Base your answer to question
on the passage
below and on your knowledge of social studies.
… Europe’s waterways were also a blessing. Its
rivers flowed gently into sheltered, navigable
bays. The Rhine is a wide, slow-moving river that
can be used as a highway for goods and people.
The Mediterranean is calm, almost a lake, with
many big ports. Compare this to Africa. Despite
being the second-largest continent, Africa has the
shortest coastline, much of which is too shallow to
build major ports. Most of its big rivers—fastmoving, dramatic, vertiginous [dizzying]—are not
navigable. Add to that the tropical heat and
propensity [tendency] for disease and food
spoilage, and you have a compelling geographic
explanation for African underdevelopment—
surely not the only factor, but a significant
one.…
— Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World,
W. W. Norton & Company, 2008
Which conclusion about the geography of these
continents is best supported by this passage?
(1) Europe and Africa have the same climate.
(2) Europe and Africa have many deep major
ports.
(3) Waterways are a geographic blessing in both
Europe and Africa.
(4) River systems have helped development in
Europe and hindered it in Africa.
