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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. In what century did demand for dictionaries increase?
(a) The 14th.
(b) The 17th.
(c) The 16th.
(d) The 15th.

2. Who killed Merrett?
(a) John Washington Wilcox.
(b) Chester James Wilcox.
(c) William Chester Minor.
(d) James Chester Minor.

3. What did Mr. Trench argue about the major dictionaries available at the time?
(a) They were sufficient for disseminating the English language at the time.
(b) They were incorrect.
(c) They had major defects.
(d) Only one had proper command of the English language.

4. How many years from Trench's speech about a new dictionary did the project actually get off the ground?
(a) Twenty-two years.
(b) Eighteen years.
(c) Twelve years.
(d) Sixteen years.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where was Minor born?

2. How did the author describe the attitude of the killer caught for Merrett's death upon the killer's capture?

3. Who was the most famous editor of the Old English Dictionary?

4. When was the project to create the first Oxford English Dictionary commissioned?

5. Why did the demand for dictionaries increase according to the author in Chapter 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why might Minor's father have fallen so easily in love with Judith?

2. What aspects of the Latin-English dictionaries provided impetus for the makers of the Oxford English Dictionary to make their own English dictionary?

3. In what way was Trench's appeal to the masses who would be needed to help compile the Oxford English Dictionary democratic?

4. How did Minor's branding of a deserting Irish soldier become connected to his excessive guilt about his own perceived "wrongs"?

5. Did the "Battle of the Wilderness" push Minor past his mental capacities to function normally in social settings or public? If so, how does the author make this clear?

6. What is the effect of the author's choice to define the word "murder" on the audience?

7. How might the fact that the killer was of a learned professional background NOT have been surprising to readers?

8. Some critics say that Samuel Johnson put too much of his personality into his work on his dictionary. How would it be possible to avoid this type of criticism?

9. Many critics found the Oxford English Dictionary to be racist and sexist. Explain how the author suggests this may have happened.

10. What reason(s) does the author give for Minor's parents sending him to the US to live with his uncle?

(see the answer keys)

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