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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. Which three rivers continued to rise as their levees fail?

2. What was James Thompson always seeking?

3. When small tunnels are formed beneath the levee a miniature geyser erupts. What is this mini geyser called?

4. Why did most levees fail?

5. How were the results of Thompson's plan being predicted?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is pressure the most damaging component to a levee?

2. Both Ellet and Humphreys are in competition to survey the Mississippi River. Ellet's report came out first and Humphreys takes Ellet's report as a personal insult. Why would Humphreys be insulted by Ellet's report?

3. The levees along the Mississippi River are built differently and to a "higher standard" than levees in other places. What does this engineering and planning tell you about the knowledge of the Mississippi?

4. The author wrote that during the 1800's "the prevailing attitude is that the Mississippi River can be controlled if the laws of nature governing the river were understood." What could John M. Barry mean by this?

5. When the author says it is hoped that the bridge construction will "marry steamboats to railroads", what does he mean?

6. Why does the destruction of the St. Bernard and Plaquemines levee prove to be unnecessary?

7. After the Mounds Landing Crevasse widens and thousands of acres are underwater, many other levees begin to fail. The white people left the area, while the black people stayed behind to work. What does this tell the reader about the Delta region?

8. After facing complete opposition, how would Eads' offer to independently pay for the construction of the jetties completely change the minds of the public and politicians?

9. A racist governor is elected into office in Mississippi, yet it is still considered a safe place for the blacks to work. However, when waters begin to rise, black convicts are ordered to lay on the levee and use their bodies as sandbags. Does everyone follow Percy's influence to alleviate discrimination?

10. What are the terms that are reached for the levee that protects St. Bernard and Plaquemines to be destroyed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How could the flooding in many of the cities been prevented? What was ignored by the politicians? What did the politicians focus on?

Essay Topic 2

Discrimination was a major aspect of the novel. Compare and contrast how LeRoy Percy wished the blacks to be treated to how they were treated in the area. How did the action and the idea conflict? Why was this an important conflict in this time in history?

Essay Topic 3

When the St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish levee was to be dynamited, tickets were sold to the event. Who were the main ticket holders? What did this tell the reader about society in 1927? What did this tell the reader about the citizens of New Orleans?

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