun, worked for decades to eradicate leprosy in Pakistan and is remembered as the 'mother of leprosy patients'.

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Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi, a famous Urdu humorist, was a banker by profession.

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Habba Khatoon was a 16th-century Kashmiri poetess, known as the 'Nightingale of Kashmir'.

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Dr. Abdus Salam earned his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.

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Under the Treaty of Amritsar (1846), the British sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh Dogra for 7.5 million rupees.

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Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz was the only woman who took part in all three Round Table Conferences (1930-1932).

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Under Articles 58 and 112, if the President or Governor does not dissolve the assembly on the PM's or CM's advice, it stands dissolved after 48 hours.

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Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar became Governor of Punjab in 1949, the first Muslim to hold the post after independence.

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The National Economic Council of Pakistan is chaired by the Prime Minister.

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The shrine of Sufi poet Khawaja Ghulam Farid is at Mithankot in Rajanpur district, Punjab.

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The Karakoram Highway, built jointly by Pakistan and China, was completed in 1979 and opened to the public in 1986.

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The Shandur Pass connects Chitral with Gilgit and is famous for its annual polo festival.