1. The livelihood of approximately how many people is affected by the Old River Control?
(a) 13 hundred.
(b) 3 million.
(c) 31 thousand.
(d) 3 thousand.

2. What is a weir?
(a) Large lock.
(b) Small tugboat.
(c) Large gate.
(d) Small dam.

3. When floodwaters cover twenty-six thousand square miles in 1927, how is New Orleans saved?
(a) Blowing up a downstream levee.
(b) Layering sandbags along the riverbanks.
(c) Building concrete walls around the city.
(d) Quickly digging a diversion channel.

4. What does James B. Eads invent to explore the Mississippi River?
(a) Water telescope.
(b) Submarine.
(c) Glass-bottom boat.
(d) Underwater camera.

5. From the time that the U.S. Army Corps takes control of the Atchafalaya, what word does the author associate with the river and the region?
(a) Control.
(b) Cooperation.
(c) Collision.
(d) Confusion.

Short Answer Questions

1. At one point, Rabalais drives the author first to the Mississippi River and then to the Atchafalaya River, showing him that the Mississippi is 18 feet above sea level while the Atchafalaya is how many feet above sea level?

2. Rabalais says he remembers being taught in high school that one day, these would be built:

3. A navigation lock on the bank of the Mississippi River lowers ships down to where?

4. A snagboat is a river boat that does what?

5. From St. Louis down to the Atchafalaya, General Sands takes note of what?

(see the answer key)

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