View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Kolbert find at LSU’s Center for River Studies?
(a) A model of the delta.
(b) Photographs of the delta.
(c) A school of Asian carp.
(d) Plans for reducing flooding in the delta.

2. When are the eggs harvested and brought back to Devils Hole Jr.?
(a) At the end of mating season.
(b) At the beginning of mating season.
(c) In the off-season.
(d) At the peak of season.

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

4. What is NOT something that Kolbert says human domination over nature has caused?
(a) Dammed and diverted rivers.
(b) Large amounts of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
(c) Earthquakes.
(d) More species diversity and safer drinking water.

5. Why was Manly’s trip west end up so arduous?
(a) Manly and the argonauts refused to use maps and ended up taking a more difficult path.
(b) Manly and the argonauts got lost during a sand storm.
(c) Manly and the argonauts arrived too early in the season to take the simplest and most direct route.
(d) Manly and the argonauts arrived too late in the season to take the simplest and most direct route.

Short Answer Questions

1. How deep is Devil’s Hole at its deepest?

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

3. What problem does Joe Harvey mention to Kolbert?

4. What is the name Kolbert gives for the ability for humans to now watch other species go extinct?

5. What are the main causes of the shrinkage of Isle de Jean Charles?

Short Essay Questions

1. What problems has human domination over nature caused, according to Kolbert?

2. What is the crime that was committed at Devils Hole?

3. What is amazing about coral reefs?

4. How does Ruth Gates hope to aid the world's coral reefs?

5. How did the indigenous people of the New Orleans area deal with flooding versus the first European settlers?

6. What is William Lewis Manly's role in the discovery of Devils Hole?

7. When do the majority of scientists believe the Anthropocene Age began?

8. What do most of the Australians Kolbert spoke to think about the future of the Great Barrier Reef?

9. Why were Asian carp brought over to the U.S.?

10. What led to the introduction of non-native species to control pests?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,052 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample