Unit 7 Human Geography Missed Questions (CollegeBoard)

Which of the following changes in global economic patterns occurred because of the innovations depicted in the two images?

• Most regions developed the two innovations shown in the images independently, with a rapid increase in output and worldwide distribution capabilities.

• The two innovations led to the development of many new cities and expansion of the leisure travel industry for people living near major transportation hubs.

• Early adopters of the two innovations began to increase colonization in search of new sources of raw materials for manufacturing goods.

• Development of the two innovations significantly increased economic equality in the world as goods could be spread much more evenly between countries.

• Development of the two innovations allowed most people to stop working in agriculture and train for jobs in the travel industry.

Answer explanation

Correct. Early adopters of the two innovations shown were able to exploit resources in different areas of the world through colonization because they had options for transport of raw materials from the extraction site by train and to manufacturing facilities by ship.

The map shows gross domestic product (GDP) by country. Which of the following factors best explains a limitation of GDP by country in comparing the level of productivity among countries?

• Different agricultural outputs, such as Malaysia, Russia, and Greece

• Similar-sized land areas, such as Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom

• Significant petroleum exports, such Iran, Iraq, and Mexico

• Similar workforces, such as South Korea, Spain, and France

• Different population sizes, such as China, Japan, and the United States

Answer explanation

Correct. GDP indicates the volume or size of a country’s economy but cannot be used to compare productivity between countries without being divided by the population size to determine per capita GDP. China, Japan, and the United States all have multitrillion-dollar economies, but China's population size is three times the size of the United States population, which in turn is much larger than that of Japan. By comparison, China’s GDP per capita production is much lower than those of the United States and Japan, which are more developed countries.

Rostow’s stages of development can easily be applied to countries such as the United States and Japan, but not so easily to countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Bolivia, because the theory

• is predicated on less developed countries receiving financial assistance from more developed countries

• places emphasis on developed nations having less developed nations to exploit for resources

• ignores unevenness in development across the globe

• does not take into account the interdependence of places and regions

• highlights the semiperiphery as the most successful in development

Which of the following best explains a political-economic weakness or limitation of Rostow’s stages of economic growth?

• The model does not hold up to modern times because essentially all countries around the world have moved through Rostow’s stages of economic growth as expected.

• Rostow made the inaccurate assumption that all countries want modernization as defined in the model and would pass through the outlined stages in order.

• According to Rostow, countries will become less dependent on the sales of their commodities as they advance.

• Some critics claim commodities were exchanged between core and periphery areas well before modern times.

• The stages as defined by Rostow are not useful because sustainability is not addressed.

Answer explanation

The underlying assumption of a desire for modernization and Western values inherent in this theory is commonly criticized.

California’s Silicon Valley is an example of a high-technology region. Which of the following would best accompany the map shown to help explain the origins of this high-technology region?

• A description of high-technology multinational corporations such as Google and Apple that have located their headquarters in the area

• A description of how the area’s research institutions, including Stanford University and the NASA Ames Research Center, served as growth poles for development

• A description of the construction of interstate highways in California and how development occurred at the transportation nodes created by major highway intersections

• A description of how residential suburbs such as Redwood City and Cupertino formed within the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area

• A description of how edge cities such as Palo Alto and San Jose formed on the periphery of the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area

Answer explanation

Stanford University and the NASA Ames Research Center were growth poles for the early development of Silicon Valley. A text description could be used to explain their influence as technology research and development centers in computer hardware and software.