Word Meaning in the Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language

Read the excerpts from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. Which statement best describes the use of the underlined word PROGRESS in the excerpts?

In excerpt 1, it refers to societal advancement, while in excerpt 2, it suggests steps toward a particular goal

Read the excerpt from Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language. Mádness. n.s. [from mad.] Distraction; loss of understanding; perturbation of the faculties. Why, woman, your husband is in his old tunes again: he so rails against all married mankind, so curses all Eve's daughters, and so buffets himself on the forehead, that any madness I ever yet beheld seemed but tameness and civility to this distemper. Shakesp. Merry Wives of Windsor. There are degrees of madness as of folly, the disorderly jumbling ideas together, in some more, some less. Locke. How does this dictionary entry differ from those of earlier dictionaries?

It includes published examples of the word's use

Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise. What is the best definition of the underlined word as it is used in the sentence?

an expression of disapproval or condemnation

Read the excerpts from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. In both excerpts, the word STRUCTURE refers to the

components, or parts, of words.

Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. Wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety. Which word in the sentence helps readers determine the meaning of the word perplexity?

disentangled

Read the excerpt from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. The two languages from which our primitives have been derived are the Roman and Teutonick: under the Roman I comprehend the French and provincial tongues; and under the Teutonick range the Saxon, German, and all their kindred dialects. The underlined word emerges as a key term in Johnson's preface because it

explains words' origins and variations

Which words have positive connotations? Check all that apply.

luxurious elegant fashionable

Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. I have studiously endeavoured to collect examples and authorities from the writers before the restoration, whose works I regard as the wells of English undefiled, as the pure sources of genuine diction. Which words in the sentence help readers determine the meaning of the word undefiled?

pure, genuine

At the time of its publication, A Dictionary of the English Language was unique because of its

quotation

Read the excerpt from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. But to COLLECT the WORDS of our language was a task of greater difficulty: the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent; and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry should find, or chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of a living speech. My search, however, has been either skilful or lucky; for I have much augmented the vocabulary. The excerpt claims that Johnson's work is significant because he

searched literature and found more words

Read the excerpts from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language. Thus have I laboured by settling the orthography, displaying the analogy, regulating the structures, and ascertaining the signification of English words, to perform all the parts of a faithful lexicographer: but I have not always executed my own scheme, or satisfied my own expectations. The underlined word emerges as a key term in the preface because Johnson

strives to emphasize the effort his dictionary required