Practice Test 87 - AP Human Geography

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

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1. Secondary source excerpt: Some states contain legally recognized tribal or Indigenous territories that function as distinct internal political spaces. These areas may have a degree of self-governance over land use, cultural preservation, and certain legal matters, even while residents also interact with state and national laws. The boundaries of Indigenous territories often reflect historical treaties, forced relocation, or negotiated settlements. Because sovereignty is layered, jurisdictional complexity can arise in policing, resource extraction, and environmental regulation. Which choice best explains why Indigenous territories can create jurisdictional complexity?
2. A geographer explains that strong centrifugal forces can lead to devolution, where a central government transfers decision-making power to regional governments to reduce conflict. The excerpt cautions that devolution may stabilize the state but can also formalize regional divisions. Which development is the best example of devolution as a response to centrifugal forces?
3. A secondary source excerpt notes that functional regions often have a node and measurable interaction patterns; analysts may use thresholds (e.g., 10% commuting) to draw boundaries, but different thresholds produce different mapped extents. A city defines its "service area" as all ZIP codes where at least 10% of households use its hospital, then later switches the cutoff to 5%. Which statement best reflects the excerpt's point?
4. A public health department memo (secondary source excerpt, 75–125 words) reports that a city's residential patterns remain sharply divided: high-income households cluster in the north with well-funded schools and parks, while lower-income and minority households are concentrated in the south near older industrial sites. The memo notes differing life expectancy and asthma rates between the two areas, and it cites historic zoning and lending practices that shaped neighborhood boundaries. Which challenge resulting from urban change is most directly described?
5. A secondary source contrasts anti-Malthusian views with Malthus: anti-Malthusians argue that population growth can stimulate innovation, specialization, and economies of scale, increasing carrying capacity. Which claim is most consistent with an anti-Malthusian perspective?
6. A secondary-source excerpt on colonial trade legacies notes that extractive institutions can persist, shaping governance and investment patterns after independence. Which contemporary indicator would most likely suggest persistence of extractive legacies?
7. A textbook excerpt states: "Culture includes nonmaterial elements like beliefs and values, and material elements like architecture and technology. People acquire culture through learning—family life, schooling, media, and everyday interaction—rather than through biology." Which example best illustrates culture as described in the excerpt?
8. Secondary source excerpt (embedded): Political boundaries can act as barriers, limiting movement through walls, minefields, or heavily monitored checkpoints. Yet the same boundary can also operate as a contact zone where cross-border markets, bilingual communities, and shared infrastructure emerge. Borderlands often develop hybrid cultural practices because interaction continues even under regulation. Which option best reflects the boundary function described in the excerpt?
9. Secondary source excerpt (embedded): Urban geographers argue that a small set of world cities function as command-and-control nodes for globalization. In these places—often exemplified by New York, London, and Tokyo—corporate headquarters, major stock exchanges, and international institutions cluster, allowing decisions about investment, production, and media to be coordinated across multiple continents. The influence of these cities comes less from their population size than from their ability to manage global networks of capital and information. Question: Which statement best captures the excerpt's main claim about the relationship between cities and globalization?
10. A secondary-source excerpt on religious diffusion describes how enslaved Africans in the Caribbean blended West African spiritual practices with Catholic saints and rituals under colonial rule, creating new ceremonies, symbols, and meanings that were neither identical to the African religions nor to European Catholicism. Which effect of cultural diffusion is best represented?
11. A disaster response team receives a report that a shelter is located at 38.8977° N, 77.0365° W. The team uses this information to enter the point into GPS devices and dispatch supplies. Which concept is best represented by the coordinates in the report?
12. Secondary source excerpt: Geographers describe places using absolute location and relative location. Absolute location identifies a position with a fixed coordinate system (such as latitude and longitude). Relative location describes where something is in relation to other places (such as "north of downtown" or "two miles from the river"). A news report says a wildfire is located at $34.05^\circ\text{N},\ 118.25^\circ\text{W}$. This description is an example of which concept?
13. A simplified diagram (not shown) depicts rings around a single market. A secondary source excerpt explains that in the von Thünen model, the ring closest to the market is typically devoted to intensive, perishable products, with less intensive and more transport-tolerant uses farther away. According to the von Thünen model, which of the following best explains the agricultural pattern described?
14. A secondary-source excerpt explains that the earliest cities emerged in places such as Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley where agricultural surplus allowed some people to specialize as artisans, religious leaders, and administrators. Over time, these specialists concentrated near storage sites, temples, and markets, helping settlements grow into cities. Which statement best matches the excerpt's explanation for why early urbanization began?
15. A secondary source excerpt states that GDP per capita can increase while environmental quality declines, because GDP counts market production but does not subtract many environmental damages. Which conclusion best aligns with the excerpt?
16. A secondary source describes Malthus's central claim: population tends to increase faster than food supply because population growth is geometric while food growth is arithmetic. In a simplified model, a village can add 100 bushels of food per year, but its population grows by 10% per year. Which statement best matches the core theory implied by this setup?
17. An AP Human Geography student writes a secondary-source summary of the Hoyt sector model: rather than rings, urban land uses often extend outward in sectors shaped by transportation corridors, with high-rent areas tending to grow along desirable routes. Based on this model, which observation would most strongly support a sector pattern?
18. Secondary source excerpt (about 100 words): A comparative chapter examines why some countries show rank-size distributions while others show primate dominance. It contrasts Japan—where Tokyo is largest but Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Sendai form a strong network tied to regional economies and high-speed rail—with Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi dominate many national functions and attract disproportionate investment. The chapter argues that transportation integration and deliberate support for secondary cities can produce a more rank-size-like pattern even in highly urbanized societies. Which option best reflects the chapter's main point?
19. A secondary source excerpt explains that push-pull factors can be economic, political, environmental, and social, and that the same condition can be experienced differently across households. For example, a drought may push farmers to leave, while a city's labor demand may pull them in; however, family networks can also pull migrants toward specific destinations. Which answer best demonstrates a multi-causal push-pull explanation consistent with the excerpt?
20. A neighborhood group creates a GIS map of vacant lots to advocate for new green space. They combine city parcel records with community-reported observations, noting that official datasets sometimes miss informally used spaces or recently cleared lots. The final map is used in meetings to propose specific sites for parks and community gardens. Which best describes how GIS supports this kind of urban decision-making?

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