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Practice Test 25 - AP Human Geography

20 questions. Answer them in any order, then submit to see your score and every explanation.

  1. Secondary-source context (critiques—ignores inequality): Some geographers argue Malthusian explanations can overlook how hunger often results from poverty, conflict, and unequal access rather than absolute global food shortages. During a drought, a country exports cash crops while low-income households cannot afford staple foods. Which critique of Malthusian theory does this scenario best support?
  2. A secondary source excerpt in your AP Human Geography notes explains multi-scalar analysis: geographers often examine the same issue at more than one scale because causes and consequences can differ by level. In a study of rising housing costs, a student collects (1) neighborhood eviction filings, (2) citywide zoning changes, and (3) national interest-rate trends. Which approach best demonstrates multi-scalar analysis of housing affordability?
  3. A secondary source excerpt on the world city hierarchy argues that some cities function as command-and-control centers for the global economy due to concentrations of corporate headquarters, advanced producer services (finance, law, advertising), and connectivity. Which city characteristic best supports classifying a city as a high-order world city?
  4. A geography handbook explains that regional boundaries often form transition zones where characteristics change gradually, and that regions can overlap. A map of dialect use shows a gradual shift from one accent to another across several counties, with many speakers using mixed features. Which interpretation best fits the handbook?
  5. A secondary-source excerpt describes pastoralists in a semi-arid region who rotate grazing areas, maintain herd diversity (goats, sheep, cattle), and negotiate access to seasonal water points. The author argues these practices are cultural adaptations that reduce ecological pressure and buffer households against rainfall variability. Which approach best describes the excerpt's perspective?
  6. A 80–110 word secondary-source explanation of GIS and spatial databases notes that spatial joins depend on boundary choices and that the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) can change results when data are aggregated differently. A student calculates the relationship between income and crime using data aggregated by police precincts, then repeats the analysis using census tracts and gets a different correlation. Which conclusion best fits the excerpt?
  7. A secondary source on brownfield redevelopment explains that cleaning and reusing contaminated industrial sites can limit sprawl and restore land to productive use. The source notes, however, that redevelopment may increase nearby property values and displace long-term residents unless protections are included. Which redevelopment strategy best addresses both environmental remediation and social impacts?
  8. Secondary source excerpt (internal political boundaries): The arrangement of internal boundaries can produce unequal political outcomes. When urban areas are divided among multiple districts while rural areas remain intact, city voters may have less influence per capita even if districts meet population requirements. Conversely, combining distant communities into one district can weaken shared interests and reduce accountability. These consequences show that boundary design can shape representation as much as voter preferences do. Which consequence of internal boundary arrangements is most directly described?
  9. A museum exhibit description says: "People's culture includes both intangible ideas (like beliefs) and tangible items (like tools and clothing), and these are passed on through learning." Which statement best reflects this view of culture?
  10. Secondary source excerpt (about 105 words): Urban sociologists argue that global-city growth often coincides with heightened inequality. High-income professionals in finance and technology bid up housing costs near central business districts, while lower-wage service workers—who maintain offices, transport, and hospitality—face longer commutes and displacement. Public investment may prioritize globally competitive districts, leaving peripheral neighborhoods with fewer services. In this view, globalization restructures the city internally, producing sharp contrasts between affluent enclaves and marginalized areas even as the city's overall economy expands. Which option best expresses the excerpt's argument?
  11. A secondary-source excerpt on the diffusion of a global fast-food chain argues that the brand's advertising budgets, franchising contracts, and prime real-estate access allow it to reshape local eating habits more than local restaurants can reshape the chain. The excerpt emphasizes that diffusion is not equal exchange: corporate power influences what spreads and what becomes normalized. Which statement best reflects the excerpt's main point about diffusion's effects?
  12. A city's planning office overlays a heat map of pedestrian injuries with land-use and transit-stop layers. The 75–125 word secondary-source excerpt embedded in the prompt notes that mapping can make spatial clusters visible that are hard to detect in spreadsheets, helping officials target crosswalk upgrades and signal timing where risk concentrates. Which statement best captures the excerpt's central claim about mapping?
  13. Read the secondary-source excerpt and answer the question. Excerpt (about 100 words): States often use boundaries to create economic differences between "inside" and "outside" by regulating what enters the national market. Customs enforcement, import quotas, and selective tariff exemptions can protect domestic producers while still allowing inputs that industries depend on. These policies do not eliminate cross-border exchange; they reshape it by privileging certain goods and supply chains. As a result, border policy can incentivize firms to relocate warehouses, adjust sourcing, or increase compliance efforts to maintain access. This demonstrates how boundaries control movement in ways that reorganize economic activity rather than simply stopping it. Which choice best reflects the excerpt's main point?
  14. Secondary source excerpt (about 100 words): The DTM predicts how population growth changes as birth and death rates shift. The fastest growth usually occurs when death rates fall quickly but birth rates remain high—creating a large gap between births and deaths (high natural increase). As birth rates later decline, the gap narrows and growth slows. When both birth and death rates are low, growth tends to stabilize. Some versions add a fifth stage in which births fall below deaths, producing natural decrease unless offset by immigration. According to the DTM, during which stage is natural increase typically greatest?
  15. Secondary source excerpt (embedded): Push factors in forced migration are conditions that compel people to leave, including armed conflict, targeted persecution, state collapse, and sudden-onset disasters. These drivers often remove realistic alternatives, making staying dangerous. While economic hardship can be a push factor, international protection frameworks typically distinguish between generalized poverty and threats tied to violence or persecution. Which option is the best example of a forced-migration push factor as described?
  16. An interdisciplinary review describes how shifting precipitation patterns and more frequent heat extremes affect crop phenology, livestock stress, and pest ranges. The authors caution that adaptation is constrained by credit access, irrigation rights, and the suitability of existing seed systems, so benefits from new cultivars or technologies are uneven. They also emphasize that climate shocks can interact with global commodity markets, amplifying price volatility and influencing farmers' decisions about planting, insurance, and migration. The pattern described most directly results from which of the following?
  17. A sociolinguist describes Swahili in East Africa: coastal trade networks connected port cities to inland markets; Swahili grew as a common language for commerce and administration, incorporating many Arabic loanwords while also developing distinct regional accents. Later, governments promoted it in schools to unify diverse linguistic groups. Which statement best characterizes Swahili's diffusion?
  18. A rural sociology article on mechanized sugarcane production reports that as harvesting shifted from hand-cutting to machine harvesting, many women lost seasonal employment because hiring favored men trained to operate machinery. Women increasingly sought informal work in food vending to replace lost farm income. Which of the following best describes women's role in the agricultural system described?
  19. A secondary source excerpt describes the spatial distribution of aging populations: countries such as Japan and many in Europe have high proportions of older adults, while Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East remain relatively youthful due to higher fertility. Which option best reflects this geographic pattern?
  20. Secondary source excerpt: The global city hierarchy distinguishes between cities that direct global economic activity and those that primarily host routine functions. Top-tier nodes typically contain dense clusters of multinational headquarters, major financial markets, and institutions that set standards (legal, accounting, regulatory) used across borders. Lower-tier cities may still be internationally connected, but they tend to implement decisions made elsewhere rather than originate them. Which option best identifies a defining feature of top-tier global cities in this hierarchy?

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