World Geography Final Exam

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Choose the letter of the best answer.
____ 1. Green Bay, Wisconsin, is located at an imaginary line running north south on the globe. What does
the line represent?
A. relative location
B. degrees of latitude
C. degrees of longitude
D. distance from the equator
____ 2. Which of the following would NOT be a project for a cartographer?
A. creating a map projection
B. calculating the latitude and longitude of a new airport
C. calculating the exact location of the prime meridian on a globe
D. tracking the path of a hurricane using Landsat
____ 3. Roanoke, Virginia, is located about 40 miles from Lynchburg. This describes its
A. functional region.
B. absolute location.
C. relative location.
D. psychological distance.
____ 4. How can geographers reduce the distortions created when they draw a flat map of Greenland?
A. make a thematic map
B. make a map projection
C. consult the Geographic Information System (GIS)
D. adjust the latitude and longitude
____ 5. Countries east of the prime meridian are in
A. the Northern Hemisphere.
B. the Southern Hemisphere.
C. the Eastern Hemisphere.
D. the Western Hemisphere.
____ 6. What imaginary line cuts across the top of South America?
A. the line dividing the Northern and Southern hemispheres
B. the line dividing the Eastern and Western hemispheres
C. the prime meridian
D. both a and c
____ 7. The northwest corner of Wyoming is at 45° North latitude, 111° West longitude. This describes its
A. relative location.
B. absolute location.
C. perceptual region.
D. vernal equinox.
____ 8. What is the best way to measure the spread of the Sahara during a calendar year?
A. a political map
B. a physical map
C. Landsat
D. a conical projection

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____ 9. Geography is the study of

A. land, water, natural resources, and population flows.
B. the history and development of the earth.
C. the measurement and physical descriptions of places, regions, areas, and land masses.
D. the distribution and interaction of Earth's physical and human features.
____ 10. Spain and New York City are both located in the
A. Eastern Hemisphere.
B. Western Hemisphere.
C. Northern Hemisphere.
D. Southern Hemisphere.
____ 11. A newspaper reported that an earthquake was recorded at 8.7. What
device was used to obtain this measurement, and what was
measured?
A. a seismograph; size of the earthquake's waves
B. a seismograph; height of tsunami waves
C. the Richter scale; relative strength of the earthquake
D. the Richter scale; number of people injured (in thousands)
____ 12. Which of the following would be least likely to erupt from a
volcano?
A. lava
B. gases
C. loess
D. ash
____ 13. Which of the following would be least likely to occur in the Ring of
Fire?
A. a volcano
B. a glacier
C. an earthquake
D. a tsunami
____ 14. Which term do scientists NOT use to identify a physical component
of the biosphere?
A. atmosphere
B. lithosphere
C. hemisphere
D. hydrosphere
____ 15. Mountains are one of four categories of which of the following?
A. continental shelf
B. moraines
C. glaciations
D. relief
____ 16. What floats on top of molten magma under the earth's surface?
A. tectonic plates
B. continental shelves
C. glaciations
D. faults
____ 17. Which of the following is composed of only organic material?
A. sediment
B. humus
C. loess
D. soil

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____ 18. Rust is an example of which of the following processes?

A. glaciation
B. seismography
C. mechanical weathering
D. chemical weathering
____ 19. Where would a developer be most likely to find a sufficient supply of
water for a network of wells for a community?
A. drainage basin
B. aquifer
C. hydrologic cycle
D. on top of the water table
____ 20. Where do tectonic plates move past each other?
A. on continental shelves
B. on continental drifts
C. at fault lines
D. at glaciations
____ 21. The transfer of heat in the atmosphere by the upward movement of
air is
A. convection.
B. the greenhouse effect.
C. La Niña.
D. savanna.
____ 22. Flat, treeless lands forming a ring around the Arctic Ocean are
examples of
A. steppe.
B. taiga.
C. chaparral.
D. tundra.
____ 23. Forests, grasslands, and deserts are
A. examples of orographic precipitation zones.
B. examples of equinoxes.
C. divisions of biomes.
D. examples of regions that contain permafrost.
____ 24. Birch and cottonwood trees are
A. particularly drought resistant.
B. examples of deciduous trees.
C. examples of coniferous trees.
D. examples of trees that thrive on the savanna.
____ 25. Broad, grassy plains would be MOST likely to be found in an area of
A. tundra.
B. taiga.
C. steppe.
D. desert.
____ 26. In mountainous regions, orographic precipitation can create a rain
shadow, which is
A. an area of little precipitation on the windward side of a mountain.
B. an area of little precipitation on the leeward side of a mountain.
C. a stationary front of precipitation that falls throughout the winter.
D. a heavy rain that often leads to severe flooding or mudslides.

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 27. A severe weather condition that forms quickly and often without
warning is a
A. hurricane.
B. typhoon.
C. blizzard.
D. tornado.
____ 28. Gases put into the atmosphere cause a warming known as the
greenhouse effect because
A. the gases are warm because they come from the burning of coal and petroleum.
B. they create a barrier that traps solar energy.
C. they create a barrier that traps carbon dioxide.
D. they create an environment in which vegetation thrives.
____ 29. A rain forest would be LEAST likely to thrive in
A. a tropical zone.
B. an area of high temperature and humidity.
C. an area in which broadleaf trees thrived.
D. an area enriched by permafrost.
____ 30. A biome is
A. a specific area containing interdependent plants and animals.
B. a grassland found only in the Southern Hemisphere.
C. a region that always has a rainy season in the summer and a dry season in the winter.
D. an area that has been dramatically affected by human activity.
____ 31. The total of knowledge, shared attitudes, and behaviors of the members of a specific group of
people is their
A. society.
B. culture.
C. innovation.
D. diffusion.
____ 32. The spread of ideas and customs from one society to another is called
A. innovation.
B. technology.
C. diffusion.
D. facilitation.
____ 33. If the members of one society decide to adopt a custom that they observe in another society, this
process is called
A. innovation.
B. invention.
C. convention.
D. acculturation.
____ 34. A religion that involves the belief in many gods is a
A. monotheistic religion.
B. polytheistic religion.
C. animistic religion.
D. taoistic religion.
____ 35. A version of a language that includes changes related to class, region, or other cultural changes is
called
A. a dialect.
B. a diatribe.
C. an acculturation.
D. a migration.

