Joy English · Level C2 · Culturejoy-english.com
Why dictionaries never finish
Name:Date:
Follow a long, image-rich sentence and a contrast structure.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/why-dictionaries-never-finish
Words to know
- monument
- A building or statue that honours something.
- compile
- To collect and put together into a book.
- coined
- Invented a new word or phrase.
- faithfully
- In an accurate and loyal way.
Answer key
- A dictionary is often imagined as a finished monument, but those who compile one know it is closer to a snapshot of a river.“Those who compile one”: “one” means a dictionary. The river image means constant change.
- By the time a new edition reaches the shelves, speakers have already coined words that its editors never had the chance to weigh.“By the time” with the present simple describes a general pattern here. “Coined” rhymes with “joined”.
- Lexicographers do not decide what is correct; they observe what is used, and then describe it as faithfully as they can.“Lexicographers” are people who write dictionaries: lex-i-COG-ra-phers. “As faithfully as they can” compares equal degrees.
- A word earns its entry not through approval but through persistence, appearing again and again in places nobody was monitoring.“Not through… but through…” contrasts two reasons. “Again and again” means many times.
- Seen this way, a dictionary is less a rulebook than a patient record of how people actually talk.“Seen this way” is a participle phrase meaning if we see it like this. “Less… than…” is a contrast.