Question

Not fond of reading? Do you have trouble finding a novel that takes your interest? Why not follow Ammon Shea’s example and start reading a dictionary?

   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 English Dictionary. The dictionary contains more than 20,000 pages and over 59 million words.

   As he read from A to Z, he noted down interesting words in a ledger(分类记录本). 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- seller book. Why did he do this?

   He claims it was fun: “I’ve always enjoyed reading dictionaries; they are far more interesting than people would think.”

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

   “I’m not against big words or strange or difficult words, but I’m opposed to (反对) using them for their own sake目的.” 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 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.

68. Why did Mr. Shea like reading dictionaries?

   A. Because he has many dictionaries.

   B. Because he takes no interest in novels.

   C. Because it was very interesting to him.

   D. Because he may sound more intelligent.

69. Thousands of crossword and Scrabble fans read dictionaries in order to _________ .

   A. improve their games          B. kill time and have fun

   C. follow Mr. Shea’s example     D. learn more new words

70. The underlined word “eccentric” in the last paragraph probably means __________ .

   A. crazy         B. unusual       C. funny        D.usual

Answer 1

CAB