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____ 36. Geographers developed the field of urban geography to study

A. the ways in which proximity to natural resources affects city life.
B. the contrasts between cities and small towns.
C. the rate at which populations are shifting to cities.
D. the ways in which people use space in cities.
____ 37. A city, along with its suburbs and exurbs, forms
A. a megalopolis.
B. a Central Business District (CBD).
C. a metropolitan area.
D. an urban lifestyle.
____ 38. Urbanization is the
A. pattern through which the customs of one city spread to other cities.
B. dramatic rise in the number of cities and the resultant lifestyle changes.
C. overdevelopment of exurban areas and overuse of natural resources.
D. worldwide spread of advanced technologies.
____ 39. Basic land use patterns found in all cities include
A. residential, industrial, and commercial.
B. agricultural, merchandising, and technical.
C. residential, technical, and educational.
D. industrial, commercial, and religious.
____ 40. The commercial core of a city is called its
A. megalopolis.
B. metropolitan area.
C. Central Business District (CBD).
D. urbanization hub.
____ 41. The Aztec Empire fell under the rule of Spain as a result of
A. diffusion.
B. the Spanish conquest.
C. the Free Trade Agreement.
D. manufacturing.
____ 42. The Aztec city that became the site of Mexico City was called
A. Augustín.
B. Juárez.
C. Texcoco.
D. Tenochtitlán.
____ 43. In 1929, the new political party that helped introduce democracy in Mexico was called the
A. Institutional Revolutionary Party.
B. Democratic Party.
C. National Action Party.
D. Multi-Party.
____ 44. Factories along the U.S. border that manufacture goods for export are called
A. finance development.
B. maquiladoras.
C. trade agreement factories.
D. import tariff industries.
____ 45. NAFTA is an important trade agreement that promotes the economic prosperity of
A. Mexico, the United States, and Spain.
B. Mexico and Spain.
C. Mexico and the United States.
D. Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 46. Which of the following two cultures blended to shape the development of Mexico?
A. Spanish and Portuguese
B. native peoples and Spanish
C. Maya and Aztec
D. Spanish and African
____ 47. Which of the following was the name of the capital of the Aztec Empire?
A. Yucatán
B. Quetzalcoatl
C. Tenochtitlán
D. Mexico City
____ 48. Which of the following is expected to contribute to Mexico's economic prosperity?
A. rising population
B. NAFTA
C. human-environment interaction
D. National Action Party
____ 49. The economies of Central America and the Caribbean are primarily based on which of these two
factors?
A. agriculture and industry
B. trade and industry
C. tourism and industry
D. agriculture and tourism
____ 50. Which of the following are the major groups of people that shaped the cultures of both Central
America and the Caribbean?
A. native peoples, Europeans, Africans
B. native peoples, Spanish, Portuguese
C. Spanish, French, Dutch
D. Inca, Maya, Spanish
____ 51. Which of the following was developed to make member economies more stable?
A. Quechua
B. United Provinces of Central America
C. Mercosur
D. Treaty of Tordesillas
____ 52. Which of the following combines a Brazilian dance with African influences?
A. samba
B. capoeira
C. cariocas
D. Carnival
____ 53. Which of the following countries has both the largest territory and population of any country in Latin
America?
A. Bolivia
B. Brazil
C. Argentina
D. Chile
____ 54. Which of the following two countries gained control of the land in South America as a result of the
Treaty of Tordesillas?
A. United States and Portugal
B. Spain and France
C. Spain and Portugal
D. Germany and Italy

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 55. Which of the following identifies the reason why the Portuguese brought Africans to the colony of
Brazil?
A. to work on the sugar plantations
B. to build cities
C. to clear land
D. to mine gold and silver
____ 56. What is exchanged in a debt-for-nature swap?
A. payment of debt for protection of part of the rain forest
B. money for products
C. timber for farmland
D. oxygen for carbon dioxide
____ 57. Which of the following is NOT an aspect of global warming?
A. buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
B. increase in temperatures
C. decrease in temperatures
D. climate changes
____ 58. Biodiversity refers to a wide range of which of the following species?
A. plants
B. insects
C. wildlife
D. all of the above
____ 59. Which of the following have contributed to the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest?
A. demand for hardwoods such as mahogany and cedar
B. clearing of land for farming
C. clearing of forest for cattle to graze
D. all of the above
____ 60. What is the most important reason that many Latin American citizens are unable to take advantage
of the free-market economy?
A. They live in crowded cities.
B. They lack education and cannot get meaningful jobs.
C. They live in rural areas.
D. They have many diseases.
____ 61. Which of the following best describes the form of government known as an oligarchy?
A. government by a few powerful rulers
B. a government based on constitutional freedoms
C. an opposition government
D. a Spanish government
____ 62. Which of the following is the goal of land reform?
A. to support growing cities
B. to reduce inflation
C. to divide land and wealth more fairly
D. to end military leadership in government
____ 63. Which term describes a government under harsh, military leadership?
A. Junta
B. democracy
C. oligarchy
D. caudillo

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 64. Which of the following is NOT associated with a democracy?

