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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Introduction & Chapter 1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the title of the book’s Introduction?
(a) A Semidesert with a Desert Heart.
(b) First Causes.
(c) Chinatown.
(d) Rivals in Crime.

2. What does the author claim in the Introduction that, “because of their moisture requirements,” are our physiological counterparts in the kingdom of plants?
(a) Ferns.
(b) Lichens.
(c) Mushrooms.
(d) Trees.

3. What is one of the four major prehistoric archaeological Oasisamerica traditions of what is now the American Southwest which the author describes in Chapter One?
(a) Hohokam.
(b) Bahmona.
(c) Brenula.
(d) Trincala.

4. 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) 13.
(b) 22.
(c) 4.
(d) 38.

5. According to the author in the Introduction, “Fifty-six years after the first earth was turned beside City Creek, the Mormons had” how many “acres under full or partial irrigation in several states”?
(a) 500,000.
(b) 6,000,000.
(c) 250,000.
(d) 2,000,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where was John Wesley Powell born?

2. 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?

3. Almost all of the rain in Napa Valley falls between which months?

4. How many major dams does the author say California has in the Introduction?

5. When was Marc Reisner born?

(see the answer key)

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