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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the mid-1800s, the United States Congress passes a Swamp and Overflow Land Act to:
(a) Deed swampland to individual states.
(b) Evict land squatters.
(c) Create a new water control system.
(d) Take away ownership rights.

2. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers develops a plan to do what?
(a) Protect the fish population of the Atchfalaya River.
(b) Build twenty large dams on the Atchafalaya River.
(c) Control natural shifts of the Mississippi River.
(d) Develop communities along the Mississippi River.

3. In feet, how long is the towboat Mississippi?
(a) 217.
(b) 459.
(c) 23.
(d) 42.

4. Initially, Rabalais is hired as a construction inspector to watch for what at the navigation lock?
(a) Illegal drug shipments.
(b) Oversized ships.
(c) Escaping water.
(d) Trapped seals.

5. Throughout the book, a predominant theme is that the following gets in the way of man's plans:
(a) Environmental Protection Agency.
(b) The economy.
(c) Nature.
(d) Machinery.

6. Atchafalaya is a what?
(a) River.
(b) City.
(c) Waterfall.
(d) Mountain.

7. For how many years after the Old River Control begins does the operation appear to be successful?
(a) Two.
(b) Ten.
(c) Sixteen.
(d) Twenty-one.

8. Rabalais says he remembers being taught in high school that one day, these would be built:
(a) Ships to travel faster along rivers.
(b) Skyscrapers along the river banks.
(c) Structures to control water flows.
(d) Lighter and sturdier barges.

9. During high spring waters, what danger forms unseen beneath turbulent waters at the outflow to the Atchafalaya?
(a) A crack in a gate of the control structure.
(b) An enormous hole larger and deeper than a football stadium.
(c) Treacherous new rip currents.
(d) The partial collapse of one of the pylons.

10. In the 1800s, swamps in Louisiana are drained and used as what?
(a) Military camps.
(b) Farmland.
(c) Hideouts.
(d) Storage pits.

11. While aboard the Mississippi on his annual trip, General Sands tries to:
(a) Settle differences.
(b) Fine environmentalists.
(c) Capture poachers.
(d) Generate new contracts.

12. What is commonly fished from the bayou regions around the Atchafalaya?
(a) Crawfish.
(b) Trout.
(c) Lobster.
(d) Salmon.

13. Norris F. Rabalais was born and raised in what Louisiana parish?
(a) West Feliciana.
(b) Concordia.
(c) Evangeline.
(d) Avoyelles.

14. Congress mandates that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey the Mississippi and tributaries in order to assure and improve what?
(a) Aquatic recreation.
(b) Water rights.
(c) Farmland irrigation.
(d) Inland navigation.

15. In New Orleans' earliest days, French settlers begin to live there despite the fact that the area:
(a) Has practically no solid ground.
(b) Is plagued by giant storms on a weekly basis.
(c) Belongs to Spain.
(d) Is full of poisonous snakes.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. The writing on Dugie's belt buckle reads:

3. In the spring of 1973, what does the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers do to try to alleviate the tremendous force of water against the control structure?

4. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers distributes Atchafalaya river water to swamps, bayous, towns, and cities in:

5. During the fifty years between New Orleans' floods of 1735 and 1785, what does the author say brings a false sense of security against flooding?

(see the answer keys)

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