Practice Test 79 - AP Human Geography

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

Secondary source excerpt (18th–19th centuries): Mechanization and improved breeding raised output, but they also required capital investment and encouraged fewer, larger farms. As small producers struggled, many became tenants or laborers, and rural communities experienced changing settlement patterns and family strategies for survival. Which option best identifies a key reason mechanization could accelerate displacement?
A region has one central market and no rivers or rail lines; all goods move by wagon over the same quality roads. A secondary source excerpt emphasizes that, in the von Thünen model, transportation costs increase with distance and help determine both which crops are grown and how intensively land is used. According to the von Thünen model, which of the following best explains the agricultural pattern described?
A secondary source excerpt highlights multi-scalar analysis: environmental issues often require linking local exposures to regional management and global climate drivers. A team studying wildfire risk uses (1) parcel-level data on defensible space around homes, (2) regional forest management practices, and (3) global climate trends affecting drought frequency. Which plan best demonstrates multi-scalar analysis?
Secondary source excerpt: A historian of early modern empires writes that Christianity expanded into parts of the Americas through a combination of missionary activity and colonial conquest. The historian notes that in many regions, Christian rituals incorporated Indigenous symbols and festival calendars, creating hybrid practices rather than total replacement. Which statement best captures the diffusion pattern described?
A secondary-source excerpt summarizes Malthus's idea that when population grows faster than food supply, societies face "checks" that restore balance, including famine and disease (positive checks) or delayed marriage and reduced fertility (preventive checks). Which scenario best illustrates a preventive check as described in the excerpt?
Secondary source excerpt: Globalization has increased trade flows through containerization, digital logistics, and trade liberalization, enabling firms to fragment production across multiple countries. Components may cross borders several times before final assembly and sale. While this can lower costs and expand consumer choice, it can also heighten vulnerability to disruptions and concentrate decision-making power in lead firms that coordinate global value chains. Which statement best describes a trade pattern associated with globalization and global value chains?
From the 1500s to the 1800s, European colonization created plantation economies in the Caribbean and parts of the Americas that relied on enslaved African labor. Forced migration brought people from diverse African regions into new environments, where they maintained and adapted languages, musical rhythms, foodways, and religious practices. These cultural traits diffused into wider colonial societies through daily interaction, markets, and urban life. Which historical cause of cultural diffusion best fits this example? (Secondary-source excerpt embedded above.)
A 90-word secondary source compares Nigeria and the United States: it states that Lagos contains far more people and corporate headquarters than Nigeria's next-largest cities, while the U.S. has multiple large metropolitan areas whose populations decline more gradually down the urban hierarchy. The author links the Nigerian pattern to centralized investment and migration flows. Which statement accurately identifies the urban pattern in Nigeria and contrasts it with the U.S. pattern?
No legal document describes the line, but it appears on official maps. It is:
Secondary source excerpt: A sociolinguist notes that in a multilingual West African country, speakers of many local languages use French in government offices, secondary schools, and national media because it provides a shared medium across ethnic groups. The sociolinguist adds that French proficiency is uneven and often coexists with strong local-language use at home and in markets. What concept best explains French's role in this setting?
A secondary source excerpt notes: "Selective breeding programs increased average livestock size and meat and dairy output. Farmers who could invest in improved stock and controlled mating gained advantages, while poorer households often lacked the resources to participate." Which choice best identifies the central theme of this excerpt about the Second Agricultural Revolution?
Secondary source excerpt (language diffusion): The excerpt explains that Spanish became dominant in much of Latin America after the 1500s as colonial administrations, Catholic missions, and forced labor systems reorganized settlement patterns. Indigenous languages persisted in some highland and rural areas, often borrowing Spanish vocabulary for government, religion, and technology. Which statement best characterizes the diffusion described?
A secondary source on democratization explains that free and fair elections require more than voting: they usually include an independent electoral commission, secret ballots, the ability of opposition parties to campaign, and credible counts that are not controlled by the incumbent. Which situation most strongly suggests elections are not free and fair?
Secondary source excerpt (creolization): The excerpt describes a plantation colony where enslaved Africans and Europeans communicated in a simplified pidgin that later became a stable creole spoken as a first language. Vocabulary came largely from the colonial language, while grammar reflected multiple source languages. Which concept best fits?
A geographer summarizes the long-lot system used in French Canada and parts of colonial Louisiana: farms were laid out as narrow strips stretching inland from a river, concentrating homes near the water while dividing frontage among many households. The author argues the layout reflected colonial governance, seigneurial obligations, and the value of river transport rather than topography alone. Even after mechanization and road building, property lines and settlement corridors often remain elongated and river-oriented, shaping contemporary land disputes and infrastructure placement. The survey system described is most commonly found in which of the following?
Secondary source excerpt (about 100 words): Political boundaries often function as tools for controlling movement rather than simply marking where one state ends and another begins. Governments use border checkpoints, visa regimes, tariffs, and surveillance to filter who and what may cross. These controls can be tightened during security threats or public-health emergencies and loosened to encourage tourism, labor recruitment, or regional trade. Movement regulation also operates away from the borderline through interior enforcement, carrier sanctions, and preclearance at foreign airports. As a result, the boundary becomes a managed system that shapes migration flows and commodity chains. Which option best captures the function of political boundaries emphasized in the excerpt?
Secondary-source excerpt (about 95–115 words): Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are people forced to leave their homes but who remain within their country's borders. They may flee conflict, generalized violence, or disasters, yet unlike refugees they have not crossed an international boundary. This distinction matters because refugees are covered by specific international protections and procedures in host states, while IDPs remain under the primary responsibility of their own government—even when that government lacks capacity or is party to the conflict. As a result, IDPs can be harder for international agencies to assist consistently. Which option correctly differentiates IDPs from refugees?
Secondary-source context (predictions vs. demographic transition): Malthus emphasized preventive checks (like delayed marriage) and positive checks (like famine). Later demographic-transition theory notes that as education and women's employment rise, fertility often declines, reducing growth pressure. In a country where female secondary-school enrollment increases sharply and total fertility rate drops from 5.0 to 2.3, which interpretation best explains why a Malthusian crisis might be avoided?
A student compares models and writes: "The sector model and multiple nuclei model both emphasize transportation, but they differ in how many centers organize the city." Which statement correctly distinguishes Hoyt from Harris-Ullman?
Secondary source excerpt (colonial trade patterns and legacy, ~120 words): In many colonies, land and labor were reorganized toward plantation and mineral exports, and local food systems were often subordinated to cash-crop production. Colonial administrations used taxes and land tenure rules to compel participation in export agriculture, while importing manufactured goods from abroad. After independence, these economies frequently remained tied to a few export commodities and external buyers, and rural regions could face underinvestment in food security and local processing. The legacy includes spatial inequality: export corridors and port cities often developed faster than interior regions. Which geographic pattern is most consistent with this legacy?

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