General Awareness Questions

• Cactus spines are also known as modified bud scales, which are also called modified leaves.

• Cactus spines occur in clusters in the axil of leaves.

For the first time in Sri Lanka, the United Nation Vesak Day celebration will be held in Colombo and Kandy from May 12 to 14. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest of the opening ceremony which will be held at BMICH in Colombo while Nepali President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will attend for the closing ceremony which is scheduled to be held at the Sri Dalada Maligawa premises in Kandy.

Sharjah, the city of United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been designated as the UNESCO World Book Capital 2019 by Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, at the Headquarters of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) at La Haye. The honour is in recognition of the Emirate’s pioneering role in supporting and expanding the local and regional publishing industries, promoting reading to become an intrinsic cultural practice, as well as embracing inter-cultural, knowledge-based dialogue. Sharjah was the first emirate in UAE to establish a formal school and a library. It was also the first emirate to house many cultural institutions like the Emirates Publishers Association and the Emirates’ writers Union. Sharjah is the 19th city to become World Book Capital. It is preceded by Conakry in 2017 and Athens in 2018.