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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. With whom does Kolbert ride in a boat far down along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal?
(a) The Friends of the Chicago River.
(b) The Clean Water Act Organization.
(c) The United States Army Corps of Engineers.
(d) Rachel Carson.

3. Why is one of the locals at the town hall meeting against the creation of holes in the levees?
(a) There are not enough holes.
(b) Anything man-made leads to trouble.
(c) The holes will let in too much water.
(d) The holes are only a short-term solution.

4. How much land mass has the Isle de Jean Charles lost since the 1950s?
(a) It has shrunk from thirty-five square miles to twenty-five square miles.
(b) It has shrunk from thirty-five square miles to half a square mile.
(c) It has shrunk from thirty-five square miles to fifteen square miles.
(d) It has shrunk from thirty-five square miles to five square miles.

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 Chicago River and Great Lakes.
(b) The Mississippi River and Chicago River.
(c) The Mississippi River and Great Lakes.
(d) The Great Plains and the Great Lakes.

Short Answer Questions

1. What had those living in the Plaquemenes done to protect their homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?

2. In Down the River Chapter 1, what examples of metaphors does Elizabeth Kolbert give involving rivers?

3. When Kolbert visits the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ location in Chicago soon after her cruise down the sewage canal, she meets with whom?

4. To what does Kolbert compare being hit by a jumping carp?

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

(see the answer key)

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