James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was from which country?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: Basketball was invented by Canadian James Naismith in 1891. The country the test wants is therefore Canada.

Three commitments in one sentence. Discover Canada commits the basketball invention to THREE specific facts: (1) Canadian James Naismith (the inventor was Canadian); (2) 1891 (the year); and (3) basketball (the sport). So the source identifies Naismith specifically as a Canadian — making his invention a Canadian contribution to global sport.

Basketball is among Canada's named contributions to global sport. Discover Canada writes: "Sports have flourished as all provinces and territories have produced amateur and professional star athletes and Olympic medal winners. Basketball was invented by Canadian James Naismith in 1891. Many major league sports boast Canadian talent and in the national sport of ice hockey, Canadian teams have dominated the world." So basketball joins ice hockey (developed in Canada in the 1800s) as a Canadian-developed sport that became globally popular. Both are part of Canada's sporting heritage.

James Naismith fits Canadian innovation tradition. Discover Canada places James Naismith in a broader Canadian innovator-and-inventor tradition that includes Alexander Graham Bell (who hit on the idea of the telephone at his summer house in Canada), Reginald Fessenden (who contributed to the invention of radio, sending the first wireless message), Joseph-Armand Bombardier (who invented the snowmobile), Sir Sandford Fleming (who invented the worldwide system of standard time zones), Dr. John A. Hopps (who invented the first cardiac pacemaker), the SPAR Aerospace / National Research Council partnership (which invented the Canadarm), and Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie of Research in Motion (who invented the BlackBerry). So Naismith joins a long tradition of Canadian inventiveness — but his contribution was a sport rather than a technology. Basketball is now played around the world. So when the test asks the country of James Naismith, the source-precise answer is Canada.

The question is testing whether new citizens know the country of James Naismith, the basketball inventor. Discover Canada commits to one country: Canada. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each substitute a different country. "United States" is wrong — Naismith is named in the source as Canadian. "England" is also not what the source names. "France" is also wrong — Naismith was Canadian. Only Canada — the source's exact named country — matches.