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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Kolbert expecting to see in the SeaSim in Townsville, Australia?

2. When do Kolbert and Van Oppen meet?

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

4. After a course on corals, Ruth Gates moved from where to Jamaica in 1985 to study corals and their symbionts?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the problem with Wood Screw Pumps?

2. In what ways are those in the Chicago area trying to manage the carp problem?

3. What has happened to Isle de Jean Charles?

4. How is an atoll formed?

5. How is extinction now an observable phenomenon?

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

7. What is the purpose of the model delta at the Center for River Studies?

8. Why was the Old River Control Auxiliary Structure created?

9. What is the reason for why the Chicago River was reversed?

10. What is amazing about coral reefs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Kolbert clearly is drawn to Ruth Gates and her work. How is Gates different than other scientists Kolbert encounters in this book? Why is Kolbert drawn to her and her work? What does this reveal about Kolbert?

Essay Topic 2

Through the study of ice cores, it is learned that D-O events have taken place over the course of our planet's history. What are D-O events? When did they take place? How did they affect our world? How do they help scientists understand our future? How does reading about these events alter your understanding of the world we live in?

Essay Topic 3

Kolbert uses both present tense and past tense throughout under a white sky. When does she use present tense and why? When does she use past tense and why? Does this change in tenses help the reader? Why or why not? And what other ways to Colbert try to take challenging information and make it more interesting and understanding for the reader?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 937 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample