IELTS Reading Passage-1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 - 13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 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 114,000 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 Frame 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 bower, 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 cornerstone 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.
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 focussed 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.
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 Bosewell, 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 Reading Passage 1?
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.
IELTS BOOK-9 GT READING:
How to Prepare for a Presentation:
The first time your boss suggests that you formally present something to your department or a client, your reaction may be to panic. But remember that being asked to present is a compliment. Sometimes believes that you have valuable information to share with the group, and want to listen to your ideas.
You need to decide exactly what you will say during the allotted time. Condense your topic into one sentence. What do you want your audience to remember or learn from your talk? This is your 'big idea'. Remember that you are dealing with the short attention spans of individuals who tend to have many things on their minds.
Think of three main points you want to make to support your overall topic. Develop a story to demonstrate each of those concepts. This could be something that happened to you or someone you know or something you read in a newspaper or magazine.
We have all heard the saying A picture is worth a thousand words. Think about how your presentation can be more interesting to watch. Props are a wonderful way to make your talk come alive. You could do something as simple as holding up a toy phone receiver when talking about customer service or putting on a hat to signal a different part of your talk.
Think of a dynamic and unusual way to start your presentation. This might involve telling anecdotes that relate to your topic. Never begin with, 'Think you for inviting me here to talk with you today. 'You will put your audience to sleep right away. Start off enthusiastically so they will listen with curiosity and interest. After your energetic introduction, identify yourself briefly and thank the audience for taking the time to listen to you.
Plan your ending, and finish in a memorable way. Your listeners remember best what they hear at the beginning and end of a speech, so conclude with a game in which they can participate, or tell a humorous story and your audience will leave laughing.
Don't try to memorise your talk or read it word-for-word. It will sound stilted and boring. Instead, practise your dynamic introduction and conclusion until you can deliver them effortlessly. If you do this you'll feel a burst of confidence that will help you sail through the whole of the speech.
Complete the sentence below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.
How to Prepare for a Presentation
* You should regard an invitation to speak as a 21....................................
* Express your main idea in a 22...................................
* Try using a ................................... 23 to support the major points you are making.
* Add visual excitement to your talk by using 24............................
* Express appreciation to your listeners for their 25.............................
* A 26.................................... will get the audience to interact.
* It is important to prepare well as this will increase your 27......................
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