Johnson’s Dictionary- IELTS Reading Answers

Kasturika Samanta

13 min read

Updated On Nov 03, 2023

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Answers of Johnson’s Dictionary Reading Answers with Location and Explanation
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The IELTS Reading passages, like Reading Answers of Johnson’s Dictionary, ideally do not take you longer than 20 minutes to read. You must scan the given text and highlight keywords in order to give an appropriate response that follows the directions.

The Academic passage, Johnson’s Dictionary – IELTS Reading Answers, is part of the IELTS Cambridge 5 Test 1. It contains some of the IELTS reading question types. If you are interested in familiarizing yourself with all the question types, don’t hesitate to take an IELTS reading practice test.

The passage, Johnson’s Dictionary, is an IELTS Academic reading passage that consists of 13 questions. The question types found in this passage are:

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Reading Passage

You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which refer to Reading Passage below.

Johnson’s Dictionary

For the century before Johnson’s Dictionary was published in 1775. There had been concern about the state of the English language.There was no standard way of speaking or writing and no agreement as to the best way of bringing some order to the chaos of English spelling. Dr Johnson provided the solution.

There had, of course, been dictionaries in the past, the first of these being a little book of some 120 pages, compiled by a certain Robert Cawdray, published in 1604 under the title ‘A Table Alphabetical of Hard Usual English Words’. Like the various dictionaries that came after it during the seventeenth century, Cawdray’s tended to concentrate on ‘scholarly’ words; one function of the dictionary was to enable its student to convey an impression of fine learning.

Beyond the practical need to make order out of chaos, the rise of dictionaries is associated with the rise of the English middle class, who were anxious to define and circumscribe the various worlds to conquer – lexical as well as social and commercial. It is highly appropriate that Dr Samuel Johnson, the very model of an eighteenth-century literary man, as famous in his own time as in ours, should have published his dictionary at the very beginning of the heyday of the middle class.

Johnson was a poet and critic who raised common sense to the heights of genius. His approach to the problems that had worried writers throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was intensely practical. Up until his time, the task of producing a dictionary on such a large scale had seemed impossible without the establishment of an academy to make decisions about right and wrong usage Johnson decided he did not need an academy to settle arguments about language; he would write a dictionary himself; and he would do it single-handed. Johnson signed the contract for the Dictionary with the bookseller Robert Dosley at a breakfast held at the Golden Anchor Inn near Holborn Bar on 18 June 1764. He was to be paid £ 1.575 in instalments, and from this he took money to rent 17 Gough Square, in which he set up his ‘dictionary workshop’.

James Boswell, his biographer described the garret where Johnson worked as ‘fitted up like a counting house’ with a long desk running down the middle at which the copying clerks would work standing up. Johnson himself was stationed on a rickety chair at an ‘old crazy deal table’ surrounded by a chaos of borrowed books. He was also helped by six assistants, two of whom died whilst the Dictionary was still in preparation.

The work was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand). Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words, and illustrated their many meanings with some I 14.000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time. He did not expect to achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline, he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries, and to make his work one of heroic synthesis. In fact it was very much more. Unlike his predecessors.Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning. He adopted his definitions on the principle of English common law – according to precedent. After its publication, his Dictionary was not seriously rivalled for over a century.

After many vicissitudes the Dictionary was finally published on 15 April 1775. It was instantly recognised as a landmark throughout Europe. This very noble work.’ wrote the leading Italian lexicographer;‘will be a perpetual monument of Fame to the Author, an honour to his own country in particular, and a general Benefit to the republic of Letters throughout Europe.’ The fact that Johnson had taken on the Academies of Europe and matched them (everyone knew that forty French academics had taken forty years to produce the first French national dictionary) was cause for much English celebration.

Johnson had worked for nine years.‘with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow’. For all its faults and eccentricities his two-volume work is a masterpiece and a landmark, in his own words, ‘setting the orthography, displaying the analogy, regulating the structures, and ascertaining the significations of English words’. It is the corner-stone of Standard English, an achievement which, in James Boswell’s words,‘conferred stability on the language of his country’.

The Dictionary, together with his other writing, made Johnson famous and so well esteemed that his friends were able to prevail upon King George III to offer him a pension. From then on, he was to become the Johnson of folklore.

