Practice Test 56 - AP Human Geography

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

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1. A secondary-source overview of urban systems argues that some countries show a primate city pattern, where the largest city is disproportionately large due to colonial administrative concentration, centralized investment, and dominance of national transportation and finance. In Country Y, the largest city has 12 million people, while the second-largest has 2.8 million and the third has 2.1 million. Which conclusion best matches the primate city concept?
2. Secondary source excerpt (globalization and economic interdependence): In many countries, governments retain legal authority to set policy, yet global production networks constrain what states can do in practice. When a state raises tariffs or tightens labor or environmental rules, multinational firms may shift investment to other locations, reducing jobs and tax revenue. Participation in trade agreements and reliance on foreign direct investment can therefore pressure states to adopt market-friendly policies to remain competitive. These constraints do not eliminate sovereignty, but they complicate efforts to control economic outcomes within national borders. Which option best explains how globalization challenges state sovereignty as described above?
3. Secondary source excerpt: In global cities, cultural diversity is often produced through international migration tied to labor markets and transnational networks. Restaurants, religious institutions, media, and festivals can reflect multiple origins, helping some neighborhoods become cosmopolitan spaces. However, scholars caution that diversity does not automatically mean equal power; cultural visibility may coexist with economic marginalization and segregation. Which statement best reflects the excerpt's nuanced view of cosmopolitanism in global cities?
4. In a 90-word secondary-source excerpt on dependency theory, a scholar argues that underdevelopment is not a "starting condition" but a historical outcome of colonial and postcolonial extraction: peripheral economies become structured around exporting primary commodities, importing manufactured goods, and relying on foreign capital and debt, which limits local industrialization. In a case study, Country X exports copper, imports machinery, and must cut social spending to meet loan conditions set abroad. Which claim most closely reflects dependency theory?
5. Secondary source excerpt (regional analysis): In a functional (nodal) region, the node's influence is strongest near the center and typically declines with distance, but not evenly in all directions. Highways, rail lines, and digital connectivity can extend the node's reach, creating corridors of strong interaction. This means functional regions often overlap: one town might send shoppers to one city, patients to a different hospital center, and freight to a separate logistics hub. Geographers therefore treat nodal regions as analytical constructs based on chosen flows, not as perfectly bounded containers. Which statement best reflects how boundaries work in functional regions?
6. Secondary source excerpt (loss of indigenous culture): A new highway and mining boom bring wage labor and in-migration to a remote region. As younger residents relocate for work, participation in seasonal rituals declines, elders report fewer apprentices for traditional crafts, and local place-names are replaced on maps and in government records by standardized names. Social scientists describe these changes as cultural erosion linked to development and state integration. Which effect of cultural diffusion is most directly shown?
7. An environmental geographer writes that agriculture is a leading driver of land-cover change through cropland expansion, grazing, and associated infrastructure. The excerpt notes that impacts include habitat fragmentation, altered water cycles, and nutrient runoff, but that the magnitude depends on practices such as irrigation method, fertilizer management, and stocking rates. The author emphasizes that environmental outcomes are shaped by governance, property regimes, and consumer demand, not only by farm-level choices. Which of the following best illustrates the concept in the excerpt?
8. A secondary-source excerpt argues for the model's continued relevance despite limitations: even when rings are not perfectly visible, the core idea that transport costs and market access shape agricultural profitability can still predict broad tendencies. In a region with uneven terrain and several towns, higher-value perishables still concentrate nearer to large consumer markets. According to the von Thünen model, which of the following best explains the agricultural pattern described?
9. A 100-word secondary-source excerpt summarizes remote sensing and satellite data, noting that satellites infer land cover from reflected energy and that cloud cover, sensor resolution, and classification algorithms can introduce error. A researcher maps deforestation using a single satellite image from the rainy season and a basic classification model. Which limitation is most relevant?
