Education: 59 Million Words 教育： 5千9百万字
[audio]http://file.24en.com/bbc/tae/furniture_814145/bbc_ta_202_dictionary.mp3[/audio][color=#3f3f3f][font=Verdana, 宋体, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=12px]Not [b]keen on[/b] reading? Do you have trouble finding a [b]novel[/b] that [b]takes your interest[/b]? Why not follow Ammon Shea’s example and start reading a dictionary?
[p=21, 2, left]Mr Shea owns over 1,000 dictionaries and he likes to read them for fun.[/p][p=21, 2, left]He recently spent a year reading all 20[b]volumes[/b] of the [b]Oxford English Dictionary[/b]. The dictionary contains more than 20,000 pages and over 59 million words.[/p][p=21, 2, left]As he read from A to Z, he noted down interesting words in a [b]ledger[/b]. This includes words such as [b]happify[/b], meaning to make someone happy, and[b]tripudiate[/b] which means to dance, skip or leap for joy.[/p][p=21, 2, left]Mr Shea also kept a diary about his experience which has since been turned into a [b]best-selling[/b] book.[/p][p=21, 2, left]Why did he do this?[/p][p=21, 2, left]He claims it was fun: "I’ve always enjoyed reading dictionaries, they are far more interesting than people [b]give them credit for[/b]."[/p][p=21, 2, left]It appears that it was not his goal to sound more intelligent through learning and using larger and more [b]complex[/b] words.[/p][p=21, 2, left]"I’m not against big words or [b]fancy[/b] or [b]obscure[/b] words, but I’m [b]opposed to[/b] using them for their own [b]sake[/b]," he said.[/p][p=21, 2, left]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 [b]forming[/b] simple sentences."[/p][p=21, 2, left]Mr Shea is not alone in his love of reading dictionaries. Elaine Higgleton, a representative of Collins Cobuild dictionaries, explained that thousands of [b]crossword[/b] and [b]Scrabble[/b] fans read dictionaries for fun and to improve their [b]game[/b].[/p][p=21, 2, left]Ms Higgleton did however note that, "It’s probably not the best way to learn English, and you’d learn more than you need."[/p][p=21, 2, left]It is not known how many of the 59 million words Mr Shea has remembered but he has certainly made history with his [b]eccentric[/b] hobby[/p][/size][/font][/color]
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