Check Out – 101 IELTS Academic Reading Past Test Papers with Answers PDF Download

Questions 1-3

Choose THREE letters A-H.

Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

NB Your answers may be given in any order.

Which THREE of 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 famous 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 subtleties of meaning.

H Its definitions were famous for their originality.

1 ………………………

2 ………………………

3 ………………………

Questions 4-7

Complete the summary.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers 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 a 5………………… available to him, but eventually produced definitions of in excess of 40,000 words written down 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 to bring 6………………… to the English language. As a reward for his hard work, he was granted a 7………………… by the king.

Questions 8-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

8 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 to write a dictionary for several years.

11 Johnson set up an academy to help with the writing of his Dictionary.

12 Johnson only received payment for his Dictionary on its completion.

13 Not all of the assistants survived to see the publication of the Dictionary.

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Answers of Johnson’s Dictionary Reading Answers with Location and Explanation

1 Answer: D

Question type: Multiple Choice Question

Answer location: Paragraph 6

Answer explanation: In paragraph 6, the writer says, “The work was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words and illustrated their many meanings with some 114,000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time (contemporary).” This line, when paraphrased, matches with the statement “It focused mainly on language from contemporary texts.” Hence, the answer is D (It focused mainly on language from contemporary texts).

2 Answer: E

Question type: Multiple Choice Question

Answer location: Paragraph 6

Answer explanation: In paragraph 6, the lines, “He did not expect to achieve complete originality. Working to a deadline (which means that he had a time limit to complete his work), he had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries, and to make his work one of heroic synthesis.” This line, when paraphrased, matches with the statement “There was a time limit for its completion.” Hence, the answer is E (There was a time limit for its completion).

3 Answer: G

Question type: Multiple Choice Question

Answer location: Paragraph 6

Answer explanation: In paragraph 6, it is given that “…Unlike his predecessors, Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning (Johnson included all subtleties of word meanings when he wrote his work).” This line, when paraphrased, matches with the statement, “It took into account subtleties of meaning.” Hence, the answer is G (It took into account subtleties of meaning).

4 Answer: copying clerks

Question type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 4

Answer explanation: At the end of paragraph 4, the author writes,’ Johnson signed the contract for the dictionary (Dr Johnson accepted the contract) with bookseller Robert Dosley at a breakfast held at golden anchor inn near Holbom baron 18th June 1764.’ He rented 17 Gough Square with the contract money of £ 1.575 which was paid in instalments and set up his ‘dictionary workshop’. At the beginning of paragraph 5, the author says, “James Boswell, his biographer described the garret where Johnson worked as ‘fitted up like a counting house’ with a long desk running down the middle at which the copying clerks would work standing up (that is, the clerks, whom Johnson took on, used to stand and work at the long table).” Hence, the answer is ‘copying clerks’.

5 Answer: Library

Question type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 6

Answer explanation: In paragraph 6, at the beginning of the paragraph, the author says, “The work (which refers to the dictionary) was immense; filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand). Johnson not only wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words but also illustrated their many meanings with some 14,000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time.” This means that Johnson did not have the facility of a library available to him and yet, he filled 80 notebooks with a collection of more than 40,000 words. Hence, the answer is ‘library’.

6 Answer: Stability

Question type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 7 – 8

Answer explanation: In the beginning of paragraph 7, the writer says,” After many vicissitudes the Dictionary was finally published on 15 April 1775. It was instantly recognised (immediately hailed) as a landmark throughout Europe (many European countries accepted it as a landmark).” Further, in the last sentence of paragraph 8, we find that the author quotes James Boswell and mentions that ‘It is the corner-stone of Standard English, an achievement which, in James Boswell’s words (according to Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell),‘conferred (bring) stability on the language of his country‘ (his country is England and the language of England is English).’. This means that the main reason for the dictionary being a landmark work was that it brought stability to the English language. Hence, the answer is stability.

7 Answer: Pension

Question type: Summary Completion

Answer location: Paragraph 9

Answer explanation: The first sentence of paragraph 9 states that The Dictionary, together with his other writing, made Johnson famous and well esteemed. As a result, his friends were able to influence (prevail upon) King George III to grant (offer) him a pension. Hence, the answer is pension.

8 Answer: True