1. Johnson's biographer, James Boswell, first met the Doctor on May 16, 1763. Dining at the Mitre a few weeks later as Boswell's guest, Johnson observed that "the noblest prospect that a Scotchman ever sees is ______." the high road that leads him to England the Great Glen the view of Edinburgh from Calton Hill a glass of whisky

2. Towards the end of the same month, Boswell went to a Quaker meeting and told Johnson that he had heard a woman preach there. Said Johnson: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like ______: it is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all." a man's knitting a dog's walking on his hinder legs a monkey's riding on horseback a Frenchman's playing at cricket

3. The following month, Johnson and Boswell went to the Netherlands. Dining at Colchester on the way to Harwich, Johnson said that "he who does not mind his ______ will hardly mind anything else." belly purse health comfort

4. The Rev William Maxwell reports that Johnson described an acquaintance's action as "the triumph of hope over experience." What had the man in question just done for the second time? voted for the Whigs visited Scotland married played cards with the Earl of Sandwich

5. On April 30, 1773, Boswell was at a meeting of Johnson's club and was elected as a member. In a literary discussion, Johnson recalled some advice he had received from a college tutor, which he thought some writers would do well to follow. "Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, _______." underline it translate it into Latin commit it to memory strike it out

6. At breakfast on March 27, 1775, Johnson thought that "there are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in ______." getting money writing reading drinking

7. "______ is the last refuge of a scoundrel," said Johnson on April 7, 1775 at a dinner in a London tavern. Duelling Patriotism A lawsuit A lie

8. On March 21, 1776, Johnson told Boswell that "there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by ______." a good book a good tavern or inn a good sermon a good piece of music

9. "______ is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen" is one of the snippets of conversation recorded by Boswell during a visit that he and Johnson made to Johnson's home town of Lichfield in 1776. Profanity Shouting Speaking in French Questioning

10. Dining with friends on the same trip, Johnson claimed that "______ are good only as they supply the want of other means of procuring respect." coats of arms fine clothes titles guineas

11. "We would all be ______ if we could," observed Johnson in April 1776. rich kings handsome idle

12. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except ______," he remarked two days later. for fame at the bidding of his Muse to convince his readers for money

13. Satirizing an "odd mode" of poetry, Johnson ridiculed it by producing the following. Can you supply the last line? "Hermit hoar, in solemn cell,/Wearing out life's evening grey;/Smite thy bosom, sage, and tell/What is bliss, and which the way?"/Thus I spoke, and speaking sighed -/Scarce repressed the starting tear -/When the smiling sage replied/______ "Love the Lord, and have no fear!" "Come, my lad, and drink some beer!" "Bliss? A thousand pounds a year!" "Ask me not, and come not near!"

14. "Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be ______, it concentrates his mind wonderfully," said Johnson in 1777. married tomorrow pressed into the army transported for life hanged in a fortnight

15. In September 1777, Johnson said that "when a man is tired of ______, he is tired of life." reading London eating conversation

16. "I am willing to love all mankind, except ______," declared Johnson in April 1778. a Whig an American Lord Chesterfield James Boswell

17. At dinner with Sir Joshua Reynolds in April 1779, the conversation turned to the qualities of different liquors. Said Johnson "claret is the liquor for boys, port for men, but he who aspires to be a hero must drink ______." rum whisky brandy sack

18. What did Johnson describe, in October 1779, as "Worth seeing? Yes, but not worth going to see." the Highlands of Scotland Paris the Giant's Causeway the Americas

19. In May 1781 Johnson attended a "blue-stocking club" meeting at which the writings of Sterne were discussed. Johnson denied that the works were at all moving, to which "the lively Miss Monckton" replied "I am sure they have affected ME." Johnson's rejoinder was, "Why, that is because, dearest, you're ______." a woman a dunce a lady of exquisite sensibility still very young

20. "Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance!" was Johnson's reply to a question from a lady. What had she asked him? what he thought was Lord Chesterfield's most outstanding quality why he had, for once, said nothing during the conversation why he had defined a word wrongly in his dictionary why he had referred to his host's burgundy as claret

21. In the preface to his Dictionary, Johnson says that "every ______ contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language." book quotation author dictionary

22. What word is defined in Johnson's dictionary as "anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections"? Answer: (One word, beginning with N)

23. According to William Seward, Johnson said "What is written without effort is in general read without ______." attention pleasure reflection gratitude

24. In No 11 of his magazine "The Idler", Johnson notes that "when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of ______." women money sport the weather

25. In "Rasselas", the princess Nekayah says that "______ has many pains, but ______ has no pleasures." What are the two missing words? city life; the countryside marriage; celibacy wealth; poverty freedom; slavery