Johnson's Dictionary: reading answers and analysis
Before Samuel Johnson, English had no agreed standard and earlier dictionaries mostly listed scholarly words. Johnson took on the job alone, without an academy, working in a rented garret with clerks and assistants. His Dictionary, built on thousands of real quotations and many shades of meaning, became a landmark of Standard English and earned him a royal pension.
The choose-three block (1-3) is answered almost entirely from the paragraph about the size of the work. The summary (4-7) runs in passage order from the garret to the pension. The TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN block (8-13) also follows the passage, from the middle class and Johnson's fame through the academy, the payment and the assistants.
Answer key and self-check
Type what you wrote and hit mark. Hide the key first if you haven't done the passage yet. Every question number jumps to its explanation.
How to attack this block: Three of eight options are right, and most of the wrong ones are contradicted in the same paragraph. Test each option against the paragraph on the work itself: deadline, originality, previous dictionaries, shades of meaning. Watch the numbers too: the passage gives over a century, not 200 years.
Question 1-3
Answer: D and E and G (in either order)Paragraph 7
Which three of the eight claims about the Dictionary does the passage support?
some 114,000 quotations drawn from English writing on every subject, from the Elizabethans to his own time… Working to a deadline… with many different shades of meaning
Question says → Passage says
language from contemporary texts (D)quotations drawn from English writing… to his own time / treated English very practically, as a living language
a time limit for its completion (E)Working to a deadline
subtleties of meaning (G)many different shades of meaning
Why: All three answers come from paragraph 7. E is the easiest: 'a deadline' is a time limit. G is a clean swap of 'shades of meaning' for 'subtleties of meaning'. D is the one the key accepts for Johnson's use of real, living English writing up to his own day, rather than the 'scholarly' words of earlier dictionaries.
The trap: H and F are both contradicted in the same paragraph: he 'did not expect to achieve complete originality' and 'had to draw on the best of all previous dictionaries'. B is tempting, but the passage says it went unrivalled for over a century, not 200 years.
Summary completion (NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS)
Questions 4-7
How to attack this block: Each gap sits next to a detail the summary keeps (the long desk, the 40,000 words, Boswell, the king), so find that detail first. All four answers are nouns. Question 5 asks for what Johnson did not have, so ignore the things he did have nearby.
Question 4
Answer: clerksParagraph 6
Also accepted: copying clerks
Who did Johnson take on to work standing at the long desk?
a long desk running down the middle at which the copying clerks would work standing up
Question says → Passage says
stood at a long central deska long desk running down the middle… work standing up
Why: The summary's 'long central desk' and 'stood' point straight at Boswell's description of the garret. The gap follows 'a number of', so it needs a plural noun: 'clerks' or 'copying clerks', both inside the two-word limit.
The trap: 'Assistants' appears at the end of the same paragraph, but the six assistants aren't the ones described at the desk, and the key wants the clerks.
Question 5
Answer: libraryParagraph 7, first sentence
What didn't Johnson have to hand while he wrote?
filling about eighty large notebooks (and without a library to hand), Johnson wrote the definitions of over 40,000 words
Question says → Passage says
did not have… available to himwithout… to hand
in excess of 40,000 wordsover 40,000 words
Why: 'Without a library to hand' turns into 'did not have a ___ available'. The 40,000 words and 80 notebooks in the same summary sentence confirm you're in the right place.
The trap: Paragraph 6 mentions 'a chaos of borrowed books', so some people write 'books'. But that's what he did have. The thing he lacked was a library.
Question 6
Answer: stabilityParagraph 10, last sentence
According to Boswell, what did Johnson's work give the English language?
an achievement which, in James Boswell's words, 'conferred stability on the language of his country'
Question says → Passage says
principal achievementan achievement
bring ___ to the English languageconferred stability on the language of his country
Why: 'Conferred on' means gave to, so 'bring ___ to' is the paraphrase. The gap needs a noun, and the noun Boswell uses is 'stability'.
The trap: 'Standard English' is in the same sentence and sounds like an achievement, but it's what the Dictionary is the 'cornerstone' of, not Boswell's words.
Question 7
Answer: pensionParagraph 11
What did the king give Johnson as a reward?
his friends were able to prevail upon King George III to offer him a pension
Question says → Passage says
granted… by the kingKing George III to offer him
Why: The last paragraph is the only place the king appears, and what he offers is a pension. The article 'a' in the summary tells you a single countable noun fits.
The trap: 'Fame' and 'esteem' are in the same sentence, but they came from his writing, not from the king.
TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN
Questions 8-13
How to attack this block: Three of these are FALSE, and each is contradicted by a short phrase: equal fame then and now, needing no academy, payment in instalments. The NOT GIVEN is about how long Johnson planned the work, which the passage never says. Don't confuse the nine years of work with years of planning.
Question 8
Answer: TRUEParagraph 3, first sentence
Did the rise of the middle class increase the demand for dictionaries?
the rise of dictionaries is associated with the rise of the English middle class
Question says → Passage says
growing importance of the middle classesthe rise of the English middle class
increased demand for dictionariesthe rise of dictionaries
Why: TRUE. The passage links the two rises directly, and says the middle class were anxious to define their worlds, 'lexical' included. More dictionaries because of a rising middle class is the statement's idea.
The trap: Some people hold back because 'associated with' isn't as strong as 'led to'. But the paragraph explains why the middle class wanted dictionaries, so the link is causal enough for TRUE.
Question 9
Answer: FALSEParagraph 3, second sentence
Is Johnson more famous now than he was while alive?
as famous in his own time as in ours
Question says → Passage says
more well known since his deathas famous in his own time as in ours
Why: FALSE. 'As famous… as' means equally famous then and now. The statement claims his fame has grown, which the passage directly rules out.
The trap: The last paragraph says he became 'the Johnson of folklore', which sounds like growing fame. But that was still in his lifetime, after the pension.
Question 10
Answer: NOT GIVENParagraph 4, last sentence
Had Johnson been planning a dictionary for years before he started?
Johnson decided he did not need an academy to settle arguments about language; he would write a dictionary himself
Question says → Passage says
planning to write a dictionaryhe would write a dictionary himself
Why: NOT GIVEN. The passage tells you he decided to write it alone, and when he signed the contract, but never how long the idea had been in his mind.
The trap: 'Nine years' in paragraph 10 is how long he worked on it, not how long he planned it. Don't turn that into FALSE or TRUE.
Question 11
Answer: FALSEParagraph 4, last sentence
Did Johnson create an academy to help with the Dictionary?
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.
Question says → Passage says
set up an academydid not need an academy
Why: FALSE. Johnson rejected the academy idea outright and chose to work single-handed. Paragraph 9 backs this up: he matched the European academies without one.
The trap: The word 'academy' appears several times, which makes the statement feel familiar. Read what the passage says about it: others thought one was needed, Johnson didn't.
Question 12
Answer: FALSEParagraph 5
Was Johnson paid only when the Dictionary was finished?
He was to be paid £1,575 in instalments, and from this he took money to rent 17 Gough Square
Question says → Passage says
only received payment… on its completionpaid £1,575 in instalments
Why: FALSE. 'In instalments' means paid in parts over time, and he used the money to rent his workshop before the work began. That contradicts a single payment at the end.
The trap: If you skip the word 'instalments', the passage seems silent on timing and you'd write NOT GIVEN. The rent detail proves he had money early.
Question 13
Answer: TRUEParagraph 6, last sentence
Did some of Johnson's assistants die before the Dictionary came out?
He was also helped by six assistants, two of whom died whilst the Dictionary was still in preparation.
Question says → Passage says
Not all of the assistants survivedtwo of whom died
to see the publicationwhilst the Dictionary was still in preparation
Why: TRUE. Two of the six died while it was still being prepared, so they never saw it published. 'Not all' is just a careful way of saying some didn't.
E and G are clear, but the third letter is hard: B sounds close to 'not seriously rivalled for over a century', yet the figure doesn't match. The key gives D, for his quotations from real English writing up to his own day.
FALSE. 'As famous in his own time as in ours' means equally famous, so his fame hasn't grown since his death.
Words from this passage worth keeping
compiled(Paragraph 2)
collected material and put it together into a book
circumscribe(Paragraph 3)
set limits around something; define it closely
heyday(Paragraph 3)
the time when something is at its most powerful or successful
single-handed(Paragraph 4)
without help from anyone else
synthesis(Paragraph 7)
combining different sources into one whole
precedent(Paragraph 7)
an earlier example used as a guide for later decisions
vicissitudes(Paragraph 8)
unwelcome changes of fortune; ups and downs
prevail upon(Paragraph 11)
persuade someone to do something
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The full Cambridge 5 Test 1 reading paper: all three passages, 60 minutes, marked the second you finish with a review of every answer. Already done it? Take it again and see if the same traps still get you.
Cambridge IELTS 5, Test 1, Reading Passage 1. The passage and questions belong to Cambridge University Press and are not reproduced here. We quote short extracts only as evidence for our own commentary, and the answers are published for self-marking. Get the book for the full text, or sit the test on Langujet.
