Final answer:
The population of South America in the year 2000, written in scientific notation as 9.53 x 10⁸, aligns with option B).
Step-by-step explanation:
To write the population of South America in the year 2000, which was 953,000,000, in scientific notation, we should place the decimal after the first non-zero digit and count how many places the decimal has moved. This gives us 9.53 as our base number. Since the decimal moved 8 places to the left, the exponent for 10 will be +8. Therefore, the population in scientific notation is 9.53 x 10⁸, which is option B).