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Practice Test 42 - AP Human Geography

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

  1. A secondary source describing the gravity model argues that migration flows tend to be larger between bigger population centers and smaller as distance increases (distance decay). Consider three cities: Metro A (population 8 million), Metro B (population 6 million) located 80 km from A, and Metro C (population 6 million) located 800 km from A. All else equal, which prediction best matches the gravity model?
  2. A development geographer summarizes Wallerstein's world-systems theory in a 100-word secondary-source excerpt: it argues the global economy is structured into core, semi-periphery, and periphery zones, where core regions concentrate high-profit production, finance, and political power while periphery regions supply raw materials and low-wage labor. Semi-peripheral states occupy an intermediate position, sometimes exploiting peripheral areas while also being constrained by core capital. In a classroom scenario, a student maps garment assembly in Bangladesh, design/branding in Italy, and global finance in New York. Which interpretation best aligns with world-systems theory?
  3. A demography textbook excerpt (75–125 words) discusses census data, emphasizing that changes in question wording or category definitions across years can affect comparability. A researcher compares "urban" population shares from 1990 and 2020 but ignores that the census agency revised the urban-area definition in 2010. Which is the most accurate concern?
  4. An online marketplace analyzes shipping data and finds that customers are much more likely to purchase items when delivery can occur within 2 days. Purchases drop as delivery time increases, but the drop is smaller after the company opens a new regional warehouse that shortens average delivery times. Which concept best explains the original decline and the effect of the new warehouse?
  5. A secondary source excerpt on music geography describes how producers collaborate remotely, sending files through cloud services and promoting songs through social platforms. A track can chart internationally before any live performance occurs, and remix culture encourages localized versions. Which contemporary cause of cultural diffusion does this best demonstrate?
  6. Secondary source excerpt (trade patterns and world economy): In many low-income countries, national export earnings remain concentrated in one or two primary commodities (such as cocoa, copper, or crude oil). Because global commodity prices fluctuate, government revenue and household incomes can rise quickly during booms but fall sharply during busts. This dependence often limits diversification into manufacturing and services, and it can increase external debt when states borrow against expected future export earnings. In AP Human Geography terms, this pattern is commonly discussed as commodity dependence and uneven integration into the world economy. Which outcome is most directly associated with the trade pattern described?
  7. A linguistics textbook excerpt explains that many European and South Asian languages share a common ancestor and diverged over time as groups migrated and became separated, leading to distinct but related branches. The author uses this to illustrate the concept of a language family and its branching. Which statement best reflects the process described?
  8. Secondary source excerpt (18th–19th c.): The Second Agricultural Revolution featured innovations such as the seed drill, improved plows, and systematic crop rotation. These changes reduced labor per unit of output and increased yields, enabling fewer farmers to feed more people. As rural productivity rose, population growth and changing diets expanded demand for manufactured goods. Which option best identifies the excerpt's main point about agricultural innovations?
  9. A secondary source on food systems notes that high-income urban cores consume large quantities of fresh produce year-round, while rural peripheral regions supply labor-intensive fruits and vegetables for export. Profits and decision-making power concentrate in corporate headquarters and retail chains located in the core, even though production occurs in the periphery. Which of the following best explains the spatial organization of agriculture described in the excerpt?
  10. An AP Human Geography review text states that early urbanization depended on a stable food supply: when farming communities produced more than they consumed, they could support full-time craft workers, merchants, and officials, which increased settlement size and complexity. Which option best summarizes the causal chain described?
  11. Secondary source excerpt (for context): Maritime territoriality relies on legal definitions that separate sovereignty from resource rights. A coastal state's territorial sea grants near-complete authority similar to land territory. In contrast, the EEZ provides rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage natural resources, while other states retain freedoms of navigation in many circumstances. Confusing these zones can lead to diplomatic conflict, especially where coasts are close together. Which statement demonstrates an accurate understanding of the EEZ as described in the excerpt?
  12. A historian describes a river valley where Indigenous irrigation terraces remain visible beneath later Spanish mission churches, followed by 19th-century rail depots and 20th-century suburban cul-de-sacs. This layering is used to argue that cultural landscapes preserve evidence of successive groups. Which concept is being applied?
  13. Secondary source excerpt (global economy—economic restructuring and job losses, 100 words): After a regional trade agreement reduced tariffs, a midwestern manufacturing region experienced plant closures as firms consolidated production in fewer, larger facilities abroad. Local unemployment rose, and municipal budgets tightened as property values fell. Community colleges expanded short-term certificates in trucking, medical assisting, and IT support, but many displaced workers reported difficulty matching prior wages and benefits. Researchers note that the region's economy did not simply "decline"; it was restructured toward different sectors, with uneven outcomes across age groups and neighborhoods. Which term best captures the change described?
  14. Secondary source excerpt (export-oriented development strategies, ~110 words): Export-oriented industrialization (EOI) emphasizes producing manufactured goods for international markets, often by attracting foreign direct investment, building special economic zones, and expanding port and logistics capacity. Governments may prioritize education and infrastructure to integrate into global value chains, while keeping exchange rates and trade policies favorable to exporters. However, when EOI relies heavily on a small number of assembly industries, countries can remain vulnerable to shifting demand, automation, or relocation by multinational firms. Upgrading into design, branding, and higher-skill production is often uneven. Which option best identifies a key vulnerability of EOI described in the excerpt?
  15. A border follows an existing language line and is written into a treaty. This border is:
  16. A methods guide defines a formal (uniform) region as an area sharing a quantifiable attribute, often mapped by applying a cutoff value. A researcher defines a "high-obesity region" as all counties with adult obesity rates of at least 30% and shades them on a choropleth map. Which option best explains why this is a formal region?
  17. A secondary source on global agriculture describes how a few multinational firms provide patented seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, offer contracts to growers, and control processing facilities and branding for packaged foods. Farmers may have limited bargaining power and face pressure to standardize crops for global markets. The system described most directly results from which of the following?
  18. A secondary source emphasizes the impact of refrigeration and faster transportation on agricultural geography: after widespread refrigerated trucking and container shipping, coastal cities began sourcing meat, dairy, and produce from distant regions and other countries, weakening the need for nearby peri-urban farming. Which of the following best explains the spatial pattern of agriculture described in the excerpt?
  19. A secondary-source summary of asylum and international law states that a "refugee" is a specific legal category typically tied to a well-founded fear of persecution on protected grounds, and that asylum is a protection claim made in another state; it also notes that people displaced by poverty or many environmental stresses may not automatically qualify under the same legal definition. Which statement best reflects this legal dimension?
  20. Secondary source excerpt (about 105 words): Political boundaries can serve to establish identity and belonging by linking people to a named territory and a set of institutions. Citizenship laws, school curricula, national holidays, and official languages often reinforce the idea that those inside the boundary share a common political community. At the same time, boundary-making may exclude groups whose identities do not align with state narratives, producing minorities, diasporas, or contested homelands. Because identity is socially constructed and changes over time, boundaries can become sites where belonging is negotiated—through elections, protests, or demands for autonomy. Which option best summarizes the boundary function emphasized in the excerpt?

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