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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. Why did Murray want Minor to be able to travel home?
(a) To be able to die.
(b) To become mentally healthy again.
(c) To write his last book.
(d) To marry Eliza.

2. The word which troubled Murray and was sent to Minor had _______________ "shades of meaning."
(a) Eight.
(b) Twenty-one.
(c) Six.
(d) Thirteen.

3. Murray wanted as many ______ as he could get for the words to capture subtle variations in them.
(a) Quotes.
(b) Words.
(c) Connections.
(d) References.

4. After the publishing of the first installment, where was all of Murray's work done?
(a) Cambridge.
(b) His office.
(c) The Scriptorium.
(d) The Greenhouse.

5. How did the author describe Murray's work in Chapter 8, Annulated, Art, Brick-Tea, Buckwheat?
(a) Relatively easy compared to Minor's.
(b) Difficult.
(c) Painstaking.
(d) Easier than the years before.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did many people write from abroad regarding Minor?

2. When was the publishing of the first installment of the Oxford English Dictionary?

3. Which word did Murray have so much trouble with that it had to be sent to Dr. Minor?

4. Why didn't Minor attend the great dictionary dinner?

5. When Murray sees the superintendent of Broadmoor, he thinks that the man is _________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how Minor may have felt when he entered the property at the Broadmoor Asylum.

2. In Chapter 6, what do the author's previously established characteristics of Minor suggest about how he may have gotten along with the parole patients in Block 2?

3. What is relevant about the fact that Minor was a fan of Huxley, particularly his idea of agnosticism?

4. What showed the great essence of teamwork between Murray and Minor?

5. How did it become clear that Murray had very little idea of what psychological state Minor experienced?

6. What does Murray's Scriptorium represent to present day scholars of the English language?

7. Explain the significance of Minor's submissions evolving from one slip of paper to large paper bags arriving in Murray's office.

8. Why do you think Murray so grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to finish the Oxford English Dictionary after the first publication of the first book?

9. The author compares Murray to a general on a battlefield. Why?

10. What was the overarching reason why Murray decided to visit Minor?

(see the answer keys)

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