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Sandy Wood
Brain Game: The European Seven
by Sandy Wood - November 2, 2009 - 7:30 AM

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Feel free to consult a European map to assist you with today’s Brain Game; a quick examination may help lead you to the answer. Good luck!

Geographically, what do these seven independent European
nations
- but no others on the continent – have in common?

Denmark, Holy See (Vatican City), Republic of Ireland,
Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, United Kingdom.

Here is the SOLUTION.
Comments (11)
  1. Technically, Ireland and the UK are not \on the continent\.

    I’d apologize for being picky,but this is mental_floss, after all

  2. That one was too easy, didn’t even need the map.

  3. And technically, UK and Ireland don’t “border” at all. The map I consulted shows a body of water between them. Going off to find a definition of border…..

  4. Psst… Northern Ireland (part of the UK) touches Ireland.

  5. immediately after i saw portugal, uk, ireland that i knew they all border another nation. didnt know it had to be this specific.

  6. Great question! Always nice to start off a week with a right answer!

  7. Not to jump on the error wagon, but I spent the last 2 months studying for the GRE in my free time. During this time I learned that “to peruse” actually means to read or examine with great thoroughness. So a quick peruse is impossible.

  8. I guessed that the answer was the one-border aspect honestly expecting the real answer to more elusive. Nice to start off the week right :-)

  9. Rolan, sorry to use the “independent nation” yadda yadda clarification, but our readers are far too smart and would have called me on it otherwise, with a few of the island possessions that are split between two nations.

    K.J., Ireland and the U.K. *do* really share a land border, since Northern Ireland is part of the U.K.

    And Anne, you’re absolutely correct. I’ll fix that in the text.

  10. i love geo questions!

  11. Phil, the United Kingdom & Ireland ARE on the continent of Europe. Only that they are not attached to mainland Europe. And the United Kingdom does border Ireland. Northern Ireland borders the Republic of Ireland. Simple geographical logic, sheeh…

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