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

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

3. Who was the most famous editor of the Old English Dictionary?
(a) Frederick Furnivall.
(b) James Murray.
(c) Dr. Sweet.
(d) Dr. Minor.

4. What was the tragedy of the three shots fired named by the papers?
(a) "The Tragedy of London."
(b) "The Strategery."
(c) "The Great Tragedy."
(d) "The Lambeth Tragedy."

5. How did Mr. Trench define the importance of the English language insofar as Christianity?
(a) It was an essential, imperial device for the worldwide growth of Christianity.
(b) It was important to learn it for Christians.
(c) It should be the least important language to true Christians.
(d) It functioned solely for Christians' usage only.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. When does this story take place?

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

4. In Chapter 2, The Man Who Taught Latin to Cattle, who is introduced as the first protagonist?

5. The Minor family came to the United States only a decade after what group of people?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the author take time to note the sheer volume of words and weight of the Oxford English Dictionary? What parallels can be drawn between this and the dictionary's makers?

2. What is significant about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary's beginnings to have begun on Guy Fawkes Day in England?

3. What aspects of his upbringing could have contributed to Minor's issues with the tempestuous and tempting country of Ceylon?

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

5. For what reasons did Minor become the most famous contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary?

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

7. In what way was Furnivall's call to ask participants to choose a time period for the book a very intelligent idea to spur the makings of the Oxford English Dictionary onward?

8. Why might the author have defined the word "protagonist" in such depth?

9. Why does the author suggest Oxford finally conceded to the switch from Furnivall to Murray for the position of editor?

10. What seemed uncanny about the killer's cool, calm demeanor?

(see the answer keys)

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