This dictionary tells you about English words and how to use them in reading, writing and speaking English. It not only gives the meaning of words, it can also help you with spelling, word-building, grammar and pronunciation.
To use your dictionary correctly, you need to understand how the dictionary works. At the front of the book, you will find some exercises to help you make the most use of your dictionary.
If you look up the word “colour”, you will find two spellings for this word. “Colour” is used in British English, while “color” is used in American English. When there are differences between British and American spelling, the dictionary shows it with the word “BrE” for British English and “AmE” for American English.
The dictionary also helps you pronounce words correctly. We use a special alphabet (特殊字母) to show pronunciation. If you turn to the inside back face, you will see all the phonetic letters (音标) with some words to show you how they are pronounced. Just look at the inside back cover when you’re not sure how to say a word.
The most important reason for using a dictionary is to find out the meaning of a word—its definition
In this dictionary, the definitions have been written using only 2000 words. This means that the definitions of even the most difficult words are simply explained and easy to understand.
When a word has more than one meaning, read all the meanings until you find the one that correctly tells the use of the word you are looking for.
Most of the words in this dictionary can be used by people in all parts of the world.The AmE spelling of the Chinese word “颜色” in this dictionary is ________.
| A．colour | B．colar | C．color | D．corner |
The phonetic alphabet help you ________ each word correctly.
| A．understand | B．write | C．say | D．know |
The underlined word ‘definition’ means__________
| A．词性 | B．词条 | C．词义 | D．词库 |
The dictionary explains ________.
| A．some of the difficult words |
| B．all the words in the dictionary in a simple way |
| C．all easy words |
| D．the words with two meanings |
One cold January evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, America, I went with my father on an oil burner service call. My father was in his forties at that time and I was about twelve years old. He was always working hard trying to support us seven kids. I enjoyed hanging out with him whenever I could — he taught me so much.
We arrived at the call and after walking over snow and ice, we knocked on the customer’s door. A senior citizen opened the door and let us into her very cold home. She was wearing an old, worn-out brown coat that went down to her knees. On her head, covering her gray hair, was an old and worn hat. The home wasn’t furnished very well and was quite dark, except for a single light bulb over the dining room table. Below the light was an older man counting change from several old coffee cans. He looked up at us as we passed by to get to the kitchen where my dad would fix the oil burner. He didn’t say anything. He just looked up at us. He couldn’t speak English, nor could his wife. She only pointed to the kitchen and smiled at us.
After a short while, my father had the heater up and running, and it began to heat their cold home. The lady asked my dad in poor English how much she owed him for fixing the heater. My dad looked around the house and said that he had to go out to the truck and write the bill.
Once in the truck he marked the bill “no answer at home, no charge”, so they wouldn’t be charged for his work. He looked over at me and said, “He was counting his change to pay me. They need their money more than I do.”
As usual, my father taught me something important that time, which was to be kind to the poor.According to Paragraph 1, we know that the writer’s father .
| A．often taught the writer how to work |
| B．worked several jobs at the same time |
| C．had a very big family to support |
| D．brought up his children alone |
The description in Paragraph 2 shows that the old couple .
| A．had no job |
| B．led a very poor life |
| C．didn’t know how to save money |
| D．were not very friendly to strangers |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The old couple had no children in America. |
| B．The old man didn’t plan to pay money. |
| C．The old woman felt very embarrassed all the time. |
| D．The old couple were not native Americans. |
The writer’s father didn’t charge for his work because .
| A．he didn’t need that money |
| B．he felt pity for the old couple |
| C．he was not satisfied with his work |
| D．he wanted to set a good example to others |
President Barack Obama set out his plans for the nation on January 27. At the top of his to-do list: his jobs for Americans, health care and education.
“Although we have our difficulties, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not stop,” President Barack Obama told American in his State of the Union speech on January 27. Guests and government officials filled the hall of the House of Representatives (众议院).
Obama looked back on his first year in office and explained his plan for the future. He dealt with important matters, including health care, the nation’ s high unemployment, national security (安全) and education. Many times during the 70-minute speech, people in the hall clapped (拍手) their hands happily.
The U.S. law system requires the President to report regularly to government officials. Presidents see the speech as an opportunity to set their goals and encourage the nation.
The President devoted much of his speech to the plight of unemployed (失业的) Americans. “Jobs must be our Number 1 focus (焦点) in 2010,” he said. “People are out of work. They are hurting.” Obama also stressed the value of education. “The best way for people to lead a better life is a first-class education.” he told the nation.
Following the President’s speech, the other party always gets the chance to speak. Bob McDonnell, the new governor of Virginia, spoke for Republicans (共和党人). He agreed with many of Obama’s goals, but pointed out policy difference. He tried to persuade both parties to work together. The President had made the same point earlier in the evening. He promised to hold monthly meetings with members of both parties. “Let’s show the American people,” he said, “that we can do it together.”It can be inferred (推断) from the passage that Obama’s speech on January 27 __________.
was made to explain his plan for the future
was welcomed by the government officials present
was given to ask for foreign help
was actually boringThe underlined word “plight” in para. 5 probably means __________.
| A．education | B．safety |
| C．goal | D．sadness |
Which of the following things does Obama consider the most important in 2010?
| A．Health care. | B．Jobs. |
| C．Education. | D．National security. |
We can infer from the last paragraph that __________.
Republicans don’ t agree with Obama’ s goals
Obama will try to cooperate with the other party
Bob McDonnell was not clear about the two parties’ policy differences
Republicans thought it difficult for the two parties to work together
A recent report on online education, made by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a serious academic (学术的) title, but a most interesting conclusion: “ Students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”
The report examined the research on online and traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the studies were in colleges and adult continuing education programs.
