Test J
R E A DI N G PASSAGE I
Youshould spend about 20 m inutes un Questions 1-13, whit-II are based ( }1/ Reading Passage J
be low,
Johnson'sDicti onary f\;;"
For t he century be fore Johnso n's
Dictiona ry wa s published in 1775, there
had been concern about t he state of the
English language.There was no standard
w ay of speaking or writi ng and no
agre ement as to t he best way o f bringing
som e o rde r t o th e chaos' o f English
spel ling. D r Jo hnson provided t he solution.
There had, o f cour se, been dictio na ries in
the past, the first of these being a littl e
book o f some I 20 p ages, compiled by a
cer tain Ro bert Caw dray, published in / 604
under the title A Table Alphabetlcall 'o f hard
usuall English w orde s'. Like t he various
dict ionaries th at came after it dur ing the
seventeenth century, Cawdray's te nded to
concentrate on 'scholarly' word s; one
function o f the dictionary was to enable its
student t o co nvey an impres sion a f fine
learn ing.
Beyond th e practical need t o make o rder
o ut o f chaos.the r ise of dictionaries is
associated with the ri se of the English
m iddle class.w ho were anxious t o define
and circum scribe th e various worlds to
con quer - lexical as IJIfeHas social and
comme rcial. It is highly appropriat e that
Dr Samuel Johnson, t he very model of an
eighteenth-cent ury literary man, as famo us
in hrs own time as in ou rs, should have
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published hrs Dictionary at t he very
beginning of the heyday o f th e middle
d ass.
Joh nson w as iI poet and critic w ho raised
common se nse t o the heights o f genius.
H is appro ach t o th e problem s th at had
w orried writer') t hroughout the lat e
sevent eenth and early eighteenth centu ries
was int ensely practical. Up unt il his time.
th e t ask 01 producmg a dictionar y o n such
a targe scale had seemed impossible
Without the establishm ent o f an academy
t o make decisio ns about nght and wrong
usage Joh nson decided he did not need
an academy to sett le argu ments abo ut
language; he would wrrte a dictio nar y
him self; and he would do it single-handed.
Johnson signed th e contract (or th e
Dictionar y With the bookseller Robert
D ostey at a breakfast held at the Golden
A nchor Inn near Hol bo m Bar on 18 June
17 64 . He was to be pa id . 1,575 in
mstalrnents. and (ro m thi s he took money
to ren t J 7 Go ugh Square, in w hich he set
up hrs 'dict io nary w orksh op'.
Jame s Boswe ll, his bio grapher. described
th e garret where jobnson WO r ked as 'fitted
up like a count ing house' w ith a long desk
running down t he midd le at w hich the
co pying clerks would wor k standing up.

Johnson himself was sta tioned on a ricke ty
chair at an 'o ld crazy dea l ta ble'
surrounded by a chaos o f bor rowed
books. He was also he lped by six
assistants. two of w hom died whilst the
Dtctionary was still in preparat ion.
The work wa s immense; filling about eighty
large notebooks (and without a libra ry to
hand), Johnson w rote the defi nitions of
over 40.000 word s, and ill ustrated t he ir
many meanings with so me 114,000
quotat ions drawn from English writing o n
every subjec t, fro m t he Elizabethans to his
own time. He did not expect to ach ieve
complete o riginality. W o rking to a deadline .
he had to draw on the best o f all previous
dictionar ies, and to make his work o ne of
heroic synthesis. In fact, it was very m uch
more. Unlike his predecessors. jo hnso n
treated English ve ry practically; as a living
language, wit h many differe nt shades of
meaning, He adopted his d efinitions o n the
principle of English co mmon law -
according to prece dent After its
publication, his Oiaionary wa s not seriously
rivalled for over a cent ury.
After many vicissit udes t he Dictionary was
ftnallypublished on 15 April I n s. It was
instantly recognised as a landmark
throughout Europe. 'This very noble work,'
wrote the lead ing Italian le xic:ographer;'will
be a perpetu al monument of Fame to t he
Reading
Au thor. an Honour to his CIoNn Country in
particular, and a ge neral Benefit to th e
re public o f Lett ers t hroughout Europe:
The fact that Johnso l1 had ta ken on th e
Academies of Europe and matched th em
(everyone knew that forty Fre nch
academics had taken forty yea rs to
pr oduce the first French national
dictionary) was cau se for much English
ce lebration.
Jo hnson had wor ked for nine years,'with
litt le assistance of the learned , and wit hou t
any patronage o f t he great; not in t he soft
o bscurities of retirement, or under the
she lter o f aca demic bowers, but amidst
inconvenience and d istraction, in sicknes s
and in sorrow', For all its faults and
e cce ntricities his two -volum e work is a
masterpiece and a landmark. in his awn
words. 'setting the orthography displaying
the analogy, regulati ng t he structures, and
ascertaining the significations of English
words'. It is the cornerstone of Standard
English, an achreve ment which, in James
Boswe ll's words,'co nferred sta bility on the
lan guage o f his co untry'.
The DICtionary, togeth er with his other
w rit ing. ma de Johnson famous an d so well
esteemed th at his friends were able to
prevail upo n King George III to offer him a
pension. Fro m t he n on, he was to beco me
th e Joh nson of folklore .
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Test I

Questions 1-3
Choose THREE letters A-H.

Write your answers in boxes J, J on your answer sheet.

NB Your answers may be given in any order.

Which nlREE o f the following statements are true of Johnson's Dictionary?

A It avoided all scholarly words.

B It was the only English dictionary in general use for 200 years.
C It was fa mo us because of the large number of people involved.
D It focused mainly on language from contemporary texts.
E There was a time limit for its completion.
F It ignored work done by previous dictionary writers.
G It took into account su btleties of meaning.
H Its definitions were famous for their originality.

Qutstiom 4-7
Complete the summary.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passagefor each answer.

Write your an.-twers in boxes 4- 7 on your answer sheet.

In 1764 Dr Johnson accepted the contract to produce a dictionary. Having rented a

garret. he took on a number of 4 who stood at a long central desk .
Johnson did not have as , available to him. but eventually produced
definitions of in excess of 40.000 word s written d own in 80 large notebooks. On
publication, the Dictionary was immediately hailed in many European countries as a
landmark. According to his biographer. James Boswell. Johnson's principal
achievement was 10 bring 6 to the English language. As a reward for his
hard work, he was granted a 7 _ _ _ _. by the king.

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 Reading

(lwestio"s 8-13
Do thefollowing statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage I?

Inboxes 8-11 on your answer sheet, write

TIIUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOTGIYEN if there is no information on this
The growing importance of the middle classes led to an increased demand for
dictionaries.
9 Johnson has become more well known since his death.
10 Johnson had been planning 10 write a dictionary for several years.
II Johnson set up an academy to help with the writing of his Dictionary.
11 Johnson onlyreceived payment for his Dictionary on its completion.
13 Not allof the assistants survived to see the publication of the Dictionary.

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