No reference book, perhaps no book of any kind except the Bible, is so widely used as "the dictionary". Even houses that have few books or none at all possess at least one dictionary; most business offices have dictionaries, and most typists keep a copy on their desks; at one time or another most girls and boys are required by their teachers to obtain and use a dictionary.
Admittedly, the dictionary is often used merely to determine the correct spelling of words, or to find out the accepted pronunciation, and such a use is perhaps not the most important from an intellectual point of view. Dictionaries may, however, have social importance, for it is often a matter of some concern to the person using the dictionary for such purpose that he should not suggest to others, by misspelling a word in a letter, or mispronouncing it in conversation, that he is not "well-bred", and has not been well educated.
Yet, despite this familiarity with the dictionary, the average person is likely to have many wrong ideas about it, and little idea of how to use it profitably, or interpret it rightly. For example, it is often believed that the mere presence of a word in a dictionary is evidence that it is acceptable in good writing. Though most dictionaries have a system of marking words as obsolete, or in use only as slang, many people, more especially if their use of a particular word has been challenged, are likely to conclude, if they find it in a dictionary, that it is accepted as being used by writers of established reputation. This would certainly have been true of dictionaries a hundred years or so ago. For a long time after they were first firmly established in the eighteenth century, their aim was to include only what was used by the best writers, and all else was suppressed, and the compiler frequently claimed that this dictionary contained "low" words. Apparently this aspect of the dictionary achieved such importance in the mind of the average person that most people today are unaware of the great change that has taken place in the compilation of present-day dictionaries.
Similarly, the ordinary man invariably supposes that one dictionary is as good and authoritative as another, and, moreover, believes that "the dictionary" has absolute authority, and quotes it to clinch arguments. Although this is an advantage, in that the dictionary presents a definition the basic meaning of which can't be altered by the speaker, yet it could be accepted only if all dictionaries agreed on the particular point in question. But ultimately the authority of the dictionary rests only on the authority of the man who compiled it, and, however careful he may be, a dictionary-maker is fallible: reputable dictionaries may disagree in their judgments, and indeed different sections of the same dictionary may differ.
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage？
A．The Bible is the most widely used reference book.
B．The dictionary is the most widely used reference book.
C．The dictionary is actually the more widely used book than the Bible.
D．The Bible is used as widely as the dictionary.
A little girl was given so many picture books on her seventh birthday that her father thought she should give one or two of her new books to a little neighbor boy named Robert.
(76) Now, taking books, or anything else, from a little girl is like taking candy from a baby. but the father of the little girl had his way and Robert got two of her books. "After all, that leaves you with nine," said the father, who was a philosopher and a child psychologist(心理学家), and couldn't shut his big stupid mouth on the subject.
A few weeks later, the father went to his library to look up "father" in the Oxford English Dictionary, to feast his eyes on(一饱眼福) the praise of fatherhood through the centuries, but hc couldn't find volume F-G and then he discovered that three others were missing, too: A-B, L-M, V-Z. He began to search his household, and learned what had happened to the four missing volumes.
"A man came to the door this morning," said the little daughter, "and he didn't know how to get from here to Torrington, or from Torrington to Winsted, and he was a nice man, much nicer than Robert, and so I gave him four of your books. After all, there are thirteen volumes in the Oxford English Dictionary, and that leaves you with nine."
How does the writer feel about taking picture books from a little girl？
A．This sort of thing is quite common.
B．It makes no difference to a child.
C．It's nothing to be surprised at.
D．It may hurt the girl's feelings.
