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 such a thing happens, the dictionary shows it with the word “BrE” for British English and “AmE” for American English.
The dictionary also helps you pronounce words correctly. It uses a special alphabet (特殊字母表) 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 have a look at this page 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.
【小题1】According to the passage, “neighbor” is used in ______ English.

It’s not always necessary to look up the words ________ the dictionary while reading.Sometimes we need to guess.

You’d better not always look up the new words ____________ the dictionary while reading. Sometimes we need to guess.

         A. in                            B. on                                    C. at                                               D. from

In learning English, one should first pay attention to listening and speaking.It is the groundwork(基础)of reading and writing.You’d better try your best to speak while you do much listening.Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.But be careful not to let them stop you from improving your English.While you are doing this, a good way is to write---keep a diary, write notes or letters, and then if you can, ask someone else to go through(检查)what you have written and tell you what is wrong.Many mistakes in your speaking will be easily found when you write.Through correcting the mistakes, you can do better in learning English.

If you are slow in speaking, don’t worry.One of the helpful ways is reading, either aloud or to yourself.The important thing is to choose something interesting to read.It mustn’t be too difficult for you.When you are reading in this way, don’t stop to look up the words if you can guess their meanings, or they have nothing important to do with the sentence.You can look them up later.

1.For the beginners, listening and speaking is ______.

A．more important than reading and writing     B．not so important as reading and writing

C．as important as reading and writing          D．not so useful in learning English

2.When you are speaking, _______.

A．you shouldn’t make any mistakes          B．you must speak slowly

C．it doesn’t matter if you make any mistakes   D．you had better take a dictionary with you

3.One of the good ways to find your mistakes in your speaking is to______.

A．speak as much as possible                 B．write notes or letters

C．ask some Americans to speak with you       D．read more English books

4.If you want to be fast in speaking, you should choose something_____.

A．difficult to read aloud                    B．easy to read to yourself

C．interesting to read to yourself              D．important to read aloud

5.In reading, if you meet a new word which has something important to do with the sentence, you’d better_______.

A．stop to look it up                        B．not look it up and just go on reading

C．stop reading at once                     D．not stop to look it up

Why not look up the new word in a dictionary          you don’t know it?