20. Who became the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest?
[SSC CGL, 5 March 2020, Shift 2]
- (A) Premlata Agarwal
- (B) Arunima Sinha
- (C) Anshu Jamsenpa
- (D) Poorna Malavath
Answer: (B) Arunima Sinha
Explanation: Arunima Sinha reached the summit of Mount Everest in May 2013, becoming the first female amputee to do so. A former volleyball player, she continued mountaineering despite losing a leg, and subsequently climbed several other major peaks.
19. Which company manufactured the first commercial microprocessor, the 4004?
[SSC CHSL, 17 March 2020, Shift 2]
- (A) Intel Corporation
- (B) ENOcean
- (C) NVIDIA Corporation
- (D) PLX Devices
Answer: (A) Intel Corporation
Explanation: Intel introduced the 4004 microprocessor in November 1971. Designed originally for calculator applications, it was a commercially available four-bit microprocessor that placed central processing functions on a single integrated circuit.
18. In which country was ENIAC, the pioneering programmable general-purpose electronic computer, developed?
[SSC CHSL, 21 October 2020, Shift 1]
- (A) United Kingdom
- (B) China
- (C) Japan
- (D) United States of America
Answer: (D) United States of America
Explanation: ENIAC was constructed at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States during the 1940s. The machine used vacuum tubes for electronic calculation and contributed significantly to the emergence of general-purpose computing after the Second World War.
17. Who was both Sri Lanka’s first woman prime minister and the first woman prime minister worldwide?
[SSC CGL, 10 June 2019, Shift 3]
- (A) Chandrika Kumaratunga
- (B) Sirimavo Bandaranaike
- (C) Rosy Senanayake
- (D) Upeksha Swarnamali
Answer: (B) Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Explanation: Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Ceylon in 1960 and served three separate terms. Her appointment was a worldwide political milestone because no woman had previously held the office of prime minister of a sovereign state.
16. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1903?
[SSC CHSL, 9 July 2019, Shift 1]
- (A) Marie Curie
- (B) Jane Addams
- (C) Alva Myrdal
- (D) Jody Williams
Answer: (A) Marie Curie
Explanation: Marie Curie shared the 1903 Physics Nobel with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for research on radiation. She was the first female Nobel laureate and received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.
15. Who developed the first vaccine against smallpox?
[SSC CGL, 11 June 2019, Shift 2]
- (A) John Hunter
- (B) Alexander Fleming
- (C) Louis Pasteur
- (D) Edward Jenner
Answer: (D) Edward Jenner
Explanation: Edward Jenner tested his cowpox-based method of preventing smallpox in 1796. His work initiated the scientific practice of vaccination; later public-health campaigns expanded immunisation until the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1980.
14. Which was the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the Moon’s surface?
[APPSC Group-II Prelims, 5 May 2019, Paper II]
- (A) Luna 2
- (B) Ranger 4
- (C) Surveyor 4
- (D) Chang’e 1
Answer: (A) Luna 2
Explanation: The Soviet Luna 2 probe reached the Moon in September 1959, becoming the first human-made object to contact another celestial body. It was an impact mission, not a controlled soft landing, which came later in lunar exploration.
13. Which spacecraft carried the first successful human spaceflight?
[APPSC Forest Beat Officer Prelims, 2019]
- (A) Vostok 1
- (B) Apollo 11
- (C) Challenger
- (D) Shenzhou 5
Answer: (A) Vostok 1
Explanation: The Soviet Vostok 1 spacecraft carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit on 12 April 1961. Its flight lasted about 108 minutes and made Gagarin the first human in space, a landmark in the early space age.
12. Which country issued the world’s first green Islamic bond, or green sukuk?
[SSC CHSL, 24 March 2018, Shift 2]
- (A) Indonesia
- (B) Malaysia
- (C) Saudi Arabia
- (D) Iraq
Answer: (B) Malaysia
Explanation: Malaysia pioneered green sukuk financing in 2017, blending Islamic finance structures with funding for environmentally beneficial projects. Such bonds follow Sharia-compliant investment principles while directing proceeds toward eligible renewable-energy and sustainability activities.
11. Which country launched a pioneering commercial direct-air carbon capture plant in 2017?
[SSC CHSL, 22 March 2018, Shift 3]
- (A) China
- (B) Italy
- (C) Japan
- (D) Iceland
Answer: (D) Iceland
Explanation: Iceland hosted pioneering direct-air carbon capture demonstrations associated with Climeworks and the CarbFix mineralisation approach. The process captures carbon dioxide from ambient air and can store it underground by converting it into stable minerals.
