Which is a characteristic of various kinds of world map projections?
a. they show areas nearest the equator inaccurately.
b. they distort scale and landmass shape.
c. they distort lines of latitude and longitude, while accurately showing landmass and oceans.
d. they cannot include enough detail to be useful.

b. They distort scale and landmass shape.

Explanation:

    Maps are an attempt to represent regions as faithfully as possible. But there is an obvious difficulty in representing curved or three-dimensional objects, such as the earth, on a flat, two-dimensional surface.

    So distortions always occur, that is, some parts of the map will not correspond exactly to what is being represented. It's like opening a ball and trying to stretch it to make it flat like a sheet of paper. You will not be able to make it flat unless you tear the edges, deforming it.