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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are residents of French Acadia called?
(a) Arcadians.
(b) Cajuns.
(c) Francadians.
(d) Mississipiuns.

2. When floodwaters cover twenty-six thousand square miles in 1927, how is New Orleans saved?
(a) Layering sandbags along the riverbanks.
(b) Quickly digging a diversion channel.
(c) Building concrete walls around the city.
(d) Blowing up a downstream levee.

3. By 1812, the east bank of the Mississippi River is levied up to which city?
(a) Baton Rouge.
(b) Shreveport.
(c) Alexandria.
(d) Lake Charles.

4. The author mentions that when he met Rabalais, he wore what in his pocket?
(a) Gold pocket watch.
(b) Silver pocket watch.
(c) Checkered bandana.
(d) Red bandana.

5. A snagboat is a river boat that does what?
(a) Transports workers from one town to another.
(b) Removes obstructions from rivers.
(c) Pulls barges through turbulent water.
(d) Carries large logs to sawmills.

Short Answer Questions

1. Congress mandates that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey the Mississippi and tributaries in order to assure and improve what?

2. The author states that how much of New Orleans lies fifteen feet below sea level?

3. While aboard the Mississippi on his annual trip, General Sands tries to:

4. What is a weir?

5. Henry Shreve changes the Mississippi River by introducing what?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the 1700s, why did people settle in New Orleans and surrounding areas despite the region clearly being a floodplain?

2. The Old River Control project began operating in 1963. What happens ten years later?

3. What is James B. Eads' contribution to the Mississippi River?

4. Why does the author state that ever since the Corps took control of the Atchafalaya, the river's name means "collision" to him?

5. Describe what McPhee writes about Morgan City, Louisiana.

6. What is the goal of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with regards to the Atchafalya and Mississippi rivers?

7. What are some of the main points the author tries to make through this work of historical nonfiction?

8. What are some of the predominant problems in the regions populated near the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers?

9. Who is Henry Shreve, and what does he do?

10. Describe Major General Thomas Sands' annual Low Water Inspection Trip along the Mississippi River.

(see the answer keys)

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