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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) A desert almost indistinguishable from what is there today.
(c) Lush green pastures as far as the eye can see.
(d) Astounding yields on farms covering a quarter of the country.

2. How long does the author say civilization had existed in Utah since Brigham Young led his followers there, in the Introduction?
(a) 328 years.
(b) 212 years.
(c) 56 years.
(d) 134 years.

3. 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) 38.
(c) 22.
(d) 4.

4. The drop to the Colorado River is nearly how many feet?
(a) 9,400.
(b) 7,600.
(c) 13,000.
(d) 5,000.

5. 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?
(a) Idaho.
(b) Ohio.
(c) Vermont.
(d) Alabama.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author claim in the Introduction that, “because of their moisture requirements,” are our physiological counterparts in the kingdom of plants?

2. How much of the water in California is used for irrigation purposes, according to the author?

3. What were the two sheep-ranching Mormon brothers named who were captivated by the Boulder Canyon Project, according to the author in Chapter Four?

4. Where was William Mulholland born?

5. When did Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out on horseback from Mexico with a couple of hundred men, driving into the uncharted North, according to the author in Chapter One?

Short Essay Questions

1. When did the perception of the American West as a desert begin to change? Who helped initiate this change?

2. What actions did William Mulholland take in order to solve the water problems in Los Angeles?

3. How does the author of Cadillac Desert describe the bureaucratic changes during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Administration?

4. What genre is Cadillac Desert? What does Marc Reisner reveal through his approach in the book?

5. How have historians traditionally spent their focus in regard to the American West?

6. What awards has Marc Reisner earned for his environmental and writing work?

7. What happened to the populations of Nebraska and Kansas in 1890?

8. When was the Hoover Dam constructed? Where is it located?

9. What does the author write of the impressions from the Lewis and Clark expedition in the West in Chapter Two?

10. How does the author describe the Colorado River in the beginning of Chapter Four?

(see the answer keys)

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