Consider the following pairs : Region Country I. Mallorca : Italy II. Normandy : Spain III. Sardinia : France In how many of the above rows is the given information correctly matched?
- (a) Only one
- (b) Only two
- (c) All the three
- (d) None ✓ UPSC's answer
Why the answer is (d)
• Mallorca is the largest of Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, so pairing it with Italy is wrong.
• Normandy is a region of northern France on the English Channel, famous for the 1944 D-Day landings; pairing it with Spain is wrong.
• Sardinia is Italy's second-largest island, lying south of French Corsica; pairing it with France is wrong.
• Each region has been assigned to a neighbouring country — none of the rows is correctly matched.
• Hence option (d).
Why the other options are wrong
- (a) Only one
- No row is correct; every region is placed in the wrong country.
- (b) Only two
- None of the rows is correctly matched.
- (c) All the three
- All three pairs are wrong.
Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2025, held on 25 May 2025. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.