A. free speech
B. fair elections
C. citizen participation
D. lack of participation for all except the powerful rulers
____ 65. Which of the following describes Juan Perón of Argentina and other 20th-century Latin American
dictators?
A. political reformer
B. caudillo
C. opposition leader
D. elected official
____ 66. Which of these peninsulas is bounded by the Norwegian Sea, the
North Sea, and the Baltic Sea?
A. Balkan
B. Italian
C. Iberian
D. Scandinavian
____ 67. Which of the following best describes the Northern European Plain?
A. Flooding prevents the land from being cultivated.
B. A lack of pesticides results in low production.
C. A variety of crops are produced in abundance.
D. Air and water pollution have destroyed the land.
____ 68. Which of these landforms contributed most to the development of ethnic differences in Europe?
A. seas
B. islands
C. mountains
D. plains
____ 69. The "Land of the Midnight Sun" includes which of these countries?
A. Austria
B. Ireland
C. Portugal
D. Finland
____ 70. Which of the following best explains the deforestation on the Scandinavian Peninsula?
A. High tides bring a killer algae to the area, and the algae contaminate the water needed by trees.
B. Winds blow emissions there from an industrial region, and those emissions cause acid rain.
C. Windmills in the Netherlands blow emissions from Dutch factories.
D. Too many trees are cut down for use in home construction and in paper mills.
____ 71. Which of these best explains why Italy did not industrialize as early as its neighbor France?
A. more tourism
B. fewer resources
C. greater land area
D. fewer mountain ranges
____ 72. Which of the following is NOT a possible reason to create polders?
A. to gain more farmland
B. to gain protection from invading armies
C. to reduce population density
D. to reduce erosion caused by waves

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 73. Which of the following describes the effect of the North Atlantic Drift on western France?
A. It helps France to be a major agricultural producer.
B. It allows surfers to use the Atlantic beaches of France.
C. It promotes tourism by creating conditions that are suitable for skiing.
D. It makes it possible for olive oil to be a major ingredient of French cooking.
____ 74. Which of these is NOT a result of Europe having many peninsulas?
A. It has a very long coastline relative to its size.
B. The nearness of the ocean and seas has promoted trade and travel.
C. Each peninsula has developed its own agricultural specialty.
D. The inhabitants of the various peninsulas have developed into separate cultural groups.
____ 75. Which of these best describes an effect of the North Sea becoming a major source of petroleum?
A. Fewer tourists visit France and Italy.
B. Coal production in Poland has decreased.
C. Trade between Germany and Poland has increased.
D. The United Kingdom exports oil to other nations.
____ 76. Which of these developed the first democracy?
A. Rome
B. Sparta
C. Athens
D. Persia
____ 77. Which of these dominated a large region in Eastern Europe after World War II?
A. France
B. United States
C. Great Britain
D. Soviet Union
____ 78. Which of these was a time of renewed interest in the arts and learning that lasted through the 16th
century?
A. Crusades
B. Renaissance
C. Reformation
D. Age of Exploration
____ 79. Which of these are the two dominant countries of Western Europe?
A. Switzerland and France
B. Germany and the Netherlands
C. Germany and France
D. the Netherlands and Austria
____ 80. Which of these had built a global empire by the 1800s?
A. Spain
B. Italy
C. United Kingdom
D. Sweden
____ 81. Which of the following best describes Northern Europe's current economy?
A. manufacturing, service, and high-tech industries
B. tourism and luxury goods
C. fishing and agriculture
D. backward factories and uneducated workers

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 82. Which region of Europe has great diversity because of its history as a cultural crossroads?
A. Mediterranean Europe
B. Western Europe
C. Northern Europe
D. Eastern Europe
____ 83. Which of these is NOT part of the artistic legacy of Western Europe?
A. painting in the Netherlands
B. music in Germany
C. painting in France
D. painting in Switzerland
____ 84. Which of the following would be found in a region that had undergone balkanization?
A. several small, hostile states
B. many natural resources
C. an increase in population
D. heavy industrial pollution
____ 85. What spread from Asia to Europe and caused the deaths of millions of people?
A. smallpox
B. bubonic plague
C. Vikings
D. Ottomans
____ 86. Which of these countries was torn apart by conflict in the 1990s?
A. Romania
B. Bulgaria
C. Hungary
D. Yugoslavia
____ 87. Which of these was NOT a cause of recent conflict in the Balkans?
A. religious differences
B. economic alliances
C. anger over past conflicts
D. nationalistic feelings
____ 88. Which of the following was Serbia's policy toward Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslims and Croats?
A. peaceful coexistence
B. divide and conquer
C. ethnic cleansing
D. diplomatic negotiation
____ 89. Which of the following best describes the international response toward Serbia's actions in the
1990s?
A. military intervention
B. negotiated settlements
C. economic boycott
D. all of the above
____ 90. Which of these best explains why Poland's water is unsafe to drink?
A. not enough sewage treatment plants
B. industrial waste from Romania
C. killer algae
D. all of the above

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 91. What is the purpose of the European Environmental Agency?

A. to set government standards
B. to monitor chemical fertilizers
C. to enforce controls
D. to provide information
____ 92. Why is international cooperation needed to solve the problem of pollution?
A. so the euro can be used to pay for the cleanup
B. because pollution spreads across national boundaries
C. because cleanup is the responsibility of the United Nations
D. because individuals refuse to obey national laws
____ 93. How did the formation of the Common Market affect the economies of its members?
A. They experienced runaway inflation.
B. Trade among members quadrupled.
C. Unemployment rates doubled.
D. Industries fled to nonmember nations.
____ 94. Which of the following might create problems for the EU if former Communist nations become EU
members?
A. They are less prosperous.
B. They are more industrialized.
C. They have stricter pollution controls.
D. They pay their workers higher wages.
____ 95. What does the incident with Joerg Haider demonstrate about the EU?
A. It prosecutes criminals.
B. It regulates banking officials.
C. It influences national politics.
D. It avoids controversy.
____ 96. The mountain range that separates the Northern European and West Siberian plains is the
A. Transcaucasia Mountains.
B. Caucasus Mountains.
C. Siberian Mountains.
D. Ural Mountains.
____ 97. The Caucasus Mountains form the border between
A. Russia and Transcaucasia.
B. Siberian Plain and Georgia.
C. Caucasian Plain and Tian Shan.
D. Siberian Plains and Yenisey River.
____ 98. The fertile soil found on the Northern European Plain is known as
A. tundra.
B. permafrost.
C. chernozem.
D. plain.
____ 99. The longest river on the European continent is the
A. Syr Darya.
B. Amu Darya.
C. Volga River.
D. Irytsh River.

