Johnson's Dictionary IELTS Reading Answers — Adapted Review

How to approach this passage

1. Make a small timeline before answering the summary: the contract belongs to 1746 and publication to 1755. Do not confuse the start of the work with its completion.
2. For Questions 1–3, test each option separately against what the passage says about the dictionary. Quotations, a deadline and attention to shades of meaning are separate pieces of evidence; a statement about an earlier dictionary is not automatically true of Johnson's work.
3. For Questions 4–7, identify the grammar required by each gap. People standing at a desk, an unavailable resource, the effect on English and a royal reward require different nouns. Copy no more than two words from the passage.
4. For Questions 8–13, distinguish a contradiction from a missing detail. An account of Johnson's working arrangements does not prove that he had planned the dictionary for several years.

Worked review example

Question 4 asks who worked at the central desk. The passage describes Johnson's assistants as clerks, so the answer is clerks. This is a direct reference to the people employed, rather than a description of Johnson himself.

Common mistake to avoid

Do not choose options because they sound historically plausible. The evidence must refer to this dictionary and to the wording of the adapted question.