AP Human Geography – Practice Exam 1 Vocabulary Review

75 vocabulary flashcards summarizing key AP Human Geography concepts, theories, models, and examples drawn from the practice exam notes.

New Industrial Country (NIC)

A state whose economy has recently shifted from primarily agrarian to significant, competitive manufacturing and export-oriented industry (e.g., South Korea, Brazil).

Quinary Sector

The highest level of economic activity involving top executives, government leaders, and decision-makers who direct large-scale policies and enterprises.

Site

The absolute, physical characteristics of a place (soil, water supply, topography, climate).

Situation

A place’s relative location—its position in relation to other places and connections that foster growth (e.g., London’s ports ­and trade links).

Dependency Ratio

The number of people under 15 plus those over 64 divided by the working-age population (15-64); indicates economic burden on labor force.

Theocracy

A government controlled by religious leaders and laws based on religious doctrine (e.g., Taliban Afghanistan, Ayatollah Iran).

European Community (1958)

Predecessor of the EU founded by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Space-Time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place because of improved transportation and communication.

Sikhism (Golden Temple, Amritsar)

Indian religion whose holiest shrine, Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), is located in Amritsar, Punjab.

Functional Region

An area organized around a node or focal point and linked by movement or communication (e.g., a delivery zone).

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

Total number of live births per 1,000 population in a given year.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

Total number of deaths per 1,000 population in a given year; shows less global variation than CBR due to widespread basic health care.

Export-Processing Zone (EPZ)

Specialized area in an LDC that offers tax breaks and low labor costs to attract export-oriented foreign factories.

Second Agricultural Revolution

19th-century improvements in farming technology and practices that boosted food output to feed growing Industrial-Revolution cities.

S-Curve Diffusion

Adoption pattern where innovations spread slowly among innovators, rapidly among majority adopters, then level off among laggards.

Truck Farming

Large-scale commercial production of perishable fruits and vegetables (e.g., tomatoes, lettuce) for distant urban markets, common in SE United States.

Multilingualism Conflict

Political or social tension arising where multiple languages compete for official status (e.g., Nigeria, Belgium).

Agricultural Surplus

Excess food produced beyond subsistence needs; prerequisite for the rise of cities and specialized labor.

Desertification

Human-induced degradation of semiarid lands into desert, most acute in Australia and parts of Africa/Asia.

Heartland Theory (Mackinder)

Geopolitical concept that control of Eurasia’s ‘pivot area’ leads to world dominance; weakened by post-WWII U.S. ascendancy.

Green Revolution

20th-century diffusion of high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation aimed at reducing hunger in LDCs.

Comparative Advantage

Economic principle that regions specialize in goods they can produce at lower opportunity cost and trade for others.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Computer system for capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying layered spatial data to aid decision making.

Desalination

Technological process that removes salt from seawater to produce fresh water; unrelated to GIS mapping.

Hindu Temple

Shrine-focused structure adorned with multiple deities, integrated peacefully into the landscape, serving as a home for gods rather than a congregational space.

One-Child Policy (China)

Strict antinatalist program begun in 1980s that sharply lowered China’s fertility and altered its age structure.

Human Development Index (HDI)

UN composite measure of a country’s social, demographic, and economic development (life expectancy, education, GNI per capita).

Enclosure Movement

19th-century British consolidation of communal fields into large private farms, boosting efficiency but displacing rural labor.

Mercator Projection

Cylindrical world map preserving true direction everywhere, but grossly enlarging high-latitude landmasses.

Threshold & Range (Central Place Theory)

Threshold: minimum market size needed to sustain a service; Range: maximum distance consumers will travel for it.

Ecofeminism

View that patriarchal societies degrade the environment, whereas female-linked values foster conservation.

Linguistic Refuge Area

Mountainous or isolated region where minority languages survive free from external influence and convergence.

HIV/AIDS and Life Expectancy

Epidemic significantly lowering projected life spans in several African states (e.g., Namibia).

Primate City

City that is more than twice as large as the next largest in its country and dominates national economic and political life (e.g., Lagos).

Agglomeration

Clustering of similar or related businesses in close proximity to capitalize on shared services, labor, and markets.

Hinterland

The service area or market territory surrounding an urban center; its size reflects the city’s centrality.

Political Ecology

Study of how political and economic power structures influence environmental policy and resource use.

