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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) 250,000.
(b) 2,000,000.
(c) 500,000.
(d) 6,000,000.

2. What is the name given to the principal hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds which drain into the Pacific Ocean?
(a) The Rocky Mountains.
(b) The American Ridge.
(c) The Canadian Spur.
(d) The Continental Divide.

3. The negotiation of the Colorado River Compact took place in what year, under the guidance of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover?
(a) 1885.
(b) 1900.
(c) 1958.
(d) 1922.

4. The author begins Chapter Three by stating, “When archaeologists from some other planet sift through the bleached bones of our civilization, they may well conclude that our temples were” what?
(a) Oceans.
(b) Deserts.
(c) Dams.
(d) Rivers.

5. In what year was the Hoover Dam dedicated?
(a) 1922.
(b) 1935.
(c) 1949.
(d) 1956.

6. The annual income of Las Vegas is what percentage of the entire gross national product of Egypt, according to the author in Chapter Four?
(a) 5%.
(b) 25%.
(c) 40%.
(d) 10%.

7. The author describes flying over the state of Utah on his way back to California in what year in the Introduction?
(a) 1971.
(b) 1980.
(c) 1996.
(d) 1964.

8. According to the author, “New England was completely forested in 1620 and nearly deforested” how many years later?
(a) 30.
(b) 150.
(c) 85.
(d) 120.

9. How many major dams does the author say California has in the Introduction?
(a) 1,200.
(b) 560.
(c) 50.
(d) 240.

10. According to the author in Chapter Three, regarding the Bureau of Reclamation, “The most auspicious event in its entire history was the election to the presidency in 1932 of a freewheeling, free-spending” what?
(a) Republican.
(b) Libertarian.
(c) Democrat.
(d) Patrician.

11. 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) Bakersfield, California.
(c) Phoenix, Arizona.
(d) Albuquerque, New Mexico.

12. The Sierra Nevada foothills are how many miles across the Central Valley from San Francisco?
(a) 150.
(b) 35.
(c) 80.
(d) 225.

13. Who wrote the sonnet “Ozymandias,” which is quoted in the opening of Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water?
(a) Michael Robinson.
(b) Jim Casey.
(c) James Marshall.
(d) Percy Bysshe Shelley.

14. What was the population of San Francisco in 1851?
(a) 27,000.
(b) 35,000.
(c) 48,000.
(d) 12,000.

15. What word used in the book’s Introduction means allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass?
(a) Translucent.
(b) Pellucid.
(c) Reflective.
(d) Irradiate.

Short Answer Questions

1. For what organization was Marc Reisner a staff writer from 1972 to 1979?

2. A letter is quoted in Chapter One from Francisco Vásquez de Coronado to whom?

3. What region is located in southeastern Southern California, and is the site of an urban area largely centered on the city of El Centro?

4. When was William Mulholland born?

5. Harry Morrison and Morris Knudsen, two engineers formerly with the Bureau of Reclamation, went into business together where, according to the author in Chapter Four?

(see the answer keys)

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