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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. When does this story take place?
2. How did the author describe the man who chased George Merrett on the night of his death?
3. With whom was William to live upon arriving in the United States?
4. What central figure in the story happened across Murray's appeal to the English people in regards to the Oxford English Dictionary?
5. In Chapter 2, the author gives a detailed description of what word?
Short Essay Questions
1. 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?
2. Many critics found the Oxford English Dictionary to be racist and sexist. Explain how the author suggests this may have happened.
3. What effect could it have had on logophiles to learn that Samuel Johnson had imposed limits on the history of the definitions of words in his dictionary?
4. What is significant about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary's beginnings to have begun on Guy Fawkes Day in England?
5. Given the information that the reader gleans from the nature of the Philological Society, as well as people speaking in the London Library, what characteristics of the London Library in Minor's day show it to be different from a public library of this day and age?
6. Why does the author suggest that Minor moved from his initial area of residence in London, St James Square, to Lambeth Marsh?
7. What is the effect of the author's choice to define the word "murder" on the audience?
8. How did Minor's branding of a deserting Irish soldier become connected to his excessive guilt about his own perceived "wrongs"?
9. What does the title of the book imply to prospective readers?
10. Why does the author suggest Oxford finally conceded to the switch from Furnivall to Murray for the position of editor?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Explore the ways in which self-delusion is important to the events in the text. Make reference to Minor as well as at least one other figure.
Essay Topic 2
Discuss the links the author draws between various vices such as sex, drugs, and alcohol and their influence on the events of the story.
Essay Topic 3
What is significant about the fact that the text has two protagonists, Minor and Murray, and that the author himself points out that this goes against the definition of the word in "Modern English Usage," which states that protagonist can only be used in the singular?
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This section contains 1,152 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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