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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapters 2 & 3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. For what organization was Marc Reisner a staff writer from 1972 to 1979?
(a) The Sierra Club.
(b) The Natural Resources Defense Council.
(c) The Nature Conservancy.
(d) The World Wildlife Fund.

2. According to the author in the Introduction, “On the east side of the Sierra-Cascade crest, moisture drops immediately from as much as 150 inches of precipitation on the western slope to as little as” how many inches on the eastern slope?
(a) 4.
(b) 22.
(c) 13.
(d) 38.

3. What western city does the author describe “with exotic palms and golf-course lawns and a five-hundred-foot fountain and an artificial surf” in the Introduction?
(a) Reno, Nevada.
(b) Albuquerque, New Mexico.
(c) Bakersfield, California.
(d) Phoenix, Arizona.

4. John Wesley Powell figured that if you evenly distributed all of the surface water flowing between the Columbia River and the Gulf of Mexico, you would have what?
(a) The most productive agricultural system the world has ever seen.
(b) Lush green pastures as far as the eye can see.
(c) Astounding yields on farms covering a quarter of the country.
(d) A desert almost indistinguishable from what is there today.

5. What was the population of Los Angeles when Harrison Gray Otis moved there?
(a) 5,000.
(b) 12,500.
(c) 22,000.
(d) 29,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the author in the Introduction, “Modern Utah, where large-scale irrigation has been going on longer than anywhere else,” has what percent of its land area under cultivation?

2. The author states in the Introduction that California has the two biggest irrigation projects on earth, but its irrigated acreage is not much larger than what U.S. state?

3. Which Texas historian wrote an article for Harper’s entitled “The American West, Perpetual Mirage”?

4. The Reclamation Act was authored by what U.S. Representative?

5. The Sierra Nevada foothills are how many miles across the Central Valley from San Francisco?

(see the answer key)

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