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 100. The oldest and deepest lake in the world is

A. Czar Lake.
B. Lake Caspian.
C. Aral Sea.
D. Lake Baikal.
____ 101. A region known for frigid temperatures as well as its many natural resources is
A. Siberia.
B. Georgia.
C. Russia.
D. Uzbekistan.
____ 102. __________ is the term used to describe a region's distance away from the moderating influence
of the sea.
A. continentality
B. taiga
C. tundra
D. precipitation
____ 103. One type of vegetation that is NOT found in Russia and the Republics is
A. forest.
B. steppe.
C. tundra.
D. swamp.
____ 104. The _________ was damaged by efforts to use its waters for irrigation of nearby farms.
A. Caspian Sea
B. Aral Sea
C. Black Sea
D. White Sea
____ 105. The term that is used to describe the permanently frozen subsoil in Siberia is
A. frosted.
B. frozen.
C. permafrost.
D. tundra frost.
____ 106. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are known as
A. the Western Republics.
B. the Soviet Union.
C. the Baltic Republics.
D. the Balkans.
____ 107. The Russian leader who put an end to Mongol rule was
A. Ivan the Great.
B. Catherine the Great.
C. Peter the Great.
D. Joseph Stalin.
____ 108. In 1917, the rule of the czars was ended by
A. the Cold War.
B. the First World War.
C. the Mongol invasion.
D. the Russian Revolution.

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 109. The leader who granted more economic and political freedom to the people of the former USSR
was
A. Ivan the Great.
B. Mikhail Gorbachev.
C. V. I. Lenin.
D. Joseph Stalin.
____ 110. An economy in which the central government makes all the decisions about a country's economic
policies is known as a
A. command economy.
B. communistic economy.
C. labor economy.
D. collective economy.
____ 111. Because it was a meeting point for people from many areas with many different languages,
_______ was referred to by Arab geographers by a name that means "Mountain of Language."
A. Russia
B. the Baltic Republics
C. Transcaucasia
D. St. Petersburg
____ 112. After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet military became known as the
A. Red Army.
B. USSR Army.
C. Russian Army.
D. Revolutionary Army.
____ 113. The decision about whether to consider the Caspian a sea or a lake will help to determine
A. whether it contains fresh water or salt water.
B. how the region's maps will be drawn.
C. how oil resources are divided.
D. where the states' boundaries will be drawn.
____ 114. The famous trade route that went from China to the Mediterranean Sea was known as
A. the China Road.
B. the Mediterranean Road.
C. the Silk Road.
D. the Spice Road.
____ 115. People who have no permanent home, and move according to the seasons in search of food,
water, and grazing land are known as
A. wanderers.
B. herders.
C. yurters.
D. nomads.
____ 116. Which of the following is a cause for the regional conflicts in Caucasus?
A. an increase in tourism
B. demands for more Western goods
C. the presence of more than 50 different ethnic groups
D. the Communist form of government
____ 117. Which of the following is NOT a republic in the Caucasus region?
A. Chechnya
B. North Ossetia
C. Ukraine
D. Dagestan

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 118. Which of the following events led to the beginning of ethnic and regional conflicts in Caucasus?
A. a problem with the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl
B. the breakup of the Soviet Union
C. a peace conference in Paris
D. the election of Edvard Shevardnadze
____ 119. Which of the following was used by Russian leaders as part of their move from a command
economy to a capitalist economy?
A. collective farms
B. public domain
C. nuclear power
D. privatization
____ 120. Which of the following terms is used to describe the idea that increasing distances between places
tends to reduce interactions among them?
A. privatization
B. distance decay
C. economic reform
D. federal districts
____ 121. What is a criminal organization that threatens Russia's economy?
A. Revolutionary groups
B. Nagorno-Karabakh
C. Russian mafia
D. Red Army
____ 122. What mountainous region has caused conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan?
A. Chechnya
B. Chernobyl
C. North Ossetia
D. Nagorno-Karabakh
____ 123. Why do Russian leaders want to import, store, and treat the world's nuclear waste?
A. Leaders want to use their knowledge of nuclear materials.
B. They want to revive the Russian economy.
C. It is part of a plan to recycle nuclear materials.
D. They have enough land to store nuclear materials for others.
____ 124. What concerns the United States?
A. the theft or misuse of Russian nuclear materials
B. the revival of the Soviet Union
C. that the Russian economy will be better than that of the United States
D. the influence of the Russian mafia on the Russian economy
____ 125. Which of the following contributed to Russia's economic crash in 1998?
A. distance decay
B. nuclear waste
C. the high tech industry
D. failure of new businesses
____ 126. Which of these rivers provides more than 95 percent of Egyptians with water?
A. Congo River
B. Niger River
C. Sahara River
D. Nile River

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 127. Which of the following best defines an escarpment?

A. a gradual slope with a nearly flat plateau on top
B. a steep slope with a nearly flat plateau on top
C. a long, thin valley
D. a steep slope leading down to a flat river valley
____ 128. Which of these names Africa's highest peak?
A. Mount Cameroon
B. Mount Kenyon
C. Mount Kilimanjaro
D. Mount Tibesti
____ 129. Which of the following names a location where temperatures can reach 122°F in the summer and
fall below freezing at night in winter?
A. Great Drakensberg escarpment
B. Mount Kilimanjaro
C. the Sahara
D. Serengeti
____ 130. Which of these identifies the climate area that comprises the smallest area in Africa?
A. hot, dry deserts
B. rain forests
C. tropical grasslands
D. snow-capped mountains
____ 131. If you were gazing at a wildebeest through tall grass, in which of these places would you be?
A. the Serengeti
B. the Sahara
C. the canopy of a rain forest
D. Mount Kilimanjaro
____ 132. Which of these could you find 6,000 feet below the Sahara?
A. oasis
B. aquifer
C. escarpment
D. silt
____ 133. Which of the following is NOT a cause of desertification?
A. farming
B. overgrazing of livestock
C. slash-and-burn agricultural methods
D. drilling for water
____ 134. Which of these areas has been severely damaged as a result of drilling for oil?
A. the Niger delta
B. the Sahara
C. the Sahel
D. Lake Nasser
____ 135. Which of the following is a problem created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam?
A. regular water supply
B. increased irrigation
C. decreased occurrence of drought
D. decreased silt deposits on the surrounding farmland

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 136. Which of these statements is NOT true of the Masai?