10. Secondary-source excerpt (about 85 words): In a rainfed farming zone, women are responsible for seed saving, intercropping decisions, and maintaining kitchen gardens that supply vegetables during the hungry season. Men often focus on a single cash crop and negotiate with input dealers. The report emphasizes that women's "informal" knowledge—soil conditions, varietal traits, and storage practices—helps households manage risk during drought years. Yet extension services frequently prioritize the cash crop and invite only men to demonstrations, limiting the spread of women-centered innovations. Which of the following best describes women's role in the agricultural system described?
11. Secondary source excerpt (boundary disputes and conflicts, 75–125 words): Functional disputes can arise in regions with high cross-border commuting and integrated supply chains. When one state changes inspection intensity, imposes new documentation requirements, or restricts certain goods, the other state may claim the boundary is being used to unfairly disrupt economic activity. Because the boundary's location is not contested, solutions often involve harmonizing regulations, creating joint checkpoints, or establishing special economic zones rather than redrawing the border. Question: After a policy change, one country begins inspecting every truck at the border, causing long delays and economic losses for the neighboring country, which demands streamlined procedures. What type of dispute is this?
12. Secondary-source excerpt (context): In some regions, states participate in cross-border courts that interpret shared treaties on migration and asylum. If the court rules that a national policy violates treaty obligations, the state may need to revise detention practices or asylum procedures. This can create tension between national legislatures and supranational legal commitments. Which option best explains the sovereignty challenge described?
13. A secondary source on microcredit and microfinance notes that small loans to women can help stabilize consumption and support microenterprises, especially when paired with savings, training, and market access. The same source cautions that high interest rates, group repayment pressure, and saturated local markets can limit profits and sometimes increase debt burdens. Which conclusion is most consistent with this account of women's roles in economic development?
14. Secondary source excerpt (for context): Maritime boundaries extend territorial thinking into the ocean, but international law differentiates zones. A coastal state has full sovereignty in its territorial sea (up to 12 nautical miles). Beyond that, the contiguous zone allows limited enforcement related to customs, immigration, and sanitation (up to 24 nautical miles). The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), up to 200 nautical miles, grants rights to exploit and manage marine resources, but it is not the same as full territorial sovereignty. Which statement correctly matches a maritime zone to the rights described in the excerpt?
15. A secondary source on the Colorado River describes how large dams store water for cities and irrigated agriculture, but also reduce downstream sediment, contributing to delta wetland loss and requiring negotiated releases to sustain ecosystems. The excerpt emphasizes that people engineered the river system and then had to manage new environmental consequences. Which framing best matches this interaction?
16. A secondary-source reference defines cultural realms as broad areas (e.g., Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia) that share some common cultural traits due to long-term historical connections, but it stresses internal diversity and transitional zones where traits overlap. Which statement best reflects how cultural realms and regions are used in human geography?
17. A teacher assigns students to choose the best map type for two tasks: (1) finding the quickest route between two towns; (2) identifying where infant mortality rates are highest. Students discuss that some maps are designed for general navigation and others for analyzing a single spatial pattern. Which pairing is most appropriate?
18. A 2022 metropolitan planning report notes that a Sun Belt city added 350,000 residents in a decade while water mains, sewers, and power lines were largely built for a much smaller population. The report describes more frequent pipe breaks, sewer overflows after heavy rain, and rolling outages during heat waves, arguing that rapid urban growth can outpace capital investment and maintenance schedules. Which urban challenge is the report primarily illustrating?
19. A secondary-source excerpt on globalization notes that services trade has grown alongside goods trade, aided by digital connectivity. Which example best reflects globalization in services trade?
20. A secondary source excerpt argues that borders are produced through state practices: mapping, census-taking, checkpoints, and legal categories (citizen, refugee, undocumented). It highlights that these practices can selectively restrict certain groups while facilitating others, making borders "thick" with procedures rather than just lines. Which policy most directly reflects this institutional view of border control?

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