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.