单项选择题
| The first English dictionary, called an
Alphabetical Table of Hard Words, was published in 1604. The dictionary was
actually (26) a list of about 3 000 difficult words, each
followed by a one word (27) . The author, Robert
Cawdrey, (28) to include everyday words in his
dictionary. (29) , he reasoned, would ever have to look up a
word in a dictionary if he already knew the meaning of the word. During the
1600’ s more dictionaries were published. Each followed Cawdrey’ s (30)
and presented a few thousand (31) words. Around
1700 one dictionary maker, John Kersey, (32) define
easy words as well as hard ones. But until the 1750’ s all dictionaries
were rather (33) and not very valuable. A man named Dr. Samuel Johnson (34) all this. In 1755 Dr. Johnson produced the first modern dictionary. He (35) in his dictionary all important words, both easy and hard, and he gave good meanings. He also gave good sentences to show how each word was (36) used in speech and (37) . By the end of the 1700’ s most dictionary makers (38) Johnson’ s lead. Dictionaries were getting better and better. The 1800’ s (39) the greatest improvement (40) the quality of dictionaries. In England scholars planned and prepared the Oxford English dictionary, a (41) work. One of the most interesting (42) of the Oxford Dictionary is its word histories. It (43) the history of each word from its earliest (44) use (45) the time of the printing of the dictionary. |