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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. On what holiday did Dr. Minor arrive in London in the opening of Chapter 4, Gathering Earth's Daughters?
(a) Easter.
(b) Guy Fawkes Day.
(c) Fourth of July.
(d) Christmas.

2. What did Judith do professionally?
(a) She was a house wife.
(b) She was a schoolteacher.
(c) She was a missionary.
(d) She was a cook for the Ceylon military.

3. What was the overall effect of the large amount of word donors on Furnivall and his dictionary volunteers?
(a) Furnivall hired many more excited volunteers.
(b) Furnivall became afraid and fled to Spain.
(c) Furnivall's volunteers turned against him.
(d) Furnivall eventually lost his energy, and the volunteers lost enthusiasm as a result.

4. How many supplements of the Oxford English Dictionary came out after the original?
(a) Four.
(b) Two.
(c) Six.
(d) Five.

5. How did the audience react to the fact that hundreds of amateurs would be needed to take on such a project for a new dictionary?
(a) With happiness.
(b) With shock.
(c) With sadness.
(d) With revolt.

6. Trench argued that dictionaries should be histories of the life span of every word and that these lives should be ______.
(a) Charted.
(b) Ended.
(c) Explained.
(d) Given.

7. In Chapter 2, The Man Who Taught Latin to Cattle, who is introduced as the first protagonist?
(a) Dr. Murray.
(b) Dr. Minor.
(c) Mrs. Scott.
(d) Mr. Merrett.

8. How many years later did the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary come out after the original?
(a) Forty-five years.
(b) Fifty years.
(c) Thirty-eight years.
(d) Thirty years.

9. According to the author, who is the "second" protagonist of the story?
(a) Mrs. Elsa.
(b) Dr. Minor.
(c) Dr. Henry Sweet.
(d) James Augustus Henry Murray.

10. What were Merrett's killer's two former professional positions?
(a) Army officer and qualified surgeon.
(b) Police officer and professor.
(c) Professor and army officer.
(d) Qualified surgeon and police officer..

11. How old was Lucy when she died?
(a) Twenty-one.
(b) Eighteen.
(c) Sixteen.
(d) Twelve.

12. How did Murray spend most of his childhood?
(a) Being alone.
(b) Singing with a group.
(c) Playing soccer with an elite team.
(d) Traveling.

13. Who would publish the first Oxford English Dictionary?
(a) Oxford University Press.
(b) Academic Press.
(c) Harper and Row.
(d) Penguin Books.

14. What central figure in the story happened across Murray's appeal to the English people in regards to the Oxford English Dictionary?
(a) Nakiesha Wilson.
(b) Dr. William Minor.
(c) Mr. Trench.
(d) James Koss.

15. When does this story take place?
(a) Early 19th century.
(b) Late 18th century.
(c) Late 19th century.
(d) Mid 19th century.

Short Answer Questions

1. How were Minor's and Murray's families similar?

2. What two words does the author use to describe the Lambeth area, particularly in relation to the undrained marsh?

3. What kind of work did the Minors do in Ceylon?

4. When was Murray invited to Oxford?

5. Who produced a circular calling for volunteers who could choose a period of history in which they would like to read books?

(see the answer keys)

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