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Latin America — High School World Geography practice questions

10 multiple-choice questions on Latin America, about 6% of the High School World Geography bank. Every one carries a written rationale.

Written and maintained by Nick Burton · last updated 2026-08-22 · how we write and review questions

What this chapter covers

Latin America is one of 16 chapters in CoStudy's High School World Geography bank, and it holds 10 of the bank's 170 multiple-choice questions — roughly 6% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.

Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.

Free Latin America practice questions

4 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.

The Andes Mountains extend along which side of South America?

  1. Western coast
  2. Eastern coast
  3. Northern coast only
  4. Only across the interior

Answer: A — Western coast

The Andes run along the western Pacific side, formed by the Nazca plate subducting under South America.

The 'primate city' pattern is common in Latin America. Which of the following is a classic example?

  1. Brasília in Brazil
  2. Guayaquil in Ecuador
  3. Curitiba in Brazil
  4. Mexico City in Mexico

Answer: D — Mexico City in Mexico

Mexico City dwarfs all other cities in Mexico — a textbook primate city. Brasília (A) is the capital but not the largest — a capital-vs-primate trap.

The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is shared by which two countries?

  1. Cuba and Jamaica
  2. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic
  3. Haiti and the Dominican Republic
  4. Trinidad and Tobago

Answer: C — Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Hispaniola = Haiti (west) + DR (east). Cuba and Jamaica are separate islands — a common Caribbean geography trap.

The dominant language of Brazil is:

  1. Spanish
  2. Dutch
  3. French
  4. Portuguese

Answer: D — Portuguese

Brazil is the only major Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas — legacy of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. A is the classic 'all of Latin America speaks Spanish' misconception.

Practise the full chapter

These are a sample. The full Latin America chapter runs 10 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.

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