时间:2019-02-13 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力精选进阶版


英语课

Reading Dictionaries for Fun 以读字典为乐


Mr Shea owns over 1,000 dictionaries and he likes to read them for fun.


He recently spent a year reading all 20 volumes of the Oxford 1 English Dictionary. The dictionary contains more than 20,000 pages and over 59 million words.


As he read from A to Z, he noted 2 down interesting words in a ledger 3. This includes words such as happify, meaning to make someone happy, and tripudiate which means to dance, skip or leap for joy.


Mr Shea also kept a diary about his experience which has since been turned into a best-selling book.


Why did he do this?


He claims it was fun: "I’ve always enjoyed reading dictionaries, they are far more interesting than people give them credit for."


It appears that it was not his goal to sound more intelligent through learning and using larger and more complex words.


"I’m not against big words or fancy or obscure words, but I’m opposed to using them for their own sake," he said.


In fact, as a result of reading so many words, Mr Shea often forgot his everyday vocabulary. He wrote, "My head was so full of words that I often had trouble forming simple sentences."


Mr Shea is not alone in his love of reading dictionaries. Elaine Higgleton, a representative of Collins Cobuild dictionaries, explained that thousands of crossword 4 and Scrabble fans read dictionaries for fun and to improve their game.


Ms Higgleton did however note that, "It’s probably not the best way to learn English, and you’d learn more than you need."


It is not known how many of the 59 million words Mr Shea has remembered but he has certainly made history with his eccentric hobby.


GLOSSARY 词汇表


keen on 热爱


novel 小说


takes your interest 吸引你,使你感兴趣


Oxford English Dictionary 牛津英语字典


volumes 版本,读卷


ledger 分类记录本(同帐簿类似)


happify 使(某人)高兴


tripudiate (兴奋得)手舞足蹈;雀跃


best-selling 畅销的


give them credit for 给他们的赞扬,归功于他们


complex 复杂的


fancy 华丽的;讲究的


obscure 费解的


opposed to 反对


sake 缘故


forming 组成


crossword 纵横字谜


Scrabble 拼字游戏


game 游戏


eccentric 古怪的



n.牛津(英国城市)
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
adj.著名的,知名的
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
n.总帐,分类帐;帐簿
  • The young man bowed his head and bent over his ledger again.那个年轻人点头应诺,然后又埋头写起分类帐。
  • She is a real accountant who even keeps a detailed household ledger.她不愧是搞财务的,家庭分类账记得清楚详细。
n.纵横字谜,纵横填字游戏
  • He shows a great interest in crossword puzzles.他对填字游戏表现出很大兴趣。
  • Don't chuck yesterday's paper out.I still haven't done the crossword.别扔了昨天的报纸,我还没做字谜游戏呢。
学英语单词
as to the general
audioboard
beam-foil spectroscopy
best estimator
binder soil
BIOSEM
blast roasting
brush-burn
bryanskaya oblast
chemical cure
chromophobe granule
chronic suppurative osteomyelitis
claudio monteverdis
close matter
cold sober
cone
craters
critical melting point
curtain effect
deer skin filter
dimedit
discovery of discharge
dummy building
electricity of rolling mills
engowschede
epitaxial silicon controlled rectifer
Evans, Walker
exchange glances
expected discharge date/time
false diverticulum of bladder
ferrosilicon process
financial net present value of foreign exchange
fishing
food coupon
Gargazzone
gastrodermal
grey eminence
Grigor'yevka
half-pounds
hard knot
hardness contour of quenched steel bars
high-polisheds
hippocampus bargibanti
hot-and-spicy
hydraulic boiler test
Indian dwarf wheat
integrated wastewater treatment plant
investment in a wholly owned subsidiary
iron cover switch
kilerg
kooris
lectureships
lethal time
limitational
loleta
machine description language
madia center pc
masthead pendant
mastigot
media access method
myrioramas
neram
ninety-two
nlp
oceas
oil turbine
open-steel
out of keeping
outblush
P'ungsǒ-gun
panning tea
pattern variable's value
Phoques B.
Pimelobacter
power drive
Redingensians
reed meadow grass
renavigation
s razor
sintering ore
slash-and-burns
sliding type carrier chain conveyer
slit prong
stock nursery
subordinate body
tamarix parviflora dc.
Taurova
thorek
thyrolingual duct
toluidinesulfonic acid
tower bottom pressure
trade of processing with customer's materials
triglycollamic acid
triple x
tripping test
ultrasonic inserting
vena intercapitalis
wastepile
Wide XGA
WILKIE
Ystrad, Afon
Zingiber atrorubens