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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 5, The Big Dictionary Conceived.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 5, what was the name of Mr. Trench's speech in regards to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary?
(a) "On the Deficiency of Our New Dictionaries of the Era."
(b) "On the Call for a New Dictionary."
(c) "On the Need for a New English Dictionary."
(d) "On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries."

2. What was the idea behind the Philological Society?
(a) To promote new admissions to the Oxford English Dictionary.
(b) To promote Christian missionary work.
(c) To gather and discuss new admissions to the Oxford English Dictionary.
(d) Improvement upon the understanding of the properly dominant language of the world.

3. Which of the following is noted to have been a fact four hundred years earlier than Mr. Trench's speeches?
(a) There was no English dictionary in existence.
(b) The first English dictionary was published.
(c) People rarely used dictionaries.
(d) The word "dictionary" did not exist.

4. How have many described the language of the Oxford English Dictionary?
(a) Easy.
(b) Basic.
(c) Complicated.
(d) Arrogant.

5. How does the author describe the words in the early English dictionaries in Chapter 4, Gathering Earth's Daughters?
(a) Simple and odd.
(b) Odd and poorly defined.
(c) Poorly defined and too little.
(d) Strange and simple.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 2, the author gives a detailed description of what word?

2. With whom was William to live upon arriving in the United States?

3. Where was Dr. Minor's house located in London?

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

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

(see the answer key)

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