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  3. Historically, dictionaries have been thought of as dull and mechanical which is perhaps why many teachers are reluctant to explo

Historically, dictionaries have been thought of as dull and mechanical which is perhaps why many teachers are reluctant to explo

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问题     Historically, dictionaries have been thought of as dull and mechanical which is perhaps why many teachers are reluctant to exploit them in their classes. But these books have come a long way in recent years. This passage is about how learner’ s dictionaries can be a stimulating source of activities.
    You know that guilty feeling—your students could really benefit from the excellent learner’ s dictionaries now available, but somehow you can’t find the time to check on their reference skills. I can’ t count the number of times teachers have said to me, " In theory, we do dictionary skills lessons every term, but actually it often seems to go by the board.
    Perhaps that’ s partly because dictionary activities used to be rather dull and mechanical. So did the dictionaries. In the old days, they were impenetrable books, full of complicated definitions and rather artificial, made-up examples, which didn’t really help the student find out what the word meant or when and how it should be used. It’ s no wonder that language learners were less than enthusiastic about dictionary work.
    But things have come long way since then. Dictionaries themselves have become much more user-friendly and accessible, and, as a result. they are more powerful and valuable as teaching and learning tools.
    The once difficult definitions have been replaced by easy-to-understand word explanations, which are written in limited defining vocabularies. Headwords are often accompanied by useful in-formation, such as details about frequency and the examples of words usage are typically authentic and illustrative.
    A similar revolution has taken place with dictionary activities. In the past, workbooks and worksheets concentrated on the mechanics of dictionary use, rather than focusing on the user. The emphasis was on explaining conventions, and on working through the various parts of an entry. Today, the new generation of dictionary workbooks show how dictionaries can be used to help students improve their reading comprehension, and, in some cases, their writing as well.
    Let’ s look at receptive uses of a dictionary first. This is how dictionaries are normally used—to look up the meaning of a word that is either not known at all or not fully understood.
    One way of making dictionary activities more realistic and stimulating has been achieved by embedding dictionary activities in text-based work, thereby replicating the way a student would normally use a dictionary, that is, to work from text to dictionary. This enables the classroom teacher to use texts for a variety of purposes: as practice for student has understood the meaning and that they know about basics such as alphabetical order and so on.
    It’ s important that students know how to deal with multi-sense words in English. As teachers, we are all familiar with the very odd written work that results from students looking up each and every word in a passage, and quite often producing paraphrases that indicate that the student has selected the wrong sense of a word.
    Viewing the word in context helps the student fully understand the word or the meaning instead of trying to decode the word in isolation. The activity on this page can be used with any multi-sense words found in any text. It’ s very easy to create other exercises like this yourself. Naturally, the words you choose must be presented in a definite context, and they must have multiple meanings.
    Dictionary workbooks increasingly include exercises that help students improve their writing skills. Moreover, these are often of the best activities of the lot. Cartoons, crosswords, snakes and ladders, and advertisements have all been used to create interesting and lively activities, aimed at improving students’ writing skills. Some common ones are: choosing the right word, using gap-fill, and that old faithful, multiple choice; using a phrase rather than a single word, for example, look up to someone—instead of the easier, but less natural word admire; manipulating phrasal verbs and other grammar problems; taking care not to make common mistakes, like using an article with uncountable nouns, the crime instead of just crime, for example.
    Dictionary workbooks now also include group work so as to provide activities that are ideal for classroom use, for example, using dictionaries to find words that describe your partner. To sum up, dictionary activities have evolved to take advantage of the increased richness of dictionaries. Today, they can be used to train learners to fully exploit them as a key resource, both in class and for self-access. Learner training can now encompass training in dictionary skills in order to further learner independence.
What did workbooks and worksheets concentrate on in the past?
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答案The mechanics of dictionary use
解析 文中第六段开头，In the past，workbooks and worksheets concentrated on the mechanics of dictionary use。
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本试题收录于： A类竞赛（研究生）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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A类竞赛（研究生）

大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）

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