Which of the following pairs of Deserts and Countries  is NOT correctly matched?

The correct answer is D. The Gibson Desert is in Western Australia, not Brazil, so this is the pair that is not matched.

The other three pairs are right. Sonoran desert spans south-western USA (Arizona and California) and north-western Mexico. Taklamakan lies in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, China. Karakum covers most of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, in the Turan lowland between the Amu Darya and the Caspian.

The core concept is the global distribution of hot and cold deserts, which are mostly found along the subtropical high-pressure belts and in continental interiors shielded from moisture. For Mains, this links to climate geography and the spread of desertification, which is relevant to the Thar and the Central Asian drying of the Aral Sea region. Brazil's dry areas are mostly the semi-arid Caatinga of the north-east, which is not a true desert.

Trap: Candidates often confuse Gibson with the Great Sandy or Great Victoria deserts, which are also in Australia, and then match the Gibson pair to a random country. Know the Australian deserts as a group.