Informal Sector

Unregulated, untaxed economic activities (street vending, home crafts) prevalent in many developing countries.

Cognitive Distance

Perceived, subjective distance influencing decisions about movement and interaction, not always matching actual kilometers.

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

Spread of an idea from small or peripheral places to larger or more influential centers (e.g., certain diseases or fashions).

Centrifugal Force

Factor that destabilizes or divides a state (e.g., ethnic discrimination).

Sharia Law

Islamic legal code; governs several northern Nigerian states since 2006.

Indo-European Language Family

World’s largest language family including Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Indo-Iranian branches; Turkish is NOT a member.

Hidden Momentum

Continued population growth despite falling fertility rates due to a large cohort of young women entering childbearing years.

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

Low-input farming over large areas (e.g., nomadic herding in sparsely populated western China).

Allocational Boundary Dispute

Conflict over resources that straddle a border (e.g., Iraq-Kuwait oil field dispute).

New International Division of Labor

Global manufacturing pattern where production stages are distributed across multiple countries to exploit cost differences.

Cleavage Model

Theory that ethnic minorities occupy peripheral regions and often oppose the dominant core.

von Thünen Model (Transportation Cost)

Agricultural land-use theory identifying distance to market/transport cost as key factor shaping concentric farming zones.

Hinduism

Polytheistic South Asian faith; world’s third-largest religion by number of adherents.

Forward Capital

Newly built national capital relocated to promote strategic, economic, or political goals (e.g., Putrajaya, Malaysia).

Shifting Cultivation

Subsistence farming where a plot is used, then left fallow for soil regeneration before farmers return years later.

Homeostatic Stages (DTM)

Stages 1 and 4 in the Demographic Transition Model where birth and death rates are in equilibrium.

Standard vs. Official Language

Standard: commonly accepted dialect used in public life; Official: legally designated language for government operations.

Compact State

Country whose territory is roughly circular with the capital near center (e.g., Poland).

Cattle Feedlot

Intensive, factory-like operation for fattening beef cattle, heavily concentrated on the U.S. Plains (e.g., South Dakota-Texas corridor).

Transhumance

Seasonal migration of livestock between lowland winter pastures and high-mountain summer grazing areas.

Women’s Empowerment & Fertility

UN-endorsed strategy asserting that improving women’s socioeconomic status is the most effective way to reduce birth rates.

Folk vs. Popular Culture

Folk culture is localized and homogeneous, spread mainly by isolation; popular culture is widespread, heterogeneous, and diffuses rapidly via mass media.

Rostow’s Drive to Maturity

Fourth stage of economic growth when advanced technology diffuses beyond initial takeoff industry, diversifying the economy.

Maquiladora

U.S.-owned factory in Mexico’s border zone that assembles goods for export using low-cost Mexican labor.

Chain Migration

Migration flow to a location because earlier migrants of the same community provide information or assistance.

General Fertility Rate

Annual number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15-49 in a population.

Sino-Tibetan Language Size Order

Mandarin > Wu > Cantonese > Min > Hakka in native-speaker totals.

Edge City

Suburban business district with offices, retail, and entertainment clustered near highway intersections, lacking tenement housing.

Green Revolution Focus

Boosting crop yields and reducing hunger in LDCs via high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation, not chiefly environmental protection.

Quebec Sovereignty Conflict

Movement rooted in language and economic inequality, not religion, seeking greater autonomy or independence for French-speaking Quebec.

China – Woven Cotton Fabric

World’s leading producer of woven cotton textiles due to abundant labor and large industrial base.

Gentrification

Rehabilitation of deteriorated urban areas by affluent residents, raising property values and often displacing lower-income populations.

State vs. Nation

State: politically organized territory with sovereignty; Nation: culturally defined group of people with shared history/identity.

Structural Adjustment Program

IMF/World-Bank loan conditions promoting privatization, reduced government spending, and open markets—not closure of EPZs.

Bid-Rent Curve

Graph showing how land prices decline with distance from the CBD; the steepest curve belongs to firms needing CBD access (e.g., real-estate brokerage).

Break-of-Bulk Point

Location where goods transfer between transportation modes (e.g., barge-to-rail in Louisville).

Cultural Ecology

Geographic study of interactions between a cultural group and its natural environment.

Possibilism

View that the environment offers constraints, but humans have agency to choose from many possible cultural uses of land.