A. They are known for their intricate beadwork and jewelry.
B. They weave kente cloth.
C. They have long, pierced ear lobes.
D. They live on grasslands of the rift valleys in Kenya and Tanzania.
____ 137. Which of these best states the purpose of the Berlin Conference?
A. stop civil war in Africa
B. divide Africa among ethnic groups
C. divide Africa among European nations
D. bring together African and European rulers
____ 138. Which is currently used as a form of rebellion against Islam?
A. rai
B. souks
C. medina
D. pandemic
____ 139. Which contributed most to the greatness of Carthage?
A. its climate
B. its geographic location
C. its natural sources
D. its rulers
____ 140. Which of the following best describes a stateless society?
A. different lineages elect a central power
B. all people are descended from a common ancestor
C. families elect a monarch
D. people use lineages to govern themselves
____ 141. Which of these places was the departure point for slaves from the mid-1500s to the mid-1800s?
A. Olduvai Gorge
B. Carthage
C. Cape Town
D. Gorée Island
____ 142. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Fang artwork?
A. masks resembling facial features of ancestors
B. masks painted white with facial features outlined in black
C. boxes containing skulls and bones of deceased ancestors
D. boxes carved with figures representing protective influences
____ 143. Who brought businesses under national control after the Democratic Republic of the Congo
gained independence?
A. King Leopold II
B. F.W. de Klerk
C. Mobutu Sese Seko
D. Laurent Kabila
____ 144. Which caused international sanctions in South Africa?
A. vimbuza
B. apartheid
C. Bantu migrations
D. AIDS pandemic

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 145. Why is Nelson Mandela a hero to many South Africans?

A. led a long struggle to end apartheid
B. promoted rai as a tool for protest
C. led the movement to ban Western influences in African art
D. opened the African interior to European trade
____ 146. Which of the following best describes the economic base of most African nations?
A. manufacturing
B. tourism
C. agricultural products
D. raw materials
____ 147. Which statement is true?
A. In the last 40 years, average incomes in Africa have kept pace with others on a worldwide
basis.
B. Most African nations are worse off economically today than they were in the 1960s.
C. Developing African nations have benefited economically and politically from their colonial
roots.
D. African has suffered from a lack of natural resources.
____ 148. Which might a "one-commodity" country rely on for much of its earnings?
A. bauxite and copper
B. petroleum and iron ore
C. cocoa beans and ground nuts
D. diamonds
____ 149. If a country that solely depended on petroleum exports wanted to diversify, which of the following
should it NOT do?
A. promote manufacturing
B. develop other industries
C. drill for additional oil sites
D. develop tourism
____ 150. Which of the following diseases is likely to result from poor sanitation practices and flooding
conditions?
A. cholera
B. HIV
C. malaria
D. tuberculosis
____ 151. Which of the following diseases often accompanies AIDS?
A. malaria
B. tuberculosis
C. cholera
D. sleeping sickness
____ 152. Which country landed on the coast of Africa in the 15th century?
A. Portugal
B. France
C. England
D. Spain
____ 153. Which of the following is NOT a direct result of colonialism?
A. dictatorships
B. civil wars
C. solid economic infrastructure
D. heavy debt

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____ 154. Which of the following is a major obstacle in building stable democracies?
A. geography
B. multiple ethnic groups
C. a weak interior infrastructure
D. poverty
____ 155. Which of these describes the process known as the "brain drain"?
A. the departure of native African professionals to Western countries
B. the fact that female students have increased their education
C. the destruction of public schools due to civil wars
D. the decrease of educated people due to AIDS
____ 156. Which of the following names a group of people living in areas of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran for the past
1,000 years?
A. Farsi
B. Zionism
C. Kurds
D. Mesopotamia
____ 157. Which of the following names the prophet who is considered the founder of Islam?
A. Sunni
B. Abdul al-Aziz
C. Muslim
D. Muhammad
____ 158. Which of these names a movement to create and support a Jewish homeland in Palestine?
A. Colonialism
B. Zionism
C. Crusades
D. Pilgrimage
____ 159. Which of the following is the holy city to which all Muslims hope to make a pilgrimage?
A. Jerusalem
B. Damascus
C. Mecca
D. Ramadan
____ 160. Which of the following is a religious duty of the followers of Islam?
A. prayer
B. charity
C. fasting
D. all of the above
____ 161. Which of these is the purpose of OPEC?
A. controlling worldwide oil prices
B. teaching Arabic language
C. providing charity
D. regaining land for Palestinian Arabs
____ 162. Which of these marks the spot where Muslims believe Muhammad rose up to heaven?
A. Dome of the Rock
B. Western Wall
C. Church of the Holy Sepulcher
D. Mecca

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 163. Which of the following names the holiest Jewish site in Jerusalem?
A. Dome of the Rock
B. Western Wall
C. Mecca
D. mosque
____ 164. Which of the following was formed to regain land currently under Israeli control for Palestinian
Arabs?
A. Crusades
B. United Nations
C. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
D. OPEC
____ 165. Which of the following is NOT true about the Taliban?
A. The Taliban gained power in Afghanistan.
B. The Taliban are suspected of supporting terrorists.
C. The Taliban imposed strict rules on the behavior of people.
D. The Taliban are a fundamentalist Buddhist political group.
____ 166. Which of the following is the name given to a resource that is so valuable that nations will go to war
to ensure its steady supply?
A. human resources
B. oil and natural gas
C. water
D. strategic commodity
____ 167. Which of the following is the name given to the skills and talents of the people of a nation?
A. brain drain
B. guest workers
C. human resources
D. infrastructure
____ 168. Which of the following is the name given to unskilled laborers who come from other countries to fill
job vacancies?
A. guest workers
B. illegal immigrants
C. stateless nation
D. political refugees
____ 169. Which of the following is NOT something foreign workers experience in Southwest Asia?
A. misunderstandings over customs
B. living in special districts
C. feeling welcomed
D. receiving late wages or no wages at all
____ 170. Which of the following groups has tried unsuccessfully to establish a nation since the breakup of
the Ottoman Empire after World War I?
A. Iraqis
B. Kurds
C. Arabs
D. Syrians
____ 171. What is the name given to a nation of people without land to legally occupy?
A. nomads
B. non-nation
C. guest workers
D. stateless nation