Over the 12 years, the report found 99 studies in which there were comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The result of the Department of Education’ s research showed that usually, students doing some or all of the course online would rank a little higher than the classroom students with little but meaningful difference.
“The importance of the study lies in showing that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than traditional instruction.” said Barbara Means, the study’ s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.
This hardly means that we’ll be saying goodbye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to develop sharply over the next few years.
Until fairly recently, online education totaled to little. That has really changed with the arrival of webbased video, instant (即时的) messaging and teamwork tools.
The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more suitable for individual (个体的) students than is possible in classrooms. That allows more “learning by doing,” which many students find more attractive and useful.
“We are at a turning point in online education,” said Philip R. Regier, the leader of Arizona State University’ s Online and Extended Campus program.
The biggest near-term growth, Mr. Regier predicts, will be in continuing education programs.What do we know from the passage?
Most of the studies were done in high schools.
The report was based on more than 100 studies.
The studies were carried out for more than 20 years.
The difference between online and traditional teaching is not big.We can learn from the passage that __________.
traditional education will come to an end
traditional education is not popular any longer
online education didn’ t develop rapidly until recently
middle schools are facing the choice between online and traditional teachingWhich is NOT the reason why many students prefer online learning?
Online teaching is more suitable for individuals.
Classroom teaching is not practical and useful.
Students can learn by doing in online courses.
Online teaching is more interesting.Which do you think is the best title for the passage?
Study finds that online education beats the classroom
Why is online education on the rise?
A report on online education
Classroom teaching is out
There are several ways to break the technology code that teenagers have written among themselves. The following are ideas to help parents understand the sometimes confusing world of the teens.
Social Networking (人际关系网) Sites: Sites like MySpace and Facebook appeal to all generations and are a good way for a parent to understand what social standards your teen is living with. There are many ways to help you take part in your child's online activities. You also can be from an onlooker (旁观者) who keeps a bird' s-eye view of his cyber world to an active member of his social group.
MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game comes in the form of games. A child can easily become addicted to (沉溺于) them if no limits are set. To fully understand the attraction behind MMORPG, you can make your own account and character to explore the digital (数码的) world. Playing the online games may seem strange at first to your teen, but experience has led me to only positive feedback (反应) from young people who can communicate with adults about their gaming experiences.
Text and Instant Messenger: The ways of teenage communication have produced a whole new language, such as "LOLZ" (laughing out loud) and "PSOS" (parent standing over shoulder). Learning the basic shorthand (速记法) of teens can open up a whole new world of communication, not only talking to your teens, but being able to listen on their terms as well. You may just find yourself texting faster and ending your correspondence (联系) with TTYL (talk to you later). To teens, texting anyone looks cool, even Mom and Dad.
Email: Emailing your child is easy. This, of course, cannot take the place of face-to-face communication, but it provides another way for your child to reach you. Another benefit is that your child cannot act like he didn't hear you.What does the underlined part "appeal to" in the second paragraph mean?
| A．harm | B．attract | C．upset | D．attack |
According to this passage we can infer that the author's child __________.
| A．works hard at school |
| B．is active on Facebook |
| C．enjoys playing online games |
| D．likes talking with adults |
If you are standing beside your child, he is most likely to text his friend __________.
| A．PSOS | B．MMORPG | C．TTYL | D．LOLZ |
What does the passage mainly tell us?
| A．Parents can use technology to stay in touch with their children. |
| B．Many children are very crazy about the online games. |
| C．Science and technology make life easy and convenient. |
| D．Parents can do something interesting like their children do. |
Sometimes life makes more sense when you look at it in reverse (相反). That's certainly been true for me.
Last Christmas, at 39, I caught a disease which attacked my knees and eyes. At its worst I could hardly walk or see. For months I' d have to crawl (爬) across the floor to use the bathroom or get a drink of water when my husband wasn't home. For a while I could only see shapes and colors so I couldn't drive.
My parents kept begging me to let them come out to stay with me in Los Angeles, but our apartment is small and I knew there was nothing they could really do to help me. For the excellent health insurance my husband had through his job, I was receiving the best medical care possible.
My only problem was that I couldn't drive to my doctors' appointments and I didn't want my husband to keep missing work to drive me. Three days after I explained this to my parents, a check came from them with a note saying this was "taxi money". Several months later another check showed up from my brother to help make up our income since I wasn't able to work. It probably goes without saying that I was extremely grateful to have family members who could and would support me during the hard time.
In terms of my day-to-day existence, I live in a village within Los Angeles called Brentwood so I was able to walk to the local post office, market, bank, and library. But once there, I had to depend on the kindness of strangers to help me. Los Angeles is a big city, but I lived in a village with a wonderful community (社区) of people who were kind and patient.
Slowly I became well. Life was good again and I thought I had a clear understanding of the blessings (恩惠) this illness has provided.When the author's husband was at home, he __________.
| A．was still busy working |
| B．often had a good rest |
| C．often helped her a lot |
| D．taught her to drive a car |
Why did the author not want her husband to drive her to her doctors' appointments?
| A．Her husband didn't drive well. |
| B．Her husband was too busy. |
| C．She didn't want to affect his work. |
| D．Her doctor was far away from her. |
What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?
| A．The help that the author received from her family members. |
| B．The influence of the author's disease on her family. |
| C．The author's thanks to her family members. |
| D．The way the author saw her doctors. |
What did the author feel about Brentwood?
| A．She thought it was small but convenient. |
| B．She felt it was hard to live there. |
| C．She thought it was small and strange. |
| D．She felt warm and comfortable there. |