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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When the United States won a case against the developer, Cappaert Enterprises, who took over the land?
(a) The National Parks Department.
(b) The Fish and Wildlife Service.
(c) The Fish and Game Service.
(d) The Sierra Club.

2. How many species are thought to live in reefs around the world?
(a) 10 - 90,000
(b) 15,000.
(c) 10 - 20 million.
(d) 1 - 9 million.

3. Darwin realized correctly that at the center of every atoll was what?
(a) A fault line.
(b) A deep cavern.
(c) An extinct volcano.
(d) A continental Slope.

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

5. Darwin’s ideas regarding evolution were first known as what?
(a) Transliteration.
(b) Transfiguration.
(c) Transgender.
(d) Transmutation.

6. To what does Kolbert compare the bringing back of a species from the brink of extinction?
(a) God Syndrome.
(b) Stockholm Syndrome.
(c) Reincarnation.
(d) A heavenly miracle.

7. What is the name Kolbert gives for the ability for humans to now watch other species go extinct?
(a) A timeline to doomsday.
(b) A species travesty.
(c) A ticking time bomb to the world's end.
(d) An observable phenomena.

8. After a week with Gates, how does Kolbert feel?
(a) Angry.
(b) Inspired.
(c) Nervous.
(d) Sad.

9. How did Kolbert first learn of Devil’s Hole?
(a) A crime that was committed there that was considered a felony.
(b) In a grad course in college.
(c) A business trip to Nevada.
(d) From a television advertisement.

10. Why were low-lying parts of New Orleans not abandoned to the water?
(a) It did not make sense politically.
(b) The locals fought to save their property.
(c) After the most recent hurricanes, they recovered on their own.
(d) It was not necessary.

11. How much of the Caribbean coral disappeared in the 1980s?
(a) Over 1/2.
(b) 2/3.
(c) 90%.
(d) 1/4.

12. What are CSOs?
(a) Centers for Sewage Output.
(b) Collection Systems Overflows.
(c) Combined Sewer Overflows.
(d) College of South Orleans.

13. Kolbert jumps to a day when she meets Alex Kolker, a professor at LSU, who has what as a side gig?
(a) Giving demonstrations to locals of how to protect their homes against flooding in New Orleans.
(b) Giving bike tours around New Orleans.
(c) Giving walking tours around New Orleans.
(d) Giving lectures at local libraries around New Orleans.

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

15. To what does Kolbert compare being hit by a jumping carp?
(a) Being knocked out in a boxing ring.
(b) Being hit by a wiffle-ball bat.
(c) Being smacked in the face.
(d) Being struck by a truck.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do people in Asia not want to buy Asian carp from the U.S.?

2. Why was Manly’s trip west end up so arduous?

3. Kolbert moves onto a visit to the Old River Control Auxiliary Structure located how many miles upriver of Baton Rouge?

4. Why is one of the locals at the town hall meeting against the creation of holes in the levees?

5. What is the name of the new era in which Kolbert says we live?

(see the answer keys)

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