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World Geography Final Exam

____ 172. Which of the following do Palestinians believe they should retain in any agreement to end conflicts
with Israel over control of Jerusalem?
A. access to oil fields
B. a guarantee of jobs
C. the right of return
D. the right to be paid for their land
____ 173. Which of the following groups of people have considered themselves a stateless nation since the
nation of Israel was created?
A. Kurds
B. Palestinians
C. Israelis
D. Syrians
____ 174. What name is given to the strip of land on the west side of the Jordan River?
A. West Bank
B. Gaza Strip
C. Palestine
D. United Arab Emirates
____ 175. Which of the following caused Palestinians to begin to flee what is now known as Israel?
A. the end of World War I
B. the Palestine Liberation Organization
C. the desire for new land
D. the war during 1948-1949

Geography 2011 20
World Geography Final Exam

Answer Key

1. C. degrees of longitude
2. D. tracking the path of a hurricane using Landsat
3. C. relative location.
4. B. make a map projection
5. C. the Eastern Hemisphere.
6. A. the line dividing the Northern and Southern hemispheres
7. B. absolute location.
8. C. Landsat
9. D. the distribution and interaction of Earth's physical and human features.
10. C. Northern Hemisphere.
11. C. the Richter scale; relative strength of the earthquake
12. C. loess
13. B. a glacier
14. C. hemisphere
15. D. relief
16. A. tectonic plates
17. B. humus
18. D. chemical weathering
19. B. aquifer
20. C. at fault lines
21. A. convection.
22. D. tundra.
23. C. divisions of biomes.
24. B. examples of deciduous trees.
25. C. steppe.
26. B. an area of little precipitation on the leeward side of a mountain.
27. D. tornado.
28. B. they create a barrier that traps solar energy.
29. D. an area enriched by permafrost.
30. A. a specific area containing interdependent plants and animals.
31. B. culture.
32. C. diffusion.
33. D. acculturation.

Geography 2011 21
World Geography Final Exam

34. B. polytheistic religion.

35. A. a dialect.
36. D. the ways in which people use space in cities.
37. C. a metropolitan area.
38. B. dramatic rise in the number of cities and the resultant lifestyle changes.
39. A. residential, industrial, and commercial.
40. C. Central Business District (CBD).
41. B. the Spanish conquest.
42. D. Tenochtitlán.
43. A. Institutional Revolutionary Party.
44. B. maquiladoras.
45. D. Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
46. B. native peoples and Spanish
47. C. Tenochtitlán
48. B. NAFTA
49. D. agriculture and tourism
50. A. native peoples, Europeans, Africans
51. C. Mercosur
52. A. samba
53. B. Brazil
54. C. Spain and Portugal
55. A. to work on the sugar plantations
56. A. payment of debt for protection of part of the rain forest
57. C. decrease in temperatures
58. D. all of the above
59. D. all of the above
60. B. They lack education and cannot get meaningful jobs.
61. A. government by a few powerful rulers
62. C. to divide land and wealth more fairly
63. A. Junta
64. D. lack of participation for all except the powerful rulers
65. B. caudillo
66. D. Scandinavian
67. C. A variety of crops are produced in abundance.

Geography 2011 22
World Geography Final Exam

68. C. mountains
69. D. Finland
70. B. Winds blow emissions there from an industrial region, and those emissions cause acid rain.
71. B. fewer resources
72. B. to gain protection from invading armies
73. A. It helps France to be a major agricultural producer.
74. C. Each peninsula has developed its own agricultural specialty.
75. D. The United Kingdom exports oil to other nations.
76. C. Athens
77. D. Soviet Union
78. B. Renaissance
79. C. Germany and France
80. C. United Kingdom
81. A. manufacturing, service, and high-tech industries
82. D. Eastern Europe
83. D. painting in Switzerland
84. A. several small, hostile states
85. B. bubonic plague
86. D. Yugoslavia
87. B. economic alliances
88. C. ethnic cleansing
89. D. all of the above
90. A. not enough sewage treatment plants
91. D. to provide information
92. B. because pollution spreads across national boundaries
93. B. Trade among members quadrupled.
94. A. They are less prosperous.
95. C. It influences national politics.
96. D. Ural Mountains.
97. A. Russia and Transcaucasia.
98. C. chernozem.
99. C. Volga River.
100. D. Lake Baikal.
101. A. Siberia.

Geography 2011 23
World Geography Final Exam

102. A. continentality
103. D. swamp.
104. B. Aral Sea
105. C. permafrost.
106. C. the Baltic Republics.
107. A. Ivan the Great.
108. D. the Russian Revolution.
109. B. Mikhail Gorbachev.
110. A. command economy.
111. C. Transcaucasia
112. A. Red Army.
113. C. how oil resources are divided.
114. C. the Silk Road.
115. D. nomads.
116. C. the presence of more than 50 different ethnic groups
117. C. Ukraine
118. B. the breakup of the Soviet Union
119. D. privatization
120. B. distance decay
121. C. Russian mafia
122. D. Nagorno-Karabakh
123. B. They want to revive the Russian economy.
124. A. the theft or misuse of Russian nuclear materials
125. D. failure of new businesses
126. D. Nile River
127. B. a steep slope with a nearly flat plateau on top
128. C. Mount Kilimanjaro
129. C. the Sahara
130. D. snow-capped mountains
131. A. the Serengeti
132. B. aquifer
133. C. slash-and-burn agricultural methods
134. A. the Niger delta
135. D. decreased silt deposits on the surrounding farmland

