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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Down the River.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the beginning of Chapter 2, why does Kolbert fly in a small airplane?
(a) To see the Chicago River from the sky.
(b) To get from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.
(c) To fly from Chicago to New Orleans.
(d) To get a bird’s eye view of the Plaquemines.

2. In Down the River Chapter 1, what examples of metaphors does Elizabeth Kolbert give involving rivers?
(a) Rivers are metaphors for all the problems that humans have caused.
(b) Rivers are metaphors for depth, reflection, and life.
(c) Rivers are metaphors for pollution, destruction, and decay.
(d) Rivers are metaphors for loneliness.

3. Kolbert moves onto a visit to the Old River Control Auxiliary Structure located how many miles upriver of Baton Rouge?
(a) 8 miles.
(b) 18 miles.
(c) 80 miles.
(d) 800 miles.

4. What is Kolker’s prediction for New Orleans?
(a) It will eventually detach and float away.
(b) It will eventually sink and disappear.
(c) It will eventually look more like an island.
(d) It will no longer look like a boot.

5. What two drainage basins were linked with the reversal of the Chicago River and the creation of the Sanitary and Ship Canal?
(a) The Great Plains and the Great Lakes.
(b) The Mississippi River and Great Lakes.
(c) The Mississippi River and Chicago River.
(d) The Chicago River and Great Lakes.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the term for when water bursts through a levee, whether man-made or natural?

2. What does Kolbert find at LSU’s Center for River Studies?

3. After a disastrous flood in what year, did the Army Corps of Engineers extend the levees?

4. In Kolbert’s observations in and near Chicago, Asian carp, when caught, are then processed into what?

5. What is NOT something that Kolbert says human domination over nature has caused?

(see the answer key)

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