Geography 2011 24
World Geography Final Exam

136. B. They weave kente cloth.

137. C. divide Africa among European nations
138. A. rai
139. B. its geographic location
140. D. people use lineages to govern themselves
141. D. Gorée Island
142. A. masks resembling facial features of ancestors
143. C. Mobutu Sese Seko
144. B. apartheid
145. A. led a long struggle to end apartheid
146. D. raw materials
147. B. Most African nations are worse off economically today than they were in the 1960s.
148. D. diamonds
149. C. drill for additional oil sites
150. A. cholera
151. B. tuberculosis
152. A. Portugal
153. C. solid economic infrastructure
154. B. multiple ethnic groups
155. A. the departure of native African professionals to Western countries
156. C. Kurds
157. D. Muhammad
158. B. Zionism
159. C. Mecca
160. D. all of the above
161. A. controlling worldwide oil prices
162. A. Dome of the Rock
163. B. Western Wall
164. C. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
165. D. The Taliban are a fundamentalist Buddhist political group.
166. D. strategic commodity
167. C. human resources
168. A. guest workers
169. C. feeling welcomed

Geography 2011 25
World Geography Final Exam

170. B. Kurds
171. D. stateless nation
172. C. the right of return
173. B. Palestinians
174. A. West Bank
175. D. the war during 1948-1949

Geography 2011 26
World Geography Final Exam

Standards Summary
NGS 1.1 How to use maps and other graphic representations to depict
geographic problems
NGS 1.3 How to use geographic representations and tools to analyze,
explain, and solve geographic problems
NGS 1C.3 Choose and give reasons to use specific technologies to analyze
selected geographic problems (e.g., aerial photographs,
satellite-produced imagery, and geographic information systems
[GIS] to determine the extent of water pollution in a harbor complex in
South Africa or the range of deforestation in Madagascar)
NGS 1.0 How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and
technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a
spatial persepective
NGS 1.2 How to use technologies to represent and interpret Earths physical
and human systems
NGS 4.0 The physical and human characteristics of places
NGS 15.3 How humans perceive and react to natural hazards
NGS 4B.1 Describe how forces from within Earth (e.g., tectonic processes
such as volcanic activity and earthquakes) influence the character of
place
NGS 7.0 The physical processes that shape the patterns of earths surface
NGS 7B.2 Describe the physical processes (e.g., erosion, folding and faulting,
volcanism) that produce distictive landforms (e.g., specific types of
mountains, such as buttes and mesas, block mountains or horsts,
ridge-and-valley sytstems)
NGS 7.1 The dynamics of the four basic components of Earths physical
systems; the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere
NGS 7.3 The spatial variation in the consequences of physical processes
across Earths surface
NGS 7.2 The interaction of Earths physical systems
NGS 7B.1 Explain the distribution of different types of climate (e.g., marine
climate or continental climate) that is produced by such processes
as air-mass circulation, temperature, and moisture
NGS 4A.2 Explain why places have specific physical and human
characteristics in different parts of the world (e.g., the effects of
climatic and tectonic processes, settlement and migration patterns,
site and situation components)
NGS 4B.2 Analyze the role of climate (e.g., the effects of temperature,
precipitation, wind) in shaping places
NGS 4C.1 Describe how culture (e.g., toponyms, food preferences, gender
roles, resource use, belief systems, modes of transportation and
communication) affects the characteristics of place
NGS 10.0 The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of earths cultural
mosaics

Geography 2011 27
World Geography Final Exam

NGS 12.1 The functions, sizes, and spatial arrangements of urban areas
NGS 12A.2 Explain how the functions of cities differ from those of towns and
villages (e.g., they offer more specialized economic and social
activities, greater concentration of services, greater availability of
the same services)
NGS 12B.2 Analyze and compare the shapes of cities to identify factors that
influence urban morphology (e.g., transportation routes, physical
barriers, zoning regulations)
NGS 12.4 The evolving forms of present-day urban area
NGS 12E.3 Describe the cultural imprints of increasing urbanization (e.g., the
increasing numbers of ethnic enclaves in urban areas, the
development of legislation to protect the rights of ethnic and racial
minorities)
NGS 12B.1 Use aerial photographs, topographic maps, and census data to
learn about land uses in the students own city or in another city in the
same region and then speculate about the citys primary function
within its region (e.g., commercial center, university community,
transportation hub)
NGS 11.0 The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on earths
surface
NGS 13A.1 Explain how cooperation and/or conflict can lead to the allocation of
control of Earths surface (e.g., the formation and delineation of
regional planning districts, regional school districts, countries,
free-trade zones)
NGS 4A.1 Describe the same place ar different times in its history (e.g., London
as a Roman outpost in Britain, as a medieval trading center, and as
the seat of a global empire in the nineteenth century or Tokyo in the
three decades immediately before and after the Meiji Restoration)
NGS 12A.1 Analyze the site and situation of selected cities in different regions of
the world (e.g., Sydneys harbor location, Denver as the Mile High
City, Montreal as an island city)
NGS 12B.3 Identify those ways in which a city has remained the same for many
years, as well as those ways it has changed (e.g., on the basis of
histories, old newspapers, public records, maps, aerial
photographs, census data)
NGS 10D.3 Predict how evolving political and economic alliances affect the
traditional cohesiveness of world culture regions (e.g.,
post-reunification Germany and its economic effect on the
European Union, NAFTAs effect on trade relations among the United
States, Canada, and Mexico)
NGS 10A Compare the role that culture plays in incidents of cooperation and
conflict in the present-day world, as exemplified by being able to

Geography 2011 28
World Geography Final Exam

NGS 5A.2 Explain why regions once characterized by one set of criteria may be
defined by a different set of criteria today (e.g., the Caribbean
Basins transition from a major sugarcane and hemp producer to a
center for tourism, New Englands gradual conversion from a region
of small textile mills and shoe factories in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries to one of high-technology industries in the 1980s
and 1990s)
NGS 18D.3 Examine tourism in a developed or a developing country to identify
conflicts over resource use, the relative advantages and
disadvantages of tourism to local resident and the costs and benefits
of tourism from several points of view (e.g., those of the owner of a
diving shop, a hotel maid, a tourist, and a local fisherman) to put
together a position paper for or against developing tourism in a new
location,
NGS 11.3 The increasing economic interdependence of the worlds countries
NGS 4C Explain how social, cultural, and economic processes shape the
features of places, as exemplified by being able to
NGS 8C.3 Evaluate the long-term effects of the human modification of
ecosystems (e.g., how acid rain resulting from air pollution affects
water bodies and forests and how depletion of the atmospheres
ozone layer through the use of chemicals may affect the health of
humans)
NGS 14.0 How human actions modify the physical environment
NGS 14A.2 Analyze the role of people in decreasing the diversity of flora and
fauna in a region (e.g., the impact of acid rain on rivers and forests in
southern Ontario, the effects of toxic dumping on ocean
ecosystems, the effects of overfishing along the coast of
northeastern North America or the Philippine archipelago)
NGS 14.2 The significance of the global impacts of human modification of the
physial environment
NGS 14B.3 Examine the characteristics of major global environmental changes
and assess whether the changes are a result of human action,
natural causes, or a conmbination of both factors (e.g., increases in
world temperatures attributable to major global action, the link
between changes in solar emissions and amounts of volcanic dust
in the atmosphere attributable to natural causes)
NGS 12.0 The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement.
NGS 15.0 How physical systems affect human systems
NGS 16A.1 Describe how patterns of settlement are associated with the location
of resources (e.g., the organization of farming activities around
agglomerated settlements in Southeast Asia; the spatial
arrangement of villages, towns, and cities in the North American corn
belt)
NGS 16.0 The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and
importance of resources
NGS 3.3 The spatial behavior of people
NGS 4.2 The changing physical and human characteristics of places

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World Geography Final Exam

NGS 17.0 How to apply geography to interpret the past

NGS 10.3 The spatial characteristics of the processes of cultural convergence
and divergence
NGS 13B.1 Interpret the spatial extent and organizational structure of an
imperial power (e.g., the Roman Empire, Han Dynasty, Carolingian
Empire, British Empire)
NGS 11C.3 Relate economic factors to the location of particular types of
industries and businesses (e.g., least-cost location in terms of land
values, transportation, agglomeration, utilities)
NGS 18.0 How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the
future
NGS 5.4 How to use regions to analyze geographic issues
NGS 5A.1 Explain how changing conditions can result in a region taking on a
new structure (e.g., the reshaping of Miami and south Florida
resulting from the influx of people and capital from some areas of the
Caribbean Basin, or the reshaping of southern Africa resulting from
the economic and political realignments that followed the end of
European colonialism)
NGS 5B.3 Identify the ways in which the concept of a region can be used to
simplify the complexity of Earths space (e.g., by arranging an area
into sections to help understand a particular topic or problem)
NGS 11A.1 Describe the characteristics of traditional, command, and market
economic systems and describe how such systems operate in
specific countries (e.g., describe North Korea as a command
economy, Burkina Faso as a traditional economy in the hinterlands
beyond its cities, Singapore as a market economy)
NGS 10A.1 Identify the cultural factors that have promoted political conflict (e.g.,
the national, ethnic, and religious differences that led to conflict in
sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960s, central Europe in the 1980s and
1990s, countries within the former Soviet Union in the 1990s)
NGS 13.1 Why and how cooperation and conflict are involved in shaping the
distribution of social, political, and economic spaces on Earth at
different scale
NGS 18.3 How to use geographic knowledge, skills, and perspectives to
analyze problems and make decisions
NGS 3A Apply concepts of spatial interaction (e.g., complementarity,
intervening opportunity, distance decay, connections) to account for
patterns of movement in space, as exemplified by being able to
NGS 7A.3 Describe the physical processes that occur in dry environments
(e.g., desertification and soil degradation, flash floods, dust storms,
sand movement, soil erosion, salt accumulation)
NGS 17C.1 Assess the role and general effects of imperialism, colonization, and
decolonization on the economic and political developments of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries (e.g., European disregard for
existing African political boundaries in the organization of colonies
and subsequent independent nations; the exploitation of indigenous
peoples in the European colonization of the Americas)

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World Geography Final Exam

NGS 2A.3 Analyze world patterns of the diffusion of contagious diseases (e.g.,
AIDS, cholera, measles) to draw conclusions about spatial
interactions (trade and transportation) in the present-day world
NGS 10B.1 Analyze demographic data (e.g., birthrates, literacy rates, infant
mortality) to describe a regions cultural characteristics (e.g., level of
technological achievement, cultural traditions, social institutions)
NGS 10A.2 Identify the cultural characteristics that link regions (e.g., the
religious and linguistic ties between Spain and parts of Latin
America; the linguistic ties between Great Britain and Australia; the
ethnic ties among the Kurds living in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey)
NGS 6A.3 Identify how places take on symbolic meaning (e.g., Jerusalem as a
holy city for Muslims, Christians, and Jews; Arlington National
Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as places to honor
the war dead of the United States)
NGS 10D.2 Identify and map changes in the nature of selected international
partnerships and alliances (e.g., NATO and the former Warsaw Pact
nations since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the additions to OPEC
since its creation in 1960)
NGS 10B.2 Compare the economic opportunities for women in selected regions
of the world using culture to explain the differences (e.g., the lives of
Bedouin women within the Islamic tradition versus those of women
in Scandinavian countries)
NGS 10B.3 Describe the relationship between patterns of in-migration and
cultural change in large urban and manufacturing centers, especially
those near international borders (e.g., how the presence of large
numbers of guest workers or undocumented aliens results in
modification of an urban centers cultural characteristics)
NGS 9.0 The characterstics, distribution, and migration of human
populations on Earths surface
NGS 9C.2 Explain how international migrations are shaped by push and pull
factors (e.g., political conditions, economic incentives, religious
values, family ties)

